the ice princess

the ice princess
camilla lackberg
fiction/mystery
pegasus
published 2010

A grisly death exposes the dark heart of a Scandinavian seaside village.  Erica Falck returns to her tiny, remote hometown of Fjallbacka, Sweden, after her parents' deaths only to encounter another tragedy: the suicide of her childhood best friend, Alex. It's Erica herself who finds Alex's body - suspended in a bathtub of frozen water, her wrists slashed.  Erica is bewildered: Why would a beautiful woman who had it all take her own life?  Teaming up with police detective Patrik Hedstrom, Erica comes to light, Erica and Patrik's curiosity gives way to obsession - and their flirtation grows into uncontrollable attraction.  But it's not long before one thing becomes very clear: a deadly secret is at stake, and there's someone out there who will do anything - even commit murder - to protect it.

Camilla Lackberg's The Ice Princess was hailed to be a good book for fans of Stieg Larsson and while it was a decent story, it was no The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Translated from Swedish, I think there were times when something was lost in translation or something was explained too much due to the translation.

I think it was a little over halfway through the book when one sentence caused the whole thing to click for me and I knew who and why.  At that point it made the second half of the book unbearably slow.  It just seemed like it took a really long time to wrap up loose ends and even after the killer is revealed and arrested there was still a while before the book finished.

The other thing that bothered me was the unfinished business with Erica's sister and brother-in-law.  I kept waiting for that to happen and it never did so I felt like I was left hanging there.  Seeing as this is a series I suppose eventually it will get figured out, but it still bugged me.  I'll give it one more book and see how I feel then.