The Stonecutter: A Novel

I was not disappointed in "Stone Cutter" by Camilla Lackberg.
I am addicted to crime thrillers and this book will stand up with the best. I have read 2 books now by Lackberg and look forward to the next.

I loved the suspense and the way Lackberg alternates between the past and the present. She also has a knack for writing several situations in the same novel, some of them funny, some of them tragic. It's like reading many books in one book. You can't wait to get to the next story and then to the next chapter of the previous story!

This Scandinavian thriller is a fascinating read.The author tells two parallel stories and keeps the reader wondering how they are going to intersect. I was kept guessing until the very end! I kept asking myself, why the title The Stonecutter?? The book is very well written and the main characters (there are many) described in great depth.

This book was hard to put down. It was intriguing and an interesting mix of characters. I thought there were some characters that came and didn't fit with the plot, but later found out it is the third book in a 6 book series.

This book was a pleasure to read. There were unexpected twists and turns that kept me engrossed. The plot is well crafted and intricate enough to keep the reader guessing. Great piece of literature.

This book held my attention. I thought it was written very well . I loved the way the author weaved together all the personalities and personal issues of the towns people. The ending was very satisfying.

The third in the series of crime/mystery novels by Camilla Lackberg is a pure thriller. Interweaving the stories of several families and differing years, she gives us a story of those that were left behind and those that are here today.

The town of Fjallbacka in Sweden, where everyone knows each other, or has a sense of the person. It is a resort town, but crime is usually left to break ins and that sort, but on this day, Patrik Hedstrom, Detective in the Fjallbacka Police Department, is called to a drowning of a young girl. This drowning is later found to be a murder. Patrik is familiar to those of us who have read the first two books. He is the knowledgable one in the police department. Mellon is in charge, but is working on getting promoted and leaves most of the work to his minions, and then he takes all the credit. This murder mystery involves several people that Patrik knows, but he is able to keep a close mind to his work, unlike some of his colleagues. Patrik and his wife, Erica, are the new parents of a little baby girl, Maja. Maja is a difficult baby, wanting to feed often and screaming in-between. Erica is having a difficult time with post-partum depression. One of the issues I have with this novel is that the depression is not treated as real. 'She'll snap out it," seems to be the theme of the day. We all know it doesn't work like that. Patrik is a real detective and works out each clue with his colleague, Martin. This leads him to some very interesting people, and varying scenarios are introduced into the plot. This book will keep you interested and wanting more. I thought I knew who the murderer was, but I was fooled until two thirds of the way in.

Camilla Lackberg has a writer's pen. She knows her subject, and all of the plots re realistic with some minor differences. I intend to follow her series. I have become a fan of Patrik and Erica.

Highly Recommended. prisrob 05-14-12

The Ice Princess: A Novel

The Hidden Child. Camilla Lackberg

This was a satisfactory read. The plot is clever and the representation of policing methods interesting to say the least. The weakness of the novel lies in its language style. I found it woolly at times so perhaps the problem lies with the translation. I love reading detective fiction but this novel failed to excite me enough to want to get back to it as fast as possible. So, it's a meander rather than a high speed chase.

I finally finished this book! It was excruciatingly slow-going; as a matter of fact, I kept checking the percentage that I had already completed on my Kindle, and the story only began to pick up ever so slightly at just around 70 % read. In short: Next to nothing happens story-wise for the first 2/3 of the book, many characters have absolutely no relevance to the case, and repetitions of facts, circumstances and character traits are rampant - Ugh.

I knew who the perpetrator was way before the revelation happened, so that did not help to disperse the lack of the suspension I felt throughout either. But the absolute worst was when the murderer is in prison and the chronology of the murder is revealed - let's just say that I find it a tad bit ridiculous that a person can carry the body of a 7-yr. old child wrapped in a blanket in a residential neighborhood in broad daylight and NOBODY notices. Really? The ending is bad as well - I'm not sure whether it was designed to entice the reader to buy Ms. Läckberg's next book or what, but the Stonecutter will have been my first and last attempt at this author.

After reading the first two in the series, I gave this a try but was even more disappointed than Book 2. I had liked Book 1, but Book 2 drifted off a bit, and Book 3 is incredibly incredible. The female characters are worse and worse, and even I loathed Patrick's wife (after loving her in Book 1 as an investigator and an independent woman author, she turns into a semi-depressed lazy mother of a newborn). The plot always ties up too neatly, not much of an element of surprise, and while I wanted to like it and learn more about life in Sweden (cheese and caviar sandwiches? tell me more) I won't read any more of this series.

Well, its a great book. However, I thought that The Ice Princess and The Preacher were better. This book offered a variety of characters (too many) for the most part. Some were from the previous books, but again it was too many characters.

At times the story was confusing, characters weren't fully developed, and the story could have been edited a bit. My book club read this book and the reviews were mixed. Most of us liked the story but felt it lacked the depth we like to see in the characters and I felt I really didn't have a good sense of the surroundings. We felt Lackberg did a good job of keeping you guessing until the very end of the novel. The member that recommended the book said she was disappointed in this one, she liked her previous novels more than this new novel.