The book opens very satisfyingly. The setting is very dramatic - snow, darkness, horses, a figure clad in red... In other words, the cover picture.
Camilla Lackberg's novel is the exact opposite of the Hakan Nesser recently reviewed on this blog. The Lackberg is of the genre that thrives on portraits of ultimate evil. The story opens with a girl erupting into view. A girl who has been thoroughly brutalised. And the ending is also so satisfactory to the purpose that it screams overkill.
Written, as it is, by a woman, one would expect the book to offer some female character that is memorable. However, the characters are very laboured with neither man, woman, husband, wife, mother, son, daughter nor anyone emerging engagingly.
The relationship between the main characters, Detective Patrik Hedström and crime writer Erica, is annoyingly cloying, at best, and archaic, at worst. The novel sighs its way through traditional MIL behaviour, and other such antediluvian swamps. Incidental children are tossed hither and thither through the narrative. Caring for these joyless burdens traumatises our protagonists as much as does the physical torture inflicted on the victims of the crimes being investigated.
The book is full of unnatural beings - psychopaths - on the one hand, and a plodding 'normalcy', on the other, as if the demented 'murderers' are the only plague besetting an otherwise wonderful world. A wonderful premise. If only that were the truth!
Camilla Lackberg's novel is the exact opposite of the Hakan Nesser recently reviewed on this blog. The Lackberg is of the genre that thrives on portraits of ultimate evil. The story opens with a girl erupting into view. A girl who has been thoroughly brutalised. And the ending is also so satisfactory to the purpose that it screams overkill.
The relationship between the main characters, Detective Patrik Hedström and crime writer Erica, is annoyingly cloying, at best, and archaic, at worst. The novel sighs its way through traditional MIL behaviour, and other such antediluvian swamps. Incidental children are tossed hither and thither through the narrative. Caring for these joyless burdens traumatises our protagonists as much as does the physical torture inflicted on the victims of the crimes being investigated.
Erica is writing a new book inspired by an old family tragedy that ended with the death of a man: a man who had arrived in Fjallbacka with the circus... Now an expert in research and interviews with the victims, Erica is seeking the common thread that can lead to the truth behind this story. Despite countless visits to the wife of the man who was convicted for the murder, her researches appear to have come to a dead end...
When Patrik Hedström and his team received the alarm about the accident that occurred near the woods, the victim has already been identified... On her body, in addition to the injuries due to the crash, the girl bears wounds that witness unimaginable atrocities and slowly it happears clear that there is a possibility that she is not the last and only victim.
The book is full of unnatural beings - psychopaths - on the one hand, and a plodding 'normalcy', on the other, as if the demented 'murderers' are the only plague besetting an otherwise wonderful world. A wonderful premise. If only that were the truth!
The Ice Child by its nature challenges our complacency about evil, particularly in an age that rightly or wrongly is determined to find social and psychological explanations rather than to acknowledge that evil might exist as an entity of itself. “The girl looked so happy and innocent, so unaware of the evil that existed in the world. But Laila could have told her all about it. How evil could live right next to what was good, in a community where people wore blinkers and refused to see what was right in front of their noses. Once you saw evil up close, you could never close your eyes to it again. That was her curse and her responsibility”. As I was reading The Ice Child, the case of child murderers Rachel Trelfa and Nyomi Fee was going through British courts. It seems Laila’s point is well made.
One can imagine that this sort of thing lends itself obediently to film versions given the universal craving to be convinced of Ultimate Evil.
Camilla Lackberg's The Fjällbacka Murders Box Set Trailer
The first thing you notice about Swedish crime-writing sensation Camilla Läckberg is that she is really quite beautiful. The second thing is the 39-year-old’s disarming honesty about her approach to crime fiction.
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| By Lesula, from Wikimedia Commons |
She was picked by readers of a Swedish newspaper as “Woman of the Year” in March. She’s a celebrity contestant on the nation’s version of “Dancing With the Stars.” She is married to Martin Melin, a police sergeant in Stockholm, who became a national sex symbol after winning “Expedition Robinson,” the Swedish “Survivor,” in 1997.
They have five children from their blended families (two each from prior relationships, one child together). His blog, “Coola Pappor” (“Cool Dads”), is such a hit that it led to a book with the same title last fall...
Between crime novels, Lackberg paired with a childhood friend to write a cookbook, “The Taste of Fjallbacka,” which was so popular that it led to a second. She wrote a children’s book about her and Melin’s child, “Super Charlie,” which became a game on an iPhone app.
He tattooed her name on his rib cage and rides a Harley. She has been known to pose in a bikini.
All I can say is that Camilla lacks what it takes to do honour to the crime genre in novels. While a monster is certainly a crowd puller, it is equally monstrous to pull several psychopaths out of the bag in one story.
However, Lackberg's appears to be a big pull for tourism!
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Fjällbacka - by Bruno Cordioli. CC BY 2.0CC BY 2.0 |
New Camilla Läckberg-themed tours will be available from spring 2013, showing fans exactly where many of the fictional scenes took place. For example, Kungsklyftan Gorge – which means ‘The King’s Gorge’ and is named after King Oscar II – where three fictional murder victims were found in The Preacher. There’s also Berit in Järnboden, the local hardware store, which appears in The Stonecutter and The Gallows Bird. Participants can learn about Fjällbacka’s fascinating history, too – including the herring fishing period.
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