Lackberg, Camilla: The Ice Princess

A writer, Erica Falck, has returned home after the death of her parents to sort out their possessions. She is out walking when she is called into a house to find the dead body of a childhood friend in what seems to be a suicide but is actually murder. One of the local detectives is an old boyfriend. During the course of the investigation their old feelings are resurrected and they fall in love. The book differs from many in the strong development of many of the characters, not just the central ones, so that it all but becomes a social history of the local area. This does lead to a number of threads in the story being left unresolved with one wanting to know what happens although the crime is solved by the end of the book. This does bring to light unsavoury events from the past which reflect badly on the parents of the dead woman among others though this is done without being too critical of their behaviour. There is a second book featuring the two main characters which may tie up some of the incomplete strands, particularly that of the disposition of the house that Erica and her sister inherited. A welcome change from some crime novels where the crime and its solution take precedent over the participants.