The Fjallbacka series: Camilla Lackberg's chilling Scandi noir

I love dark and disturbing Scandinavian thrillers! There's something unique about these stories and their exploration of the heinous side of humanity, plus there's the bonus of the stunning northern European landscapes.

Lackberg has been one of the highest selling Swedish thriller writers for some time. She has a degree in economics from Gothenburg University, and was a marketing director and product manager before turning to writing. The Fjallbacka series, featuring Detective Patrik Hedstrom and his wife, crime writer, Erica Falck, is the mainstay of Lackberg's publications. There are 11 in the series so far and I have read six of them. Below are my thoughts on the books, reviewed in order of publication rather than my reading order. I will update this post as I read books 1, 4-6 and 11.

I give the Fjallbacka series a 4-star rating. Lackberg does write to something of a formula, but I like her writing (or at least the English translation of it). The crimes are always pretty gruesome and disturbing but the stories are at their heart character studies. The people involved in the crimes and Patrik and his team are interesting and well fleshed out characters, and there are twists and turns that I usually don't see coming. There's a always link to the past and Lackberg does a nice job of weaving the two stories together that doesn't feel shoehorned or unnecessary. There's a message in the parallel storylines, in the same vein as the Kate Ellis detective stories, and usually the past and present cases are connected.

There are a lot of characters in the Fjallbacka world so I suggest reading the books in order. The characters aren't one-dimensional, so having read previous books gives important backstory and context. Patrik's family always takes up a chunk of the book, as does Erika's sometimes-meddling. After six books, I feel like I know these characters well and I like being in their world. That said, Erika's behaviour can be reckless at times, and this part of the series probably isn't realistic.

Other reviewers have commented that they find the inclusions of Patrik's family annoying and unnecessary. I don't agree, as they round him out as the main character. Erika and her sister, Anna, do tend to add something of a soap opera feel to the books, though, and Erika is my least favourite character as she's kind of annoying. I do like that Lackberg does a much better job of adding depth to the lead detective than Kate Ellis does in her Wesley Peterson books. The inclusion of Patrik's home life makes him more authentic and relatable, too, as he's not drawn in the quirky mode of many other fictional detectives. There are other detectives in the team who add interest to each story, they are also nicely fleshed out, and their personal lives progress through the books. There's also Melberg, the station head, who should have been booted out of the police force a long time ago. I suspect he's there for the comic value, although that he is in charge of the town's police force is a little scary.

I find the pace relatively slow in Scandinavian books, so if that's not your thing, Lackberg's books may not appeal. I don't mind the slow pace, and the payoff is always worth it. Like most Scandinavian writers, Lackberg mixes detailed characterisation with gritty (and usually super disturbing) crimes, and the psychological motivations for these crimes are deftly explored. There much less action than in American novels of the same genre, but Scandinavian stories are always atmospheric and the characters realistic, even with their psychopathic tendencies. These tendencies are usually borne out of dysfunctional family relationships, abuse, and traumatic upbringings that are not out of the realms of possibility. While the perpetrators and their crimes are horrific, Lackberg tends to stay away from graphic descriptions of violence, but there is still enough explanation to make me shudder as I read.

Fjallbacka series | Books 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10 | Published 2004-2017

The preacher | Book 2 | Published June 2004

A six-year-old boy stumbles upon the brutally murdered body of a young woman. Patrik's team later uncovers, buried beneath the victim, the skeletons of two campers whose disappearance has baffled police for decades. The three victims’ injuries seem to be the work of the same killer, but that is impossible: the main suspect in the original kidnappings committed suicide twenty-four years ago. When yet another young girl disappears and panic begins to spread, Patrik leads a desperate manhunt to track down a ruthless serial killer before he strikes again.

The preacher is a dark tale. There's religious fanaticism to the crime, hinted at by the title, and a seriously messed up family. Family - loyalty, secrets and betrayal - is the central theme of the book. Patrik and Erika are expecting a baby and Erika's sister, Anna, faces spousal abuse. It's hard to review the Fjallbacka books without giving too much away and it's been some time since I read this one. I remember it being complex, but probably my least favourite of the ones I've read. If you do read the series in order, stick with the books as I think they get better as the series progresses.

