The ice child: A dark Scandinavian thriller

I love dark and disturbing Scandinavian thrillers! There's something unique about these stories and the 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 and I have read six of them. This post reviews book 9, The ice child.

Lackberg has also penned a new series with Henrik Fexus about a detective and an illusionist. I've read and reviewed the first book, Trapped. She has also written two books about Faye Adelheim, a woman taking back her independence after her s**ty husband relegated her to being a housewife when she was the brains behind his successful business.

The ice child | Fjallbacka series book 9 | Published January 2014 | Read November 2024

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. Detective Patrik Hedstrom is leading 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've only positive things to say about all the Fjallbacka books I've read and The ice child is no exception. Lackberg does write to something of a formula, but I like her writing (or at least the English translation of it). The crime is always pretty gruesome and disturbing. The people involved in the crime and Patrik and his team are interesting and well fleshed out, 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.

There are a lot of characters in the Fjallbacka world so it's probably not a good idea to tackle the series at book 9 of 11. 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 five books, I feel like I know these characters well and I enjoy reading about them. 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. Lackberg does a much better job of adding depth to the lead detective than Kate Ellis does in Wesley Peterson. The inclusion of Patrik's home life makes him more authentic and relatable, too, and 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 and they are also nicely fleshed out. 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, I don't think you should try reading Lackberg's books. I don't mind the slow pace and the pay off 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 is 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 and traumatic upbringings and not out of the realms of possibility.

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. The ending was shocking, as was the escalation in the revelations about the sadistic psychopaths at the heart of the story. The book was atmospheric, as is usual for Lackberg, and my attention was held from start to finish.

Fjallbacka series rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Post update:

Since writing this post, I have read book 3, The stonecutter, published in 2010. I guessed the perpetrator of the crime in this one, but I still enjoyed the book as the historical side of the story was fascinating. I actually found the historical story more interesting than the contemporary one but I did find the connection between past and present was nicely done in terms of the crime's motivations. There was a lot going on with Patrik and Erika in this book. That said, I liked Lackberg's 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.