This book was mentioned to me by a patron who was on a Scandinavian Crime Fiction kick. She had read Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy and Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series, and because I had read both authors, she told me I just had to check out Camillia Läckberg , starting with The Ice Princess. I was particularly intrigued because this patron originally hails from Sweden and because I have weakness for mysteries. I can’t help it; I’m addicted to solving cases clue by clue (no matter that pretty much every character that crops up soon becomes my newest suspect). In The Ice Princess, a woman named Alex is found dead in a bathtub. Suicide is the initial thought. The local police, who rarely deal with murder in their small Swedish community, soon find that a murder is exactly what they are investigating. Erica Falck, a biography writer, becomes entangled in the case. Alex was Erica’s best friend in childhood before Alex abruptly disengaged from their friendship. Erica finds herself investigating possibilities parallel to Patrik Hedstrom, the most competent police officer for miles. The pair share information and uncover a startling past which seems to incriminate a variety of individuals. Initially, I found the story to be a bit slow in pacing but it soon picked up with background information, interesting characters, and, of course, secrets. This story worked well for me as I was able to guess a lot of the gruesome secrets from the past but the murderer totally caught me by surprise. I like that in a novel. If you feel the same way, give The Ice Princess a try and see if you can correctly identify the murderer before he is revealed.