The Stonecutter by Camilla Lackberg is the third in her Patrick Hedström series. I’ve listened to the first two and while I may not have loved them but I enjoyed them enough to continue with the series. With The Stonecutter, I’m done. I didn’t even bother finishing it.

Here’s the blurb:

The remote resort town of Fjällbacka has seen more than its share of tragedy, though perhaps none worse than that of the little girl found in a fisherman’s net. But this was no accidental drowning. Not only was there no seawater found in the girl’s lungs, the autopsy yielded far more sinister findings.

Local detective Patrik Hedström has just become a father. It’s his grim task to discover who could be behind the murder of a child both he and his partner Erica knew well. Little Sara Florin’s family history could provide the key, but how do you probe into the past of a family who has just suffered the consummate tragedy?

What Patrik does not know is how Sara’s death will open up the dark heart of Fjällbacka, spanning generations, encompassing a mysterious fire, thwarted ambitions, and pitting neighbor against neighbor, threatening to rip aside Fjällbacka’s idyllic façade, perhaps forever.

I knew what to expect – a slow-moving mystery, more concerned with character than shoot-outs, a mystery that explores how the past influences the present. I knew it would be a small town harboring dark secrets. It should actually work for me.

The problem was, I didn’t like any of the characters, not even Patrik or his girlfriend, Erica. And there was just too much homelife for me. You didn’t get to know the child before she died, but even from the bits I learned in the first quarter of the book, she wasn’t always a nice kid. And the glimpses of the past weren’t even a break, I didn’t like those people either. Everyone is manipulative or whiny or mean or choosing to ignore obvious problems. There was no one who I cared to see how things turn out for them. I was listening to this on audio and came to this conclusion in section 4. Now, I may have just sucked it up and continued if there hadn’t been 13 more sections, each about an hour long. I was not willing to devote that kind of time to these people.

DNF – no star rating

Category: Mystery – Police Procedural

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Patrik Hedström #3
First published 2005
16 hours 58 minutes
Translated by Steven T. Murray
Read by David Thorn

Book source: Library

Patrik Hedström Series

  1. The Ice Princess
  2. The Preacher
  3. The Stonecutter
  4. The Gallows Bird (APA: The Stranger)
  5. The Hidden Child
  6. The Drowning
  7. The Lighthouse
  8. The Angel Maker

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