The Hidden Child
The Hidden Child book cover

The Hidden Child

Paperback – May 15, 2015

Price
$15.95
Format
Paperback
Pages
400
Publisher
Pegasus Crime
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1605988320
Dimensions
6 x 1.5 x 9 inches
Weight
1.05 pounds

Description

“There should be a better word for a mystery that runs on for 500-plus pages, stuffed with multigenerational back stories for key characters and detailed subplots about the domestic affairs of the married sleuths, their friends, colleagues and former spouses. How about calling it a historical-biographical-romantic-domestic-police-procedural-crime-and-love saga? Intriguing. Lackberg has whipped up a respectable plot.” - The New York Times Book Review “If Camilla keeps producing mysteries as richly textured and downright breathtaking as her latest, who knows? Maybe, one day, we might be identifying Agatha Christie as ‘the British Camilla Läckberg.” - Maureen Corrigan, NPR “Of all the mini-Larssons who have arrived on these shores since The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo , Sweden's Camilla Läckberg may be the best – more engaging than Henning Mankell, never as shrill or melodramatic as Jo Nesbo, as tight a plotter as Jussi Adler-Olsen. This is another terrific read.” - USA TODAY “Well-plotted, carefully translated and well written. Highly recommended.” - Crimespree Magazine “Of consistently high quality, well-plotted, carefully translated and well written. Highly recommended.” - Midwest Book Review “Excellent. Horrific secrets come to light as the author skillfully shows how the past has influenced recent events.” - Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW “Fire and ice! Masterful suspense as compelling as secrets lying far beneath the dark sea. Läckberg is the perfect crime novelist who combines her gift for intriguingly complicated plots and a keen understanding of the ‘grotesques’ who live among us. Erotic and terrifying.” - Ann Rule, author of In The Still of the Night “One of those mysteries that ruin a vacation. Take it to the beach and your eyes will be so locked on its pages, you’ll never even know there’s an ocean in front of you.” - The Washington Post “Eerie. Läckberg will keep you guessing.” - People Magazine “What could be darker than Nordic crime fiction? Nordic noir with Nazi war criminals!… You might want to think twice about reading this at home alone at night.” - New York Post Camilla Läckberg worked as an economist in Stockholm until a course in creative writing triggered a drastic career change. Her novels have all been #1 bestsellers in Sweden, and she is the most profitable native author in Swedish history. She was recently the #1 bestselling female author in Europe, and her novels have been sold in thirty-five countries. Her previous novels includeThe Stonecutter and The Stranger, which is available from Pegasus Books. Camilla lives in a suburb of Stockholm with her family.

Features & Highlights

  • Crime writer Erica Falck is shocked to discover a Nazi medal among her late mother’s possessions. Haunted by a childhood of neglect, she resolves to dig deep into her family’s past and finally uncover the reasons why. Her enquiries lead her to the home of a retired history teacher. He was among her mother’s circle of friends during the Second World War but her questions are met with bizarre and evasive answers. Two days later he meets a violent death. Detective Patrik Hedström, Erica’s husband, is on paternity leave but soon becomes embroiled in the murder investigation. Who would kill so ruthlessly to bury secrets so old? Reluctantly Erica must read her mother’s wartime diaries. But within the pages is a painful revelation about Erica’s past. Could what little knowledge she has be enough to endanger her husband and newborn baby? The dark past is coming to light, and no one will escape the truth of how they came to be...

