The Preacher

July 25, 2011
This sequel to Läckberg's internationally bestselling The Ice Princess finds Scandinavian police detective Patrik Hedstrom returning to the earlier novel's small fishing village of Fjällbacka, Sweden, where the naked corpse of a recently slain young woman has been discovered on top of the long-buried remains of two other victims. Hedstrom investigates, and when another woman disappears, he focuses his efforts on a dysfunctional and antisocial local family. While Hedstrom's detective work is interesting, the audiobook is burdened with too many unrelated subplots and references to the previous novel. Additionally, some listeners will have difficulty remembering and distinguishing the Nordic names of the many characters. Though David Thorn's accent is unwaveringly authentic, his fluty, melodramatic narration fails to match the author's hardboiled prose. An Avon Pegasus paperback.

From the popular writer of Swedish noir comes this police procedural. A pair of officers tries to solve the mystery of missing girls, and all clues point to one family's involvement. Supporting story lines include an officer's patient, pregnant wife hosting a stream of uninvited visitors and a sibling dealing with an abusive ex. David Thorn is not especially creative in his differentiation of individual voices, but his energetic, imaginative narration carries this story to its end, where a plot twist awaits the listener. Thorn never lets up in his emotional tones as the mystery spirals to an intriguing conclusion. M.B. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine