altheaann

Good, solid contemporary murder mystery/thriller, set in rural Sweden.
I enjoyed the first one in this series (The Ice Princess), and thought I'd follow up.

It was a bit of a disappointment that while Erica is definitely the main character in the first book, in this one her new husband, policeman Patrick Hedstrom, takes center stage while Erica is uncomfortably pregnant.

However, the book attains a nice balance between the humorous and too-true travails of daily life, and the depictions of grisly crimes and the shocking secrets of the past that lead to them.

The plot isn't wholly unpredictable, but there are some nice twists and red herrings strewn along the way.

One funny thing - the book takes place in summer, and there is much discussion of how very, very sweltering it is, and a mention of the misconceptions that foreigners have about Sweden being always cold. I looked up how hot it gets in Fjallbacka. The hottest temperature I could find, in summer, is 24 degrees Celsius (75 Fahrenheit). Oh, so very hot! (not.)

Definitely recommended for fans of realistic crime fiction and anyone who thinks religious cults are creepy.