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The stonecutter | Book 3 | Published January 2005

I guessed the perpetrator of the crime in The stonecutter but I still enjoyed the book as the historical side of the story is fascinating. I actually found the historical story more interesting than the contemporary one. The past and present stories are connected through the book's central theme: the effect of one's childhood on future heinous actions. This theme gives the motivations for the crimes, both historic and current. The perpetrators are truly despicable people, but fascinating character studies all the same.

There is a lot going on with Patrik and Erika in this book. That said, I liked Lackberg's sensitive exploration of post-natal depression. Patrik and his team came off as a bit inept in this one, but I guess they're a small town police force and not everyone can be top of their game all the time.

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The lost boy | Book 7 | Published September 2009

Book 7 is rather an emotional read. The story begins with the murder of the town council's financial director, Mats Sverin. Former girlfriend, Nathalie, returns to Fjallbacka with her young son, and it is hoped that she can shed some light on the secretive Mats. Nathalie is hiding a secret of her own and if it comes to light, she could lose her son.

The lost boy has a haunted desolate island as an additional setting to Fjallbacka. I found this element to the story intriguing, both in the past and present. As the title suggests, there's a strong theme of sadness and loss throughout the book, told through the lens of broken relationships and domestic violence. Erika's sister, Anna, is dealing with a loss of her own, while Patrik and Erica now have twins. Book 7 is less disturbing than the other books I've read in terms of the crimes, but it is deeply sad. It touched my heart in ways that only good Scandi writing can.

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Buried angels | Book 8 | Published January 2011

Buried angels is one of my top picks of the books I've read so far in the Fjallbacka series. The historic link goes back to 1974 when a family from Valö just outside Fjällbacka, goes missing. The only person left is Ebba, the daughter, who is one year old. She now returns to the island where her father once ran a boarding school with an iron fist. She and her husband Tobias have recently lost their three year-old son, and in an attempt to overcome their grief they have decided to renovate her family's former house and open a B&B. Soon Tobias and Ebba are the target of an arson attack, and dried blood is found under the floorboards in the dining room. The book then takes the reader on a journey to unravel how current events could provide an answer to what happened to Ebba’s family.

Even though this book is one of my favourites, there is a lot going on and it's a complex story. Lackberg even brings in a WW2 connection to Hermann Goring. Ebba's family is completely messed up, but I found their story fascinating. I was hoping for a happy ending for Tobias and Ebba so I was a bit shocked at how Lackberg plays the story out.

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The ice child | Book 9 | Published January 2014

The ice child explores the concept of see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. It's winter in this book and a semi-naked girl is found wandering in the woods in the snow. It looks like she might make it to safety, but a car comes out of nowhere and hits her before she can. The girl has been missing for four months and was subject to brutal torture. The police soon discover that three other girls of a similar age are missing from nearby towns. Patrik leads the investigation and his crime writer wife, Erika, discovers a possible link between the missing girls and an old murder case she is writing about in her latest book.

I won't say too much more about The ice child other than it contains Lackberg's usual disturbing, insane and psychotic perpetrators of a crime dressed up as ordinary people. There are a bunch of dark themes in the book, including gaslighting, torture and murder. The ending is shocking, as is the escalation in the revelations about the sadistic psychopaths at the heart of the story. The book is atmospheric, as is usual for Lackberg, and my attention was held from start to finish.

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The girl in the woods | Book 10 | Published January 2017

Book 10 in the Fjallbacka series is my favourite to date, and I understand it received critical and commercial acclaim in Sweden when it was published. The story is about a four-year-old girl who disappears in the woods just outside Fjallbacka, in the same place as another young girl goes missing thirty years ago and is later found murdered. Two teenage girls are found guilty of the child's murder. One of them stays in the town and the other recently returns, now a famous actress.

The past crime is a complex story that I can't say much about for fear of spoiling, but I found the whole thing compelling. Lots of weighty subjects are explored, including bullying and abuse, guilt and complicity. Lackberg also considers the challenges Syrian refugees face in Sweden. The historic part of the novel, set in the seventeenth century, is also complex and intriguing, but it doesn't connect to the present-day case as closely as in previous books. I could have read a whole book on the historic element.

Fjallbacka series rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