Why I read it: Like this series and it was $5 Weaknesses: I read it out of order of the series and got some brief spoilers. Like the mix of police procedural with a happy domestic life!

Strengths: Ending was fantastic (did not pick who ‘did it’ at all). Martin Melin became a well-known celebrity in Sweden after winning the TV-show Survivor in 1997.A quick rundown… The fourth book in the Patrik Hedstrom / Erica Falck series (yes, I have missed a couple) deals with a seemingly straightforward accident, a reality star’s murder and Patrik and Erica’s wedding. In real life, Camilla Läckberg married police officer Martin Melin in 2010. It should be noted that one of Patrick’s likeable coworkers is named Martin Molin. Certainly though there is a sub-theme of hatred of and aggression towards women (except, ironically, in the case of the murderer). In fact, it is a bit similar to that book, but without Lisbeth of course (who made all the plot complications tolerable).

Patrick is appealing as a character, but most of his colleagues are not, and the various interactions and complications of the Hult family are almost as daunting to master as was Stieg Larsson’s Vanger family in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The police procedural portion of the book didn’t bowl me over either. On the surface they seem pious, but something is rotten in the state of Denmark Sweden.ĭiscussion: Erica’s attempts to occupy herself with a succession of boorish guests are probably meant to provide a sort of “comic relief” to the tension of the investigation, but instead, I just found these parts as boorish as the company. Ephraim’s sons, Gabriel and Johannes, and grandson Jacob were all deeply affected by Ephraim’s teachings. Patrick and his colleagues zero in on the Hult family, the deceased patriarch of whom, Ephraim, was a charismatic and charlatanical preacher. (Erica was the main character in The Ice Princess.) It is hot, and Erica is miserable, but Patrik’s attention quickly turns elsewhere when yet another girl goes missing. Hedström now lives with Erica Falck, who is eight months pregnant with their baby. Detective Patrik Hedström, who was in Lackberg’s previous book, The Ice Princess, is called back from his vacation to take charge of the case. In the summer of 2003, in Fjällbacka, Sweden, the newly dead body of a young girl is found on top of the skeletons of two other dead girls who had been missing since 1979.

The preacher camilla lackberg summary