The Stonecutter - Camilla Lackberg

Sometimes when my reading gets stuck, I need a fast-paced, contemporary mystery to get me going.  I've been stuck in two books that I've been reading for months.  I want to finish them, but I want to read other books first.  I read so many mysteries that I'm starting to feel like I'm on a diet of oreos (which are, in fact, vegan, so I could eat these overly sweet cookies until I'm sick and not compromise my ethics).  Not that there's anything wrong with mysteries, or even a diet of mysteries.  Lots of them are very well written.  I like the excitement they provide.  I like the danger without the risk.  I need the bad guys to get theirs, unlike in life when many don't.

I read Camilla Lackberg's previous books, The Ice Princess and The Preacher, and had The Stonecutter on my Kindle.  I also have The Stranger, the next book in the series.  I'm glad because The Stonecutter ends with a cliffhanger to be resolved, I hope, in The Stranger.

The Stonecutter weaves two stories together.  Then there's a third story pretty much unrelated to the action in The Stonecutter.  One thread is the back story of a one of the characters.  The other story is the murder of a little girl, drowned, with traces of ash in her stomach and lungs.  Detective Patrik Hedstrom must find the killer and figure out the significance of the ashes.

To make it worse, the dead girl is the daughter of a friend of Patrik's girlfriend, Erica.  He's seen the little girl, too, so seeing her body is a shock.  He and Erica are having problems because they just had a baby.  Erica is staying home with the baby and Patrik is having all the fun.  Everyone needs to make adjustments.

The dead girl's parents, Charlotte and Niclas, have been having problems, too.  They've just moved in with Charlotte's mother, Lilian, and stepfather.  The stepfather is very sick, confined to his bed.  Lilian is self-centered but loves caring for her sick husband.  She's not kind to her daughter, though, always criticizing her weight and the way she does everything.  When their daughter is murdered, things get worse for everyone.

There are so many suspects.  Charlotte's mother and the next door neighbor have been carrying on a ridiculous feud.  They seem to enjoy the fight.  The next door neighbor has a son with Asperger's who spends days in his cabin in the back yard, writing programs for computer games.  The next door neighbor also has a secret.  Doesn't everyone?

I can't say much more without giving away too much information.  This was very enjoyable book.  There's lots of action.  It took me until just before the murderer was revealed to figure out who the culprit was.  I'll be reading the next one in the series shortly.