Book Review: The Stonecutter
The Stonecutter by Camilla Läckberg
Narrator: David Thorn
Length: 17 hours
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Release Date: May 9, 2012
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
The remote resort town of Fjällbacka has seen its share of tragedy, though perhaps none worse than that of the little girl found in a fisherman’s net. But this was no accidental drowning . Not only was there no seawater found in the girl’s lungs – the autopsy yielded far more sinister findings.
Local detective Patrik Hedstrom has just become a father. It’s his grim task to discover who could be behind the murder of a child both he and his partner Erica knew well. Little Sara Florin’s family history could provide the key, but how do you probe into the past of a family who has just suffered the consummate tragedy? What he does not know is how this case will reach into the dark heart of Fjällbacka, spanning generations, encompassing a mysterious fire, thwarted ambitions, and pitting neighbor against neighbor, threatening to rip aside Fjällbacka’s idyllic facade, perhaps forever.
The Stonecutter is the third book in the Patrik Hedstrom mystery/thriller series by Camilla Läckberg. I haven’t read the previous two books but I don’t think there are any spoilers for them in this review.
Listening to the audio book was great fun. David Thorn, the narrator, had a very dramatic British accent complete with rolling “R”s. It was really interesting hearing all of the Swedish people and place names correctly pronounced because they usually sound nothing like they are spelled. For instance, Patrik is pronounced “POOR-trig”.
The character development in this book is outstanding. This book has an ensemble cast and Läckberg has given each character as much attention as if they were all main characters, with each character having a detailed back-story. Because of this, I was continually going back and forth on who I thought killed Sara and was second guessing myself until the very end. It was great. I was worried that with so many characters with unfamiliar (to me) names, that I would have a hard time keeping track of them on audio since I couldn’t flip back and forth like with a paper book. However, the names were all different sounding enough that I didn’t have any problems.
In addition to the main present day plot of Sara’s murder, there is a subplot about a stonecutter that starts in the 1920s. It’s apparent that it will somehow tie into the present day story but it’s not revealed until late in the book. It was really a second mystery trying to figure out how it would eventually be weaved in to the primary story and I was surprised by how it did.
Even though I haven’t read the first two books in this series, I didn’t have any trouble jumping right in. It doesn’t quite stand alone because one of the subplots ends in a cliffhanger that is no doubt the focus of the fourth book. The mystery of Sara’s murder is solved in this book though.
From what I’ve read, Camilla Läckberg is immensely popular in Sweden and after reading The Stonecutter, I can see why. I highly recommend this book, especially for fans of Nordic crime novels.
Buy this book at:
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(I received this audio book courtesy of the Solid Gold Reviewers program at Audio Jukebox.)
