The Stranger
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4.4 • 17 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A local woman is killed in a tragic car crash, but it isn’t a clear-cut drunk driving case. The victim’s blood contains high alcohol levels, but she rarely drank a drop. Meanwhile, a reality TV show begins shooting in the town, and as cameras shadow the stars’ every move, tempers start to flare. When a drunken party ends with an unpopular contestant’s murder, all eyes turn to the cast and crew. Could there be a murderer among them?
The ratings spike as the country tunes into a real-life murder mystery. Detective Patrik Hedstrom finds himself increasingly unable to focus on the strange circumstances of the first case, but what if that holds the key to a series of other unsolved cases across Sweden?
Under the unforgiving media spotlight, Patrik tackles his toughest investigation yet.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Swedish author L ckberg's engaging, if subpar, fourth crime thriller set in Fj llbacka (after 2012's The Stonecutter), Det. Patrik Hedstr m investigates a local woman's death in what appears to be a D.W.I. accident. Some things don't add up, like the off-the-charts alcohol level for a victim, who everyone says never drank. Meanwhile, the battered corpse of one of the cast members of a reality TV show filming in Fj llbacka surfaces inside a garbage truck. L ckberg skillfully handles the ensuing probe which will stretch over half of Sweden and into crimes dating back decades, including the abduction of a young brother and sister from Fj llbacka as well as the domestic dramas dominating the life of writer and new mom Erica Falck, who is soon to wed Patrik. Less successful are the florid chapter-opening flashbacks and the puzzle's farfetched solution. Hints of the next installment's plot promise a return to form.
