The Preacher

Written by Camilla Läckberg

Narrated by Cameron Stewart

For the first time in English, the second psychological thriller from No 1 bestselling Swedish crime sensation Camilla Läckberg

In the fishing community of Fjallbacka, life is remote, peaceful – and for some, tragically short.

Foul play was always suspected in the disappearance twenty years ago of two young holidaymakers in the area. Now a young boy out playing has confirmed this grim truth. Their remains, discovered with those of a fresh victim, send the town into shock.

Local detective Patrik Hedstrom, expecting a baby with his girlfriend Erica, can only imagine what it is like to lose a child. When a second young girl goes missing, Hedstrom's attention focuses on the Hults, a feuding clan of misfits, relgious fanatics and criminals. The suspect list is long but time is short – which of this family's dark secrets will provide the vital clue?

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Feb 5, 2009
• ISBN: 9780007299966

Camilla Läckberg

Camilla Läckberg is a worldwide bestseller renowned for her brilliant contemporary psychological thrillers. Her novels have sold 19 million copies in 55 countries with translations into 37 languages.

Reviews for The Preacher

[Bo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Second book in the series was at least as good as the first one! Keep them coming!

[bsquaredinoz · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In the second of what is now 8 books (though only 4 translated to English so far) we return to the summer resort town of Fjällbacka in Sweden. Writer Erica Falck and her partner, policeman Patrik Hedström, are enjoying a few days’ holiday before the birth of their first baby. Their idyll is interrupted when a recently deceased body and two skeletons are found and Patrik must return to work early and head up the investigation. It soon becomes clear that the skeletons are the remains of two young women who disappeared in the late 1970′s and the body is that of a young tourist. Attention for the murders soon focuses on the feud-ridden Hult family, one of whom was accused of the earlier disappearances (though he died before the crimes were solved). With an incompetent boss and a couple of staff who couldn’t work in an iron lung, Patrik has few resources to help him solve the case as quickly as everyone is demanding.

I very much enjoyed this book though will concede that at least a portion of that enjoyment is sheer relief that the book contained a Swedish bloke who wasn’t a complete bastard (unlike Box 21 which I recently finished). Patrik is a really terrific character. Unlike many of his crime fiction counterparts he is no lone wolf either at home or at work. He is very wrapped up in Erica and their soon-to-be-baby and, even though his work is important, is still involved with their home life (including getting rid of their series of annoying visitors who refuse to leave the house and expect to be waited on hand and foot by the heavily pregnant Erica). At work he relies on his colleagues, well at least the functional ones like Martin, the eager young rookie and Annika who holds the office together and the teamwork they display while doing their jobs and dealing with their idiot of a boss is credibly depicted. While there are plenty of obsessed loner characters that I really like, they’re not always realistic whereas Patrik feels very real indeed.

The story of The Preacher is one I was probably destined to enjoy. I love family sagas and other people’s family feuds. Throw in a charismatic or odd religious character and you’ve well and truly hooked me. This book had all of that with the large Hult family full of complicated relationships and a charismatic preacher as part of their heritage. Although at times I thought the author had forgotten there was a crime to solve I didn’t mind too much as I was quite engrossed by untangling the family history and changing my mind (several times) about whodunnit.

Läckberg’s books are lighter or cosier than many police procedurals, so not recommended for those whose preferences are entirely at the dark/hard-boiled end of the genre spectrum. However if you like your crime fiction to be set within a fairly credible, middle-class environment that most people will recongise (even if you’ve never been to Sweden) then you could do much worse than this book. It could have done with a bit of editing but other than that it’s nicely written, has interesting characters and even a sense of humour.

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

You have be somewhat claustrophillic to revel in the small town, dense family day to day grit of Lackberg's world, but there is clear observation and unusual kinks in her world to appreciate in any case.