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(1.2K)
★★★★
25%
(981)
★★★
15%
(589)
★★
7%
(275)
23%
(902)

Most Helpful Reviews

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One Star

Camilla Lackberg needs to get off her spousal abuse theme. Not buying any more of these.
3 people found this helpful
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I personally loved this book

I personally loved this book. The only thing I will say is that it was very hard to keep on top of the switching storylines. Jumping from one person’s story to another so quickly, gets confusing at times. I found myself re-reading big chunks of it just to make sure that I completely understood the message the author was trying to convey to me. I wanted to make sure that every strand of it, made sense to me when it all became connected. It kept me on the edge of my seat, and really challenged me to think about every aspect of the book. Flashing back to the time of the war, really helped me to envision what it must have been like back then. As well as helps you to understand why the character’s personalities are the way they are. I always know it’s a good book, when you’re reading and you realize that it has made you feel every emotion imaginable through characters that aren’t even real. Getting to know them on a level, that’s almost personal, makes it hard to say it’s over. I commend Camilla Läckberg for this remarkable work, and I will be reading the rest of this series in the future.
1 people found this helpful
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Recommended

After I read Camilla Läckberg’s The Drowning, I was reading a little bit about her online. I noticed another of her books with a dust jacket that looked familiar, so I checked my shelves and found The Hidden Child there. The Hidden Child was published a year before The Drowning, and is the book just before it in the series about Erica Falck, an author of true crime fiction, and her husband Patrick Hedström, a homicide detective. Set in a small town in Sweden, Erica and Patrick solve crimes.

In The Hidden Child, Erica is going through her mother’s belongings and finds some objects that raise questions about her mother’s life as a teenager during the Second World War. She finds a series of journals that reveal her mother to be very different from the cold, unfeeling woman she knew. She also finds an infant’s dress covered in blood, and wrapped around a Nazi medal. The intrigue begins when the man whom Erica asked about the medal turns up dead. When another of her mother’s childhood friends is found murdered, Erica realizes that she has uncovered a mystery that someone wants to stay buried. Her investigation into her mother’s childhood and Patrick’s investigation into the murders cause them to work together at times, and at other times at cross purposes.

As with The Drowning, the cast of characters in The Hidden Child is rich with a variety of personalities that reflect modern cultural and political values. Nazi sympathizers from both the past and present focus the reader on anti-immigrant sentiments that exist throughout Europe. Another character is afraid to reveal her relationship with another woman, and only reluctantly opens up to her co-workers. The plot is compelling, and the writing (and translation) excellent. Anyone who enjoys crime fiction will appreciate The Hidden Child. Camilla Läckberg deserves to be read and will hopefully find an appreciative audience in the U.S.
1 people found this helpful
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A mother's secrets lead to murder

This is the 5th book in the series. Erica is searching for a connection with her mother and the reasons behind her distant behavior as a child. She is surprised to find an old Nazi medal among her mother’s things in an old trunk, along with a diary and a child’s garment stained with what looks like blood. She takes the medal to a retired history teacher and local expert on the Nazis to see if he can identify the medal. He also knew her mother as a girl, but he has no immediate answers for her. She is shocked find out later that he has been violently murdered and her husband Patrik has taken charge of the case. As Erica digs into her past, we see flashbacks to her mother and her circle of friends and begin to see the unfolding of rivalries, jealousy, and deception in the time of war. Patrik also finds that the past may be the key to solving the murder and another unexpected death.
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Murder Most Dull

Neither thriller nor mystery but an endlessly long and meandering soap opera, Hidden Child and author Lackburg should never be mentioned in the same conversation with Steig Larsson or Jo Nesbo though that’s what we’are intended to believe. The writing is flaccid clumsy, every other sentence ending with redundant adverbs (to stress nonexistent tension or mystery I suppose} and focused on dozens of dull and disconnected subplots. Add a veneer of fake feminism, two detailed birthing scenes and you’ve wasted your money and two weeks of your time.
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Five Stars

Love Camilla Lackberg
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I was not disappointed by 'The Hidden Child'

As a Läckberg fan, I was not disappointed by 'The Hidden Child'. Book was hard to put down, and I was able to sneak in a few pages even during the day.
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Five Stars

wife read it and liked it
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Five Stars

As always her books are a great read, hard to put down.
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A Great Book By A Great Author

I love Camilla Lackberg's books-but I think this is her best! Wonderful story!