Judith L. (jlautner) reviewed on 3/1/2021 + 105 more book reviews

I didn't find the book as good as many reviewers did. It was a big disappointment to me.

The basic story: Erica Flack discovers her childhood best friend dead, Alex, in a tub of icy water. She had not seen her for many years and wants to know what happened in those years. Bit by bit she learns what changed in Alex's life as well as how she came to die.

Seems promising, and it would have been good if another writer had taken it on. But the writing seems amateurish and predictable, skips details, includes unlikely police procedures. It is as if the author did no research at all into how such cases are investigated.

I hope the next reader likes it more than I did, and given the rave reviews, that's likely.

UPDATE: I read it again and liked it a lot more:

First of the Fjallbacka Series. Erika Falck, author of biographies, is living in her childhood home while she clears it out after her parents' deaths. She intends to return to her home in Stockholm when she is done. But she finds a body - a woman, naked, in an icy bathtub. And she realizes it is her childhood friend, Alex.

Erika can't help getting involved in the case, even writing about it. Where had Alex been all these years? Why had her family moved away so suddenly when she was 10?

Erika meets another former classmate, Patrik Hedstrom, who is now the lead detective on the case, and the two work together informally, unearthing many secrets.

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