This is the third I have read by this author featuring Patrik Hedstrom, a local detective based in Fjalbacka. He is now a proud father and this adds extra poignancy to his grim task to find out who murdered a child both he and his partner Erika knew well.
Before we go any further I wish to mention the translator, many of whom may get overlooked when a book is reviewed. His name is Steven T Murray and HarperCollins must be very happy with the brilliant job he has done. There is an argument that it can be difficult to judge whether a book is really good because we are not reading the original which I think is a fallacy. Bad writing, no matter how excellent the translator
and translation, will always be bad writing - nothing can dim good writing and the combination of Mr Murray and Camilla Lackberg is a partnership which I hope continues.
By now the reader will know the regular characters in the police station at Fjalbacka: Inspector Meliberg, Patrik's superior yearning after a return to city policing and eager to take credit for any cases solved by his junior colleague and allowed to show his more human side here; Ernst Lundgren lazy and careless who would prefer spending his days playing computer games than actually solving crime and Patrik's competent and able partner, Martin, sidelined by Meliberg out of sheer contrariness.
The parents of the dead child live with the maternal grandmother, Lilian, a sharp tongued and spiteful woman engaged in a never ending dispute with her neighbour Kaj, who has built a new house next door to her bitter resentment. He has an autistic son, Morgan, who spends his days in his room working on his computer and suspicion and gossip begin to point to him as the possible murderer, particularly as he had seen and spoken to the child on the day of her death. His condition has caused stress and estrangement between his parents, Monica and Kaj who now lead totally separate lives neither of them knowing how the other spends their time and this is crucial to the unravelling of the chain of events which lead to the murder. I really don't want to say too much as I might give away a clue to the eventual outcome and this book is too good to be spoiled in this way.
The reason for the title? Camilla Lackberg uses a familiar narrative ploy of running two stories alongside one another, the current murder investigation and the story of Anders Andersson, a stone cutter from Stromstad in 1923. The reader knows that somehow his story is linked to the death of the child, Sara, but this one certainly could not fathom out why and kept me intrigued right to the end when the link and the murderer is unmasked.
I have reviewed this author's previous two books, The Ice Princess and The Preacher and enjoyed them very much, but this one is the best so far and I feel that Lackberg is hitting her stride with this series. I very much look forward to the continuing story of Fjallbacka and The Stone-Cutter ends with a real cliff hanger prepping us for the next instalment.
Can't wait...