[johnjgaynard · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a solid Scandinavian crime novel,which weaves together scenes of domesticity and scenes of horror, in a social democratic context that manages to have its fair share of religious fanatics. I would have rated it higher, but I felt that the use of the "omniscient" narrator sometimes got in the way of the story. I prefer to have everything necessary to the final understanding of the plot emerge from the story, rather than have the omniscient narrator come up with a lot of extra, missing material right at the end of the book. This was the first of Camilla Lackberg's novels I have had the pleasure to read. I will certainly read more of them.

[Dominique Fort · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Messed up book but a very entertaining suspense overall! Will continue with the series

[tangledthread · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the third Patrik Hedsrom and Erica Falk mystery I've read and I've enjoyed how the author has developed the relationship between Patrik and Eric in addition to her well constructed mysteries. I'm looking forward to reading The Hidden Child and The Stranger and am hoping that more of the series will be translated and available in the U.S.

[andrew1theqm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a good read, but at times it needed more forward direction than it did have. There were points in the book where there was too much dialogue and not enough action, and where the sections were too short before it jumped to someone else. I much preferred the first book in the series, and have to agree with a previous review I saw (Carol's I think) where the reviewer said they missed Erica. I wholeheartedly agree, she was the real strength of the first book but was sidelined too much in this one, she wasn't part of the invetsigation and just had a cameo role in this one. Hopefully in the next one she will play a more prominent part. All that said though I still enjoyed this book and will continue with the series, it was just not as good as the first book in the series.

[kimberwolf-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In Lackberg’s first book in this series, The Ice Princess, Erica Falck is the central character. She finds the body, and since it was her friend, she stays involved in the case. Most of the book is told from her point of view. During the course of the investigation she becomes romantically involved with Patrik Hedstrom, a police officer working on the case.

*** SPOILER-ISH ALERT*** (Nothing that spoils The Preacher, but this book continues a series, so could have spoilers for the first book, mentioned above.)



In The Preacher, which is the second book in the series, Erica and Patrik are married after a whirlwind romance, and they are expecting their first child. The story is told mostly from Patrik’s viewpoint, and Erica is relegated to the background of the story. She’s eight months pregnant, there’s a heatwave, she’s miserable, and Patrick has been called away from his vacation and asked to lead an investigation of multiple murders, one very recent and others that are cold cases but likely related.

The investigation centers around a well-to-do family, the Hults, with lots of secrets and feuds amongst them, and Patrik believes the answers he and his team seek are likely to be found in the closet with this family’s skeletons. During the course of the investigation we learn a bit more about the members of the police department where Patrik works, including the introduction of a fresh new character, Martin, a smart, motivated, young man who Patrik relies on, as the other main members of the team are either complacent or plainly incompetent.

Subplots involve Erica exasperated with unwanted house guests who’ve invited themselves to enjoy the summer heat in the scenic, waterfront town of Fjallbacka; Erica’s sister, Anna, who shows up with her new boyfriend who may have the same uncaring, abusive tendencies as Anna’s ex-husband; and Martin’s budding interest in a local woman who works in the tourist info center and has agreed to help the police department with interpreting.

Family is a big theme in this story: family secrets, loyalty, betrayal, spousal abuse, how families handle grief, the stress of expectations, and the tenderness and challenges of a healthy, caring relationship.

I like the feel of Lackberg’s novels, but have to admit that I liked the first one, The Ice Princess, better than the second. I enjoyed having more of the story from Erica’s point of view. And Ice Princess was set in the winter, which was described with such sparse detail by the author, it seemed to set the mood for the story. As with the first novel, the translation is the tiniest bit stilted – it feels like not quite the right word is being used sometimes. For example, at one point the book refers to Patrik having words with another member of the office where he’s being taken to task, and it says he ‘whimpered.’ I just couldn’t picture this, and thought perhaps a different word was meant and may have suited the situation better. Also, in the balance of grim sadness and suspense or excitement that seems to come with Scandinavian crime novels, this one definitely leaned toward sad.

Overall, though, I enjoyed reading The Preacher. Although I had a vague idea about ‘whodunnit,’ I was kept guessing right up until the end. The story resolved near the last 30 pages. I’m sure I’ll pick up the third installment in the series, The Stonecutter, eventually.

