The Hidden Child (Patrick Hedstrom and Erica Falck, Book 5) by Camilla Läckberg (2011-06-20) Paperback

Excellent reading

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I think Camila Lackberg has written an incredibly insightful and moving novel which is a challenge when it sits within the thriller genre. It has just struck me actually that the title, the hidden child, is a wonderful reference to the child in all of us and for those of us who have had to bury our inner child, like so many of the characters in this novel, the result has been more pain in life. Maybe it is no accident that Patrick, like other reviewers have referenced, has a childlike quality about him? This novel speaks to this relationship that we all have and explored it in a very clever way. I actually enjoyed the domestic elements of this novel, it gave it a more authentic feel and was a welcome deviation from other crime novels that seep themselves in violent imagery and narrative (mainly towards women). There are several themes explored in this novel, crime and punishment, retribution, atonement, right and wrong, gender stereotypes etc that added depth to the reading of the novel. There is of course, a collective need for denial of the continuing trauma from WW2 as it continues to reverberate through the generations. My own father never knew his father; he died in 1940 somewhere in Belgium while his mother was pregnant. His own life was impacted terribly as a consequence, which then impacted all of his children; he was another who could not open his heart for fear of more pain. For me, what I really took away from this book that there remains within all of us a kernel of humanity, even if life has stripped away most of it; it might serve us all well to rememer this as we become more and more divided and angry towards those we 'other'.

Overall I liked this book. It was a good, if complex, story - well told, and I found it quite engrossing at times. I liked some of the characters too, which for me is important - although inevitably there were some irritations - Patrik was a pain at first, and needed to grow up; I wondered what his/Martin's boss did all day - apart from walk the dog. I liked the character development of several individuals though. I echo the criticisms stated by other reviewers here: the author gives too much irrelevant detail about characters' pregnancies, babies, young children and domestic goings on. I wondered to why there was a noticeably high incidence of people winking - rather odd; several references, as well, to people wiping their tearful eyes on their sleeves (does no one use a hanky any more?); too many mentions of Drumlekola sweets. I also question aspects of the description of Alzheimer's and how it affects a person. For example - they are unlikely to have dreams that miraculously enable the brain to function normally and memory to recover, when it fails to do so during their waking hours.Apart from the above negatives, the book (500 pages long) held my interest.