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Book review: The Cuckoo by Camilla Läckberg

A small cottage on the shores of a body of water. A figure is standing on the beach by the edge of the water. Mountains in the background and a storm brewing overhead.
The Cuckoo is Camilla Lackberg's 11th story in the Patrik Hedstrom mystery series.

 Official blurb:

Camilla Läckberg is back in Fjällbacka!
Two terrible events, without obvious connection, shakes Fjällbacka to its core. A famous photographer is found brutally murdered in a showroom. Henning Bauer, the Nobel prize winner in literature, suffers from a violent act on the small island where he is writing the 10th book in his world famous series. Patrik Hedström and the colleagues at Tanumshede police station don’t get anywhere in the investigation of the cases, meanwhile Erica Falck is researching a murder on a transsexual man in Stockholm in the 1980’s. She slowly realizes that the threads from the past are connected to the present time, and that old sins leave long shadows behind.

Book review: The Cuckoo by Camilla Läckberg


My thoughts:

I do enjoy a series of books that explores the lives of the protagonists, their surrounding characters, and delivers a superb plot at the same time.

 

The Cuckoo is the 11th installment in Camilla Läckberg's Fjällbacka series, which showcases the characters Patrik Hedström (detective) and Erica Falck (crime writer). Having read all eleven books, each of substantial length and complexity, my commitment reflects my deep appreciation for Läckberg's writing.


The Cuckoo is no exception.


It’s a bit like returning to a place where you know everyone and have a chance to reunite with them, connect to their stories, and catch up all while experiencing another investigation into a brutal murder mystery.


Some six years after the last instalment, we reunite with Erica and Patrik as they move into the next stage of their family lives. Careers for each are on track, children are growing, and there is light at the end of the tunnel as far as raising young, energetic, boisterous children goes.


At a gala event in their hometown, the couple are enjoying, perhaps over-enjoying, the party vibes and freely flowing wine.


Erica, at a loss lately as to what to write about next, gets a tip on a murder mystery from the 1980s. Patrik wakes up to a monster hang over and a call from the station – a murder across the road from the party venue. They don’t know it yet, but the two will become inextricably intwined as Erica visits Stockholm for research into who the mysterious Lola was. She winds her way through the history of the trans-community as the author explores gender relations, bigotry, revenge, and forgiveness. In Fjällbacka, the murders are starting to multiply. Patrick and his team are struggling with their horror at the murder scene while trying to find the killer before they can strike again.


The author builds on background tension (as if brutal murder isn’t enough) with the whole cast of characters, each with their own issues to deal with. Some are connected, some are past trauma, and others are potentially life changing.

Aerial view of a fishing village on the west coast of Sweden.
Fjällbacka, Sweden.

Some notes on setting (if you haven’t read any of Läckberg’s novels yet). Fjällbacka (Läckberg’s hometown) is a small fishing village located on the western coast of Sweden and noted for its connection to Ingrid Bergmann who summered in the area for many years. I’m sure the real village doesn’t have anywhere near the amount of crime that Läckberg chronicles in her fiction. Yet, from the photos I’ve perused, I can see how this cluster of homes and businesses would work as a mystery setting. In a village where everyone knows everyone else, where potential tensions simmer between villagers and visitors (and between the villagers too), an underlying sense of unease, of secrets and hidden stories can be created with the subtle touch of a writer who knows the area and its people well.


Camilla Lackberg creates this sense of a whirlpool of stories just below the surface of a mild and unassuming small town with the flair of an author who knows her people very well.

 

 


Book review: The Cuckoo by Camilla Läckberg

Published by Harper Collins  

2 Comments


Guest
Nov 11

This novel does not seem to be written in the same style as previous Fjallbacka thrillers. The style is not up to Lackberg's previous offerings, and the writing seems wooden and uninspired, as if written by a computer. For example, one paragraph begins "Erica Falck stretched". Just that. A ridiculously short sentence, giving the reader no atmosphere or empathy at all. I am very disappointed, but will cherish my older Fjallbacka novels, which are super.

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Guest
Sep 27

SPOILER

Louise is too obvious too soon.

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