Book Review: The Preacher

Book Review: The Preacher

By Camilla Lackberg

"During an unusually hot July, detective Patrik Hedstrom and Erica Falck are enjoying a rare week at home together, nervous and excited about the imminent birth of their first baby. Across town, however, a six-year-old boy makes a gruesome discovery that will ravage their little tourist community and catapult Patrik into the center of a terrifying murder case.

The boy has stumbled upon the brutally murdered body of a young woman, and Patrik is immediately called to lead the investigation. Things get even worse when his team uncovers, buried beneath the victim, the skeletons of two campers whose disappearance had baffled police for decades. The three victims’ injuries seem to be the work of the same killer, but that is impossible: the main suspect in the original kidnappings committed suicide twenty-four years ago. 

When yet another young girl disappears and panic begins to spread, Patrik leads a desperate manhunt to track down a ruthless serial killer before he strikes again." (Goodreads) 

The Preacher is the second novel in the Fjallbacka series following Erica Falck and Patrik Hedstrom. After getting together as a couple in the first novel, The Ice Princess, Erica and Patrik are expecting their first baby. Only a couple weeks away from the due date they are supposed to be enjoying some much needed time off and time together. Until the unexpected discovery of a murder woman and two sets of bones from women who disappeared twenty plus years earlier. 

Patrik goes back to work with the blessing of his very pregnant girlfriend, he takes lead on the case finding the connection to a family who the main suspect of previous similar murders has been dead for over twenty years. This leads Patrik and the team to take measures to perform an in depth investigation into the family and the dead killer linked to this family. 

With a baby on the way, will Patrik and the team be able to find this copycat murderer? 

Personally, I did not enjoy this novel as much as the first in the series. I found the beginning with Erica and Patrik an unexpected introduction back into their lives however, after the introduction into the murder case the middle portion of the novel was slow and i found a lot of information to be unneeded. But the ending was exactly what i was looking for when thinking about how the novel started. 

I would give this novel a ⭐⭐⭐ review. I enjoyed the beginning and ending however the middle was lackluster.

Coming soon: The Stonecutter is the third novel in the Fjallbacka series.