[nautilus-11 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

So, so. I'm not sure if the problem with this book is a problem with translation. The writing is clunky and full of cliches.

[thornton37814 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

When a young boy finds a female corpse and runs home to tell his parents about his discovery, the police also discover the skeletons of two women murdered more than twenty years earlier. Suspicion falls on members of a family with religious fanatics. DNA testing through blood samples plays a role in the investigation. Whether it was the translation or the narrative itself, this book just failed to grab me. I struggled to finish it.

[kathl33n-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is my third read from this author and it was another hit. The two main characters are very well developed and are easily able to carry the series. The crimes themselves are incredibly detailed, with layers and layers of clues and each story slowly peels those layers away. Very, very well done.

[jcambridge_4 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book was not as interesting or as well written as The Ice Princess, which was my introduction to Camilla Lackberg. I found the characters confusing and not well developed and felt the author was attempting to bring too many, and for the most part, unrelated, story lines into the novel. Much of the dialogue was simplistic and somewhat annoying to me as a reader. There are many other Scandinavian mystery/crime novels I would recommend before this one.

[jeb5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Camilla Lackberg is an expert at weaving a murder mystery. This novel involves the murder of a German tourist, whose body is discovered one morning by a 6 year-old boy while he is playing. Upon removing her body from the scene, police discover two more bodies below her . . . bodies that are now merely skeletons. Chief investigator, Patrik must find out who these girls were, what happened to them, and who tortured and killed them. Lackberg slowly unravels this mystery through flashbacks, and multiple character perspectives. Her character's are well-developed, her story is enthralling, and her writing is beautiful. Once picked up, her novels are hard to put down.

[bhowell_35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There are lots of scary "preachers" and religious fanatics in Scandinavian crime books and Ms. Lackberg in "The Preacher" provides us with a truly terrifying one. You will however have to try to figure out who it is along with the police who are in a race against time to try to save his recent victims.There is an old song by Willie Nelson called "The Time of the Preacher" that is quite eery and I thought of it when reading this book. That song was also used in an old thriller made by the BBC in 1986 called "Edge of Darkness" . (It is a very good old mini-series and has a soundtrack by Eric Clapton). available from Amazon, I think. Next Lackberg novel is "The Stonecutter" which I haven't yet read.

[pennsylady · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Police procedural -- Sweden --Serial murders -- Investigation -- Scandanavian crime--fiction Erica Falck and Patrik Hedstrom: Book 2 (2004) This book passed quickly and left me rethinking the characters several times. I would have to say that ultimately I enjoyed ? the read but I'm not sure about the conclusion. I'm being ambiguous... but that's OK.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The discovery of the body of a German tourist in the King’s Cleft cuts short Patrik Hedström’s summer vacation. His boss, Mellburg, puts Patrik in charge of the investigation. The murder is apparently connected to two 24-year-old murders, but the primary suspect in those murders had committed suicide shortly afterward. Did the police have the wrong suspect all those years ago? That’s something Patrik and his team will need to consider. As their investigation gets underway, the disappearance of another young tourist adds a new level of urgency. All roads seem to lead to the Hult family, the children and grandchildren of free church faith healer Ephraim Hult. On the home front, Patrik’s wife, Erica, is 8 months pregnant with their first child. Her forced idleness, the extreme heat of the July weather, and a string of univited and unwelcome guests leave Erica out of sorts.Despite the length of the book, some aspects of the plot seem underdeveloped. The Hult family’s odd religious beliefs are dealt with only superficially, when the plot would have benefited from more detail. Patrik and Erica worked well as a team in the first book in the series, so it’s surprising that the author chose to place Erica on the sidelines in the follow-up novel. The strong sense of place continues to be the biggest draw for this series. I googled pictures of the King’s Cleft and it’s a magnificent sight. If I ever visit Sweden, Fjallbacka will be at the top of my list of places to visit.

