The Hidden Child

[sawyl]

Decided to stay in Exeter for the weekend to nurse my fragile health before heading up to Coventry on Monday. A decision that gave me time to polish off Camilla Lackberg's The Hidden Child, the fifth book in her Erica Falck and Patrik Hedström series.

Shortly after Erica takes the nazi medal she found in the attic of her parents' house at the end of The Gallows Bird to a local historian, the old man is found dead. Then when another contemporary of Erica's mother's is found murdered, it starts to look as though somebody is trying to cover up a secret that has festered since the end of the Second World War. Despite officially being on Paternity leave Patrik allows himself to get dragged into the case, and Erica, who is supposed to be working one of her true crime books, finds herself increasingly caught up in uncovering the secret of her mother's past and the reason for her cold attitude to Erica and Anna.

As with the other novels in the series, the central crime story is augmented by the increasingly complicated lives of the Erica, Patrik and the staff at the local police station. Erica and Patrik spend their time trying to come to terms with Patrik's paternity leave, Patrik discovers his ex-wife has moved back to Fjällbacka, Anna is struggling to get to grips with her step-family, Martin Molin is worrying about imminent fatherhood, and even Melberg, perhaps chastened by recent personal disasters, finally manages to approximate a decent human being.

Conclusions? An entertaining book but definitely not the place to start with the series. If nothing else, the extended Falck/Hedström family makes no sense without the previous novels to put the characters in context.