The Gallows Bird is the latest in the series about Patrik Hedstrom and his colleagues and have been saving this up for the weekend along with my mini-Easter egg and I enjoyed both, the reading and the eating.
A woman is found dead, apparently the victim of a tragic car crash. The car reeks of alcohol and the assumption is that it is a drink drive accident. But then the autopsy reveals that there are bruises around the mouth, signs that liquor has been forced upon the driver and that this is to be treated as a murder. While this is being investigated a reality Big Brother type TV reality show is being filmed in Tanumshede and the police attention to the mysterious crash is distracted when one of the show's participants is found murdered.
While all this is going on Patrik has a new colleague to deal with, Hannah, a determined and ambitious detective who is working her way up the management pole and yet seems to have an unhappy private life (ok, same old I know but this has a twist). While all this is going on Patrik's fiance is organising their wedding and life is a tad fraught to say the least.
Then a piece of evidence reveals that the two seemingly disparate homicides are linked, and a pattern emerges of similar deaths over a period of time and in different parts of the country and slowly Patrick realises that these cases are closer to home than he thinks.
This is just a quick summing up of this latest Camilla Lackberg as I don't want to go into too much detail and give anything away and further reviewing make this almost impossible to do. I have become very fond of Patrik and his now wife, Erica and was slightly disappointed to find that the ending of The Stonecutter which left us with a cliffhanger, is resolved in a paragraph or two at the start of this book. I had hoped it would be given more depth. But, this slight crit aside, this story is well up to standard and I spent a happy afternoon reading it. The characters are all well rounded and portrayed and as the series progresses we, the readers, have a chance to become involved with them all, and we do. Even Patrik's boss, ever eager to take the credit for his work, shows a human and vulnerable side and I must admit I warmed to him.
We are left with another open ending which augurs well for the next book and looking forward to it already.
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Links to my reviews on Random of The Ice Princess, The Preacher and The Stonecutter
And if you wish to read more about her check out her website at http://www.camillalackberg.com/
