The Ice Princess by Camilla Läckberg

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Keywords: Scandinavian crime fiction, Swedish crime fiction

The Ice Princess, Läckberg's first novel, is one of my series backlog books. It was first published in Swedish in 2003, in English translation in 2008, and I read it in February, 2010.  Given the time that has passed and that I didn't remember any details, I decided to re-read it before taking on the next books in the series. I have included my 2010 review below.

The Story
Erica Falck is the author of biographies of notable women who has returned to her Swedish home town of Fjällbacka from Stockholm, where she is based. Her parents have died in a car crash and Erica taking care of the their house and sorting out its contents.

While out for a walk, an elderly neighbor calls out to her and urgently requests she look at what he found in a house he watches for the owner. Erica finds the body of her childhood friend, Alexandra (Alex), dead in a bathtub of frozen water and apparently a suicide.

Erica hasn't had contact with Alex after she and her family left town many years before and without saying goodbye. Still, given her prior close-as-sisters relationship with Alex and being a writer, Erica is asked to write a memorial piece about her dead friend. They don't believe she killed herself and want something nice said about her.

In the course of interviewing Alex's husband and her business associate for the memorial, Erica's interest in what happened to her friend is awakened: why did she disappear, where did she go, why did she become so remote to others. Erica is also not feeling inspired about her current writing project and gets the idea of writing something different, a true crime book about Alex.

The forensic pathologist rules that Alex did not kill herself and it is a homicide. An investigation is opened and Erica finds herself pulled in to it. In an interesting twist, Erica finds that a childhood friend is a detective on the case. Patrik Hedström has been in love with Erica since they were children though she was unaware of the depth of his feelings. The case seems to be going nowhere but with Erica's interest and her growing attraction to Patrick, secrets begin to be revealed.

My Thoughts
Läckberg identifies herself as a crime writing specialist. Her books appear on Nordic Noir lists but based on The Ice Princess I don't see that. It isn't nearly dark and gritty enough to qualify. I've also seen her referred to as Sweden's Agatha Christie. This is closer but not close enough to put it on a list of cosy mysteries. I've just got to go with the broad category of crime novel.

Läckberg is known for the detail in her writing, particularly in the way she fleshes out her characters. Sometimes literally as with the police chief who is a buffoon-like caricature of a incompetent bureaucrat. She also provides a strong sense of place. Eight years, seven months after my first review, I find my reaction to these characteristics very different. I haven't come to dislike the book and in fact would recommend it to a reader who enjoys a book where the violence occurs out of sight and there isn't too much sex. For me, the the book is about a third too long and I found it a bit of a slog at times. There is often too much detail. For example, every character, no matter how minor, gets some back story even if they only appear briefly, once. There is no detail to small to be left out. Someone else wrote that the landscape is integral to the story but I don't see that:  it could have been set in Fargo, North Dakota in the winter.

But negative reactions aside, I still consider The Ice Princess a good story that is well plotted. There were a couple of police procedural issues that annoyed me, one I thought egregious. I won't mention them here because they could be spoilers.  Läckberg does a good job seeds the story with clues that leading the reader to the twisted conclusioning

I'm going to read at least the next two books in the series.


ORIGINAL 2010 REVIEW
Erica Falck has returned to her family home in Fjällbacka after the death of her parents. She is sorting through the effects and at the same time trying to work on a biography of Selma Lagerlöf, a Swedish author and the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Out walking one day, an elderly man frantically asks her to come into a house where she finds the body of Alexandra (Alex) Carlgren, a childhood friend, dead in the bath, apparently a suicide. She has been dead for several days and, with heat has been off, the water has frozen.

Alex's family ask her to write a memorial article. They do not believe that she killed herself. In the course of interviewing Alex's husband and business partner, Erica becomes interested in what happened to her friend, why they grew apart. She forms the idea of writing a book about Alex and what led her to take her life.

Initially thought a suicide, the Forensic Pathologist rules the case a homicide. Erica's involvement gets deeper and more complicated when she finds that a detective assigned to the investigation is another childhood friend, one who had a crush on her.

The style of the Ice Princess appeals to me greatly. It is the same feeling I had reading Susan Hill's The Various Haunts of Men though I wouldn't compare the two books. It is more the way Läckberg creates a sense of place and a feeling for the characters. There are little details, not consequential to the plot, that left a mark as I read. When Erica is driving through Göteborg to meet Alex's husband, she is convinced that every road will take her to Hisingen and, indeed, she ends up there trying leave Göteborg. Having spend most of seven days lost driving through the U.K., it made me smile. There is also the scene where Erica is greeting the town's leading lady and is concerned that she will get the cheek kissing sequence wrong.

I found the story griping. Läckberg parceled out the revealments in a way that kept me guessing. She gave good clues along the way but I was still surprised at how the case concluded.

Plot, characters, and setting combined to make this one of my favorite reads. The translation by Steven T. Murray, who also translates Henning Mankell, feels natural

Here is a web site that describes a bit of the real Fjällbacka: A bookworm's tour of murder in Sweden