[altheaann · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good, solid contemporary murder mystery/thriller, set in rural Sweden.
I enjoyed the first one in this series (The Ice Princess), and thought I'd follow up.

It was a bit of a disappointment that while Erica is definitely the main character in the first book, in this one her new husband, policeman Patrick Hedstrom, takes center stage while Erica is uncomfortably pregnant.

However, the book attains a nice balance between the humorous and too-true travails of daily life, and the depictions of grisly crimes and the shocking secrets of the past that lead to them.

The plot isn't wholly unpredictable, but there are some nice twists and red herrings strewn along the way.

One funny thing - the book takes place in summer, and there is much discussion of how very, very sweltering it is, and a mention of the misconceptions that foreigners have about Sweden being always cold. I looked up how hot it gets in Fjallbacka. The hottest temperature I could find, in summer, is 24 degrees Celsius (75 Fahrenheit). Oh, so very hot! (not.)

Definitely recommended for fans of realistic crime fiction and anyone who thinks religious cults are creepy.

[ccayne_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Too complicated and far fetched.

[nbmars · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In the summer of 2003, in Fjällbacka, Sweden, the newly dead body of a young girl is found on top of the skeletons of two other dead girls who had been missing since 1979. Detective Patrik Hedström, who we met in Lackberg’s previous book, The Ice Princess, is called back from his vacation to take charge of the case.Hedström now lives with Erica Falck, who is eight months pregnant with their baby. (Erica was the main character in The Ice Princess.) It is hot, and Erica is miserable, but Patrik's attention quickly turns elsewhere when yet another girl goes missing. Patrick and his colleagues zero in on the Hult family, the deceased patriarch of whom, Ephraim, was a charismatic and charlatanical preacher. Ephraim’s sons, Gabriel and Johannes, and grandson Jacob were all deeply affected by Ephraim’s teachings. On the surface they seem pious, but something is rotten in the state of Sweden.Discussion: Erica’s attempts to occupy herself with a succession of boorish guests are probably meant to provide a sort of “comic relief” to the tension of the investigation, but instead, I just found these parts as boorish as the company.The police procedural portion of the book didn’t bowl me over either. Patrick is appealing as a character, but most of his colleagues are not, and the various interactions and complications of the Hult family are almost as daunting to master as was Stieg Larsson’s Vanger family in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In fact, it is a bit similar to that book, but without Lisbeth of course (who made all the plot complications tolerable). Certainly though there is a sub-theme of hatred of and aggression towards women (except, ironically, in the case of the murderer). It should be noted that one of Patrick’s likeable coworkers is named Martin Molin. In real life, Camilla Läckberg married police officer Martin Melin in 2010. Martin Melin became a well-known celebrity in Sweden after winning the TV-show Survivor in 1997.Evaluation: A little more complicated and predictable than I like, but not without appeal, especially if you are into Scandinavian mysteries. This one is kind of interesting in that you get a view of Sweden in the summer, when everyone is sweltering.

[willmurdoch · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Much too busy with sub plots and characters. Her intra-family relations are trite and conventional. Not a good scando crime story; the police are just too middle class and content with society.

[thelibraryhag · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

OK, the short answer, UGH. What is up with Scandinavian fiction. This was not thrilling or mysterious. It was just full of depressed, depressing and annoying people. The family relationships are so stressful as are the relationships between the police officers and just about everyone else in the book. Halfway through the book I decided that the victims were the luckiest folks in the book. At least they were out of their misery.

[magentaflake · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Got very confused with the characters in this book. They belong to a divided family and I found it difficult working out who was who. Not a great read and definitely not one of her best.

[leslie398 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Overly long and I found the solution somewhat obvious. I also disliked how Patrik would get some crucial piece of evidence which the reader is told is crucial but not told what it is. In addition, while I was interested in what was going on with Erika and her sister because I had read the previous book, this time this storyline was not relevant to the plot.

[kerrlm · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I read a few chapters of this book. In my view, it is trash. Wasted a few dollars here.

