Camilla Lackberg - The Hidden Child

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 . . . 

Comment: Since Ive read the first book by this author I immediately became a fan. I find her writing so refreshing and amazing, I can always count on time well spent with a book by her.

This 5th book with the main characters Erika Falck e Patrick Hedstrom starts not very long after the happening is the 4th book, which led Erika to find out a medal in her mother's possessions. It was a Nazi medal and that will make Erika start an investigation which will help her and the police to make something once wrong now right. At the same time, the lives of those involved will also be on the spotlight...

I really like the author's novels. I find it so amazing how someone can write things apparently so distant as everyday life and crime plots and mix them and make them work. I've said so before, but I keep being amazed by how special and real it seems when the author writes about the character's lives, and not only the protagonists, and their struggles and little daily adventures while developing a crime investigation and the details behind and around the motifs and actions of the killer/s. 

In this book we see Patrick coming up with the fact he's on leave and being with his daughter Maja and being away from work while Erika works. And it's not easy to juggle things and the issues Erika has by feeling bad about not being with Maja as much as before while at the same time breathing more because she doesn't have that responsibility all the time...it may sound something a good mother wouldn't do, but the domestic scenes in these books are extremely to the point and I love them. Plus, there's Mellberg, and his character is one of the funniest and more interesting. He's not only the comic relief, he does play a very important role in easing things and making the book not as violent or horrifying as that.

The crime is also very interesting to follow. Of course there comes a time where the suspects seem obvious but nothing is ever as simple as just knowing. I think for many crime writers the point is to keep the bad guy a question mark until the end, and although this author doesn't say it to the reader, I find it more intriguing the whys of things and she makes a great job of combining a very structured reason with the killer's identity, whether this is a huge surprise or not. I think it is always, but sometimes it can be easier to find out.
There are two investigations happening in this novel, Erika's mother past and her medal and the murder of an old man in his house. I thin the way we start seeing each crime and how it connects at a certain point was very well done and it added a good pace to the story. It was very interesting to follow this.

I enjoy reading these books so much..it's s good when we read something we know it's going to be good and entertaining. The author can write things in a way some people might say it's simplistic, it's not full of metaphors or poetic sayings, but I do love her objectivity and how well she plays the domestic vs thriller dichotomy in her stories, it's really her strongest point.
I recommend the series to everyone, and I hope many more appreciate it too.