A Review of “The Ice Princess” by Camilla Lackberg

 

I know it’s only been five days since I reviewed “Water for Elephants” but I was on a roll and didn’t want to lose momentum. I picked “The Ice Princess” because when I was on Facebook the other day I saw an advert on the sidebar that said something like “If you liked Stieg Larsson’s “Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” then you’ll love the work of Camilla Lackberg.” Well, I never read any of Mr. Larsson’s works but I did see a couple of Swedish movies based on his books and I watched the “Wallender” series on PBS so I figured sure I was ready for her. I wasn’t.

 

First I want to mention something about her prose. I have always been thrilled when I actually felt something while watching a movie or reading a book. It’s kind of how I can tell if I like it. I mentioned last time that if a work passed the “smell” test then I knew it was really good. While describing the setting of the book, the author’s descriptions were so real to me I had to get up and put a sweater on. She was making me feel cold with her words. The book does take place in Sweden, by the sea, in winter.

 

Ms. Lackberg’s story takes place in a small town. I’ve never been to Sweden but I’ve lived in a few small towns. She got it exactly right. When I was living in Ft. Dodge Iowa, I remember the guy at the gas station had a sign in his window “It’s hard to get rich in a small town. Everybody is watching.”. That’s exactly the feeling I got reading “The Ice Princess”.

 

The story itself is how Erika, a young woman (anyone under fifty is young to me) returns home to her small town of Fjallbacka from Stockholm to deal with the death of her parents and the settlement of their estate. She discovers the body of a former childhood friend, an appearant suicide. The suicide is shortly deemed murder and the real story begins, or so we think.

 

The book is 480 pages and I thought I knew who the guilty party was by the time we got to page 50. I had to reevaluate my assumption by page 75. I thought I had down by 200 but then got tripped up 20 pages later. The truth wasn’t revealed until page 465 after I’d made another ten or fifteen stabs at solving the mystery. I had a real problem with putting the book down, not because of the action, but rather because of all the fascinating characters and side stories that passed throught the pages while Erika and her new boyfriend Patrik, the cop, were conducting their separate investigations. Each solved some of the crime but it was the cop who finally put all the pieces together.

 

There was one disappoint though. Out of the dozen or so different stories going on, not all the questions were answered or all the problems resolved but then, this is only the first of a series of books Ms. Lackbeg has written and maybe I’ll just have to wait till the rest are translated into English to find out, something I’m looking forward to.

 

Now that’s all well and good but what about this book made it a stand out for me? Most who read it are going to enjoy the mystery, the chase if you will, but I learned something else entirely. The author alluded to it in the final pages of the book and I came away with it flashing in my mind. Maybe it’s because I did once live in a small town and I know how gossip travels or how things get distorted with the constant telling and retelling as well as the “appearances” we try to maintain. What I came away with from this book is a question that may take the rest of my life to answer. We say we do things to protect others or to spare their feelings, either though words and actions, or in some cases, inaction. But if we look at them honestly, and I mean with REAL honesty, are we doing it for them, or are we really doing it to protect ourselves?

 

I don’t know if Ms.Lackberg meant to leave her audience with that question but I do know one thing. I’m going to try and be more honest when I look at a situation that demands I make a decision, whether that decision means I take action or hold my tongue. Who am I really trying to protect?