[stephanie_m-868484 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very fine novel. I enjoyed this author's 'voice' very much, though sometimes you can tell it was translated from another language. Non-the-less, I didn't know what was going to happen before it did so, and that was nice, for a change. I think I may soon stop at the library, and see if they have the first novel from this author.

[cameling_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's a wonderful Scandicrime novel with more twists and turns than soft-serve ice cream. A dead woman is found and when the crime scene folks start to move her, they find her body laid on top of 2 female skeletons. What's the connection between her and the skeletons? Is this the work of a serial killer? A prominent family in the community comes under scrutiny again, both for the scandal that hit them when the first 2 women were killed, and again when 2 more women are missing. Will the police find the answers before more women are abducted and killed?

[saretta7l · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Come l'autrice sia definita la nuova Agatha Christie mi è sempre meno chiaro, il giallo in questione ruota attorno a un'unica famiglia e il lettore può, senza difficoltà, ridurre la rosa dei colpevoli e anche trovare l'assassino.
Le indagini questa volta le segue completamente Patrik, Erika, incinta, si limita a vagare in casa afflitta da visite di amici e parenti e dal caldo (ma proprio caldissimo) - qualcosa evidentemente mi sfugge della Svezia, e io che mi lamento dell'afa in Lombardia.

---
Why the author is defined as the new Agatha Christie is a mystery to me; the crime in the novel is obviously related to a precise family and the reader easily can guess the killer among a bunch of probable ones.
The investigation is carried on by Patrik and Erika, pregnant, has only to wander in her house grieved by family and friends coming over and by the hot Swedish summer - I miss something about Sweden I guess, I used to complain about the muggy North Italy weather.

[austcrimefiction · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Second book in the Erica Falck and Patrik Hedström series, THE PREACHER continues the personal story of these two characters, whilst taking the reader into another past / present scenario. I think I'm going to have to start a count of this sort of storyline as it seems to be cropping up all over the place. In this case the present connects with the past when the body of a young tourist is located in the place where the bones of two missing tourists, missing for 20 years, are then discovered. A second young female goes missing and the race is on.Apart from the locations, and the setting for this book there's not a lot unusual in the plot-line here, nor are there any particular stand out elements in the way that the investigation is undertaken. Focus falls on the local misfits, clues keep leading back to them, but which family member and what is the explanation for the 20 year gap. The personal life aspects of this book do seem to take a lot of the focus. Erica's very advanced pregnancy means that she's unable to contribute to the investigation, instead a series of unwelcome guests in the house cause problems in the extreme heat, simply by refusing to leave.I must admit the personal aspects, whilst amusing for a while, got pretty predictable quickly, and Erica's inability to show all these annoying people the door vaguely bewildering. As are her sisters actions, in an ongoing storyline from the first book. A lot of this wandering around in the personal didn't really seem to be advancing the story anywhere in particular, and I've no idea why on earth most of it was there.Buried somewhere under all this personal chitchat, there is a plot lurking which was actually quite interesting. The first book THE ICE PRINCESS interested me slightly more than THE PREACHER, and I'd think that readers would be best off starting with the earlier book, as there's a lot that won't make a lot of sense in THE PREACHER without it. Whilst I was a bit disappointed in this book, this is a series I'm planning on continuing with as long as I can still see glimmers of something interesting.

[chrissterry_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An excellent thriller. For me it really evoked the atmosphere of rural Sweden. The horror of the situation in the midst of small family feuds, country manors and seaside tourist spots gave a sort of 'Midsomer Murders' atmosphere, but with not so much nostalgia and a harder edge. I was initially a little disgruntled that I had worked out who the killer was 2/3 of the way through the book, and nearly gave up then, but the denoument, and the reason for the killings completely surprised me, and made the book compelling to the very last sentence.

[ellenr_79 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Discovery of a young woman's body atop bones of two other older corpses leads local police to past crimes and a family's hidden secrets. Well-told plotting, engaging characters.