JUNE 2012 - AudioFile
Läckberg’s Swedish mystery makes abrupt transitions in time and place somewhat confusingly in the opening chapters. Not until the closing pages are the story’s relationships clear. Narrator David Thorn distinguishes the bevy of characters and deftly pronounces their unfamiliar names. In the central plot, the murder of a child in the small town of Fjällbacka horrifies police detective Patrik Hedström, a new father. Issues of new parenting such as nursing and lack of sleep receive as much attention as the murder investigation by the author and narrator. As Thorn occasionally slurs “s’s” and rolls “r’s” for effect, the story moves along steadily with plenty of clues. D.P.D. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
Maureen Corrigan
…here's a young Swedish writer who's being hailed as "the Swedish Agatha Christie." Purists out there will snort in derision, but Camilla Lackberg is very, very good…if she keeps producing mysteries as richly textured and downright breathtaking as her latest, The Stonecutter, who knows? Maybe, one day, we might be identifying Agatha Christie as "the British Camilla Lackberg." The Stonecutter is one of those mysteries that ruin a vacation. Take it to the beach and your eyes will be so locked on its pages, you'll never even know there's an ocean in front of you.
—The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly - Audio
The extreme darkness of the human spirit—a quality that marks Läckberg’s novel and the work of many other Swedish crime writers—is expertly portrayed in this audio edition by narrator David Thorn, who previously read earlier installments in the author’s Patrik Hedstrom series. Although it may take listeners a few moments to become accustomed to Thorn’s British accent, this discrepancy quickly becomes a nonissue given the narrator’s deliberate pace, which serves to underscore the bleakness of both the external and the internal terrain. This time around, Hedstrom is particularly invested in solving the crime; as a new father, he’s affected by the murder of an eight-year-old girl even more strongly than usual. And Thorn is especially effective in portraying the detective’s exhaustion from tending to his infant daughter, which only adds to the strain of working the grisly murder case. A Pegasus hardcover. (May)
Publishers Weekly
Läckberg’s excellent third novel set in the west coast village of Fjällbacka, like its predecessors The Ice Princess and The Preacher, strips conventional veneers from her achingly complex characters. Alternating parallel narratives embroil readers first in the present-day murder by drowning of little Sara Klinga, then in the rise and fall many decades earlier of Agnes Stjernkvist, a venomous schemer who lusts after honest stonecutter Anders Andersson. Investigating Sara’s death is series lead Det. Patrik Hedström, now an exhausted new father, whose partner, Erica, is suffering through a desperate postpartum depression. Läckberg gradually tightens the disparate narrative strands noose-like around her numerous remorselessly dissected characters, her signature reversal revealing shocking and poignant truths about the residents of Fjällbacka, where she herself was born. With at least nine more novels waiting for English translation and the Swedish TV series Fjällbacka Murders in the works, Läckberg has rapidly become one of the most profitable native authors in Sweden’s history. Agent: Joakim Hansson, Nordin Literary Agency. (May)
The Washington Post: "50 Notable Works of Fiction" - Maureen Corrigan
"This richly textured mystery about a spate of murders in a fishing village suggests that Lackberg may be the heir to Agatha Christie."
People Magazine
Something's rotten in Fjallbacka, Sweden: Seven-year-old Sara Klinga's drowning turns out to be a murder, and mysterious woes soon befall other children. An eerie subplot about a local stonecutter's family secrets provides clues in this dark novel of revenge, estrangement and loveless marriages. It will keep you guessing.
Ann Rule
Fire and ice! Masterful suspense as compelling as secrets lying far beneath the dark sea. Läckberg is the perfect crime novelist who combines her gift for intriguingly complicated plots and a keen understanding of the ‘grotesques’ who live among us. Erotic and terrifying.
Entertainment Weekly
Excellent. The end, when it comes, shocks like a dip in Swedish seawater.
USA Today
The hottest crime genre of the moment is Nordic noir and Camilla Läckberg is one of the reasons. Darker, bleaker, and far more sinister than similar American fare.
Chaos Is A Friend of Mine Blog
“Listening to the audio book was great fun. . . . I highly recommend . . . especially for fans of Nordic crime novels.”
—Chaos Is A Friend of Mine Blog
Dee's Book Blog
“[David Thorn] managed to maintain the continuity of the narration through-out and it was an easy listen.”
—Dee’s Book Blog
Booklist
Thorn is a master of building and lessening suspense by altering pacing and inflections, allowing characters’ inner dialogues to clearly contrast with their spoken words. As the plot draws to a conclusion, Thorn outdoes himself voicing the murderer’s reactions to being caught, convicted, and imprisoned. Another winner from Läckberg.”
—Booklist
Bookreporter
The Stonecutter is one of those rare books that you will be unable to read fast enough, yet you also will want to savor slowly so you can delay the ending.”
