The Ice Princess

By: Camilla Läckberg, Steven T. Murray - translator

Narrated by: David Thorn

Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

Returning to her hometown after the funeral of her parents, writer Erica Falck finds a community on the brink of tragedy. The death of her childhood friend, Alex, is just the beginning. Her wrists slashed, her body frozen in an ice cold bath, it seems that she has taken her own life. Erica conceives a memoir about the beautiful but remote Alex, one that will answer questions about their lost friendship.

While her interest grows to an obsession, local detective Patrik Hedstrom is following his own suspicions about the case. But it is only when they start working together that the truth begins to emerge about the small town with a deeply disturbing past.

©2010 Camilla Lackberg (P)2010 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

“Läckberg skillfully details how horrific secrets are never completely buried and how silence can kill the soul.” ( Publishers Weekly)

“This excellent thriller is a must-read for fans of Scandinavian crime literature and will especially appeal to those who enjoy Asa Larsson’s Rebecka Martinsson novels.” ( Booklist)

“Chilly, deceptive, and lucid, just like the icy environment it describes.” ( The Literary Review)

Despite the narration, I loved this story

You will read many reviews about the bad narration for this book. It is true that the choice of narrator was unfortunate, so to listen to this book successfully, I decided to ignore the quality of the narration and concentrate on the story. I am so glad I did, because the audio book was wonderful. I found it easy to get immersed in the story. I even made up reasons to go out on errands so that I could listen to more of this compelling mystery during my drive. I absolutely love dark Scandinavian mysteries (Stieg Larrson, Jo Nesbo, Henning Mankell, etc.), especially if the setting is during Winter. Camilla Lackberg has now been added to my regular listening schedule. Her characters are so well developed that after only a few paragraphs, I found myself thinking "I know someone just like that" -- but, the author made them funnier. In particular, I fell in love with the main characters, Patrik Hedstrom and Erica Falck. The small coastal Swedish town sounds so charming that I looked it up the internet to see if you could travel there easily. When I read this was the first book by this young author, I was surprised because her talent matches some of the very best mystery writing that have been around a long time. She has done an outstanding job of writing a well-paced, exciting story. I hope she has a very long career and all her books get translated.

more english translations please

i enjoyed this book and author, and hope audible will be able to obtain english translations of Ms. Lackberg's other books.

A Frozen Mystery

I don't think this was a particularly great novel, nor do I think it was rubbish. It has the challenges of a writers first novel. I think that the writer weaves an interesting story, but the reader is not really give the opportunity to weave the answers. Too many things are hidden from us. A note, or a discovery that we don't get to see until after the fact. I liked the characters well enough. Patrik and Erica were good, but they weren't perfect. Erica was a little weak, but I do think there is enough to build upon, so I will give the series a second look. There are a few unresolved issues, that I would hope get resolved in the second book, otherwise, it's a big letdown, since it was made a pretty big conflict in the story.

execrable accents

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The narrator. The French accent is comically bad, but the inexplicable sort-of-Cockney-mash-up of the police chief (and anyone else the narrator is trying to portray as lower- or working class) is so distractingly bad, that I may not be able to finish listening to this recording.

Would you ever listen to anything by Camilla Läckberg and Steven T. Murray (translator) again?

Yes. I listened to one of her books narrated by Simon Vance. I very much enjoyed the story (plot, character development, scene-setting, suspense, etc.). I see that his narrations don't begin until Book 4 in the series, so I'll probably read Books 1,2 and 3 in book form, then go back to the audio versions.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

See above comment.

Excellent & Haunting

What a haunting book. Peeling the layers of this onion, I felt a myriad of emotion for all the players. Camilla did an excellent job creating nuanced characters that didn’t exist as one-dimensional archetypes that so often plague mystery and crime books. The use of multiple perspectives was perfect for this story too, sometimes intensifying the mystery and other times creating comic relief making the book feel rhythmic and well-paced. My one big wish was that certain character arches never quite wrapped up in the end. Not that I couldn’t deduce how their futures looked, but there’s something satisfying about having it in front of me. Also, I would have absolutely loved a young female narrator, since David Thorn’s “lady voices” were a little too comical to keep me in the moment (but he was otherwise a great vocal talent for the story). Overall it’s a great read, so give it a listen.

Just OK

A decent story, kept me interested just enough to listen to the whole book. I liked the performer who read the story pretty well, with the one exception of his voices for female characters. The female voices were not appealing to me at all, and detracted from the story for me. Typically, I'm not bothered by male reader's female characters' voices.

A little hard to follow

I struggled with this one for a few reasons. While I enjoyed the tone of the narrator's voice, when his voice would go softer at the end of a sentence I often could not hear what was said. As if he were swallowing the last few words. I also had a bit of trouble following the characters. But thats just me..

The narrator style is unbearable

Could not get past 2 hours - I tried, but the narrator’s style is so exaggerated, it is hard to listen.
The story is probably good

Difficult to get through.

I was very disappointed in this audio book. I thought the story was interesting, and I wanted to listen, but for me, the narrator was just not right. He is definitely more suited to a period novel. And he was too British sounding. I felt like I was listening to a story taking place in the east end of London. It was very distracting, and made this a difficult listen for me, and I really wanted to like it.

Interesting story line

This was an interesting story with some novel ideas and approaches. It kept me engaged for the most part. It was not clear who the killer was and it took a while to figure out all the characters and sub-plots but it was a good read with unpredictable twists and turns. I especially liked the 'maid/mother' character and her relationship with her 'employer'. It was refreshing when she was finally able to speak her 'truth'.

I liked the reader's accent and manner of speech.