My thoughts on... The Preacher by Camilla Läckberg (Fjällbacka #2)

⭐⭐⭐⭐(4/5) I really liked it

The Preacher is the second book from the crime series Fjälbacka created by the Swedish writer Camilla Läckberg. I read her first book, The Ice Princess, in November 2020 and I liked it but I gave it only three stars ⭐⭐⭐. If you want to know why you can check my review here.

I liked The Preacher a lot more than The Ice Princess. The only thing that made me give it four stars and not five was that the ending felt a little bit weak and not really believable. My mum loved it, instead.

I like Camilla Läckberg books because she uses them not only to entertain us but also to present us topics that sometimes are a little bit uncomfortable to talk about. In The Preacher, detective Patrick Hëdstrom investigates the kidnapping and murder of a 17 years old girl. In the beginning of every chapter Läckberg had added a little text where the victim describes in first person what she is experiencing during the time she is kidnapped and before she is murdered. We learn what she thinks and feels, we experience her fear of dying and her hope of being saved, we know when she remembers her family and at what point she accepts that she is going to die.

I think that when we read crime novels we focus in the investigation and in the solution (Agatha Christie style) but not many times we get to put ourselves in the victim's skin. Usually, the murdered person becomes just the object of the investigation so I think this is an interesting point to hightlight from this novel because it humanizes the victim.

Las fotografías de Mona que había visto lo conmovieron mucho. Como en tantas otras ocasiones, se dio cuenta de que resultaba muy fácil convertir a las víctimas de asesinato en una cifra estadística o ponerles una etiqueta [...]. "Los Gritos del Pasado", Camilla Läckberg

About the edition I read: In my local library there was a Spanish and a Catalan edition. Even though I undoubtedly prefer to read in Catalan, I have to say that I deliberately choose the Spanish translation over the Catalan one. And I enjoyed it very much. If you want to know why I prefer to read Camilla Läckberg in Spainsh what happened with the Catalan version of The Ice Princess check my review here.