—Bookreporter
Library Bookwatch
Smoothly performed by David Thorn. . . . Stonecutter is a gripping novel of the dark side of human nature, unforgettable to the very end.”
—Library Bookwatch
Washington Post
One of those mysteries that ruin a vacation. Take it to the beach and your eyes will be so locked on its pages, you’ll never know there’s an ocean in front of you. . . . Richly textured and downright breathtaking.”
—Washington Post
Maureen Corrigan - The Washington Post
And,
speaking of Dame Agatha, here’s a young Swedish writer who’s being hailed as “the Swedish Agatha Christie.” Purists out there will snort in derision, but Camilla Lackberg is very, very good. Her domestic novels are outselling those of her late countryman Stieg Larsson, and if she keeps producing mysteries as richly textured and downright breathtaking as her latest, The Stonecutter, who knows? Maybe, one day, we might be identifying Agatha Christie as “the British Camilla Lackberg.” The Stonecutter is one of those mysteries that ruin a vacation. Take it to the beach and your eyes will be so locked on its pages, you’ll never even know there’s an ocean in front of you.
People
Something's rotten in Fjallbacka, Sweden: Seven-year-old Sara Klinga's drowning turns out to be a murder, and mysterious woes soon befall other children. An eerie subplot about a local stonecutter's family secrets provides clues in this dark novel of revenge, estrangement and loveless marriages. It will keep you guessing.
The Washington Post
And,
speaking of Dame Agatha, here’s a young Swedish writer who’s being hailed as “the Swedish Agatha Christie.” Purists out there will snort in derision, but Camilla Lackberg is very, very good. Her domestic novels are outselling those of her late countryman Stieg Larsson, and if she keeps producing mysteries as richly textured and downright breathtaking as her latest, The Stonecutter, who knows? Maybe, one day, we might be identifying Agatha Christie as “the British Camilla Lackberg.” The Stonecutter is one of those mysteries that ruin a vacation. Take it to the beach and your eyes will be so locked on its pages, you’ll never even know there’s an ocean in front of you. ”— Maureen Corrigan
Library Journal - Audio
The listener braces for a story of child abuse and pedophilia when a fisherman hauls up the body of a little girl along with his lobster pot. The dead girl, however, is not the central figure in this mystery, although Det. Patrick Hedstrom is desperate to solve the puzzle behind her death. He knew this child and has a daughter of his own. Narrator David Thorn makes the Swedish names accessible in a way print does not. His tongue glides over the unfamiliar pronunciations, leaving the listener engaged in the story, which stretches back to the 1920s. Even the red herrings take you somewhere you need to go. VERDICT With the popularity of all things Scandinavian, this is a must purchase. ["Readers of Läckberg's two previous books will not be disappointed. The author keeps the interest high in both story lines and ties the two together in a disturbing conclusion," read the review of the Pegasus hc, LJ Xpress Reviews, 4/13/12.—Ed.]—Jodi L. Israel, Birmingham, AL
Kirkus Reviews
Swedish publishing phenom Läckberg returns to the ill-starred town of Fjällbacka for another dose of resentment that festers into violence. Now that his live-in girlfriend, writer Erica Falck, has presented him with a child, Patrik Hedström ought to be finding a better balance between his personal and professional responsibilities. But his sympathies as both father and cop are demanded by the murder of Sara Klinga, the daughter of Erica's new friend Charlotte. Who would dump a seven-year-old near a wharf after drowning her, according to forensic evidence, in a bathtub? As Patrik surveys the wreckage of Sara's extended family, from the pathological philandering of Charlotte's husband, Dr. Niclas Klinga, to the unaccountable cruelty of Niclas' mother Lilian Florin, whose name Niclas rejected in favor of his wife's upon his marriage, Läckberg (The Ice Princess, 2010, etc.) parcels out hints of the tragedy's roots in the loveless marriage some 75 years ago between flirtatious heiress Agnes Stjernkvist and Anders Andersson, the stonecutter she'd captivated and planned to leave before her father discovered her pregnancy and forced the couple to wed. Meanwhile, back in the present, Patrik and his mostly incompetent colleagues on the Tanumshede police force focus their suspicions on imperious Lilian, who seems to loathe everyone but Stig, the bedridden husband she nurses so assiduously; Kaj Wiberg, the neighbor with whom she's long feuded over every pretext she can find; and Kaj's son Morgan, a computer game designer with Asperger's Syndrome who'd be poorly equipped to take the air even in a much sunnier spot than Fjällbacka. Yes, the detection is forgettable (Patrick solves the mystery by watching a similar case on TV) and the climactic revelation unsurprising. Läckberg's greatest strength is dramatizing the long shadows of family troubles that grow to monstrous size.
