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    The Hidden Child
    The Hidden Child
    The Hidden Child
    Audiobook14 hours

    The Hidden Child

    Written by Camilla Läckberg

    Narrated by Simon Vance

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Crime writer Erica Falck is shocked to discover a Nazi medal among boxes in her late mother's attic. Haunted by a childhood of neglect, she resolves to dig into her family's past to finally uncover the reasons why.Her inquiries lead her to the home of a retired history teacher who had been among her mother's circle of friends during the Second World War, but her questions there are met with bizarre and evasive replies. Two days later the man is brutally murdered in a house he shared with his brother, a Nazi war criminal investigator with the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Detective Patrik Hedström, Erica's husband, on paternity leave with their newborn child, soon becomes embroiled in the murder investigation. Who would kill so ruthlessly to bury secrets so old? The answers may lie in Erica's mother's wartime diaries, but can they find them before dark secrets from over sixty years ago surface to destroy them all?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateMay 6, 2014
    ISBN9781622313228
    Author

    Camilla Läckberg

    Camilla Läckberg is a worldwide bestseller renowned for her brilliant contemporary psychological thrillers. Her novels have sold 19 million copies in 55 countries with translations into 37 languages.

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    Reviews for The Hidden Child

    4/5

    25 ratings21 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This is the second book in the series I have read. I intend to go back and read them in order from the beginning. I enjoyed this book as I did the other book I read. The characters have faults and virtues and behave like real people. There is detail about the lives of the characters but that adds to the enjoyment.
    • 3/5
      Pretty good. Probably the best I've read so far, perhaps because it was not quite so gory as some. I did guess the conclusion about half the way through but I was quite happy with that. It's because the author is honest (unlike Agatha Christie where solving the murder always seems to involve using a piece of information she doesn't give you!).
    • 4/5
      Four stars because I couldn't put it down, no Stieg Larson though. I miss the girl with the dragon tattoo... I prefer not have diapers and diet talk in my dark thrillers... Tried Jo Nesbo but he doesn't really develop his female characters very well. Like I said, there has been no one to replace Larson yet in this genre.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed this book, but did not find it particularly original or outstanding. To me, it was a fairly standard mystery. I enjoyed some of the the daily-life exchanges, and found I was interested in the characters. I enjoyed reading the details of their lives. But the character development was a bit 'off', particularly the female protagonist's mother. I found her reactions - and they are key to the story - unconvincing, in part because they were too extreme, IMO. The discovery of who killed the old man did not particularly surprise me, but there was one good, satisfying twist. I found the language fairly pedestrian - maybe that's because it's in translation - but I wasn't impressed. Altogether, it was a bit disappointing, really.
    • 2/5
      The fifth book in the series featuring husband and wife pair (detective) Patrik Hedstrom and (writer) Erica Falck, this story hops back and forth between the present and the 2nd world war, involving war diaries, a nazi war medal, secrets from the past, murder and of course relationships. But I endured rather than enjoyed this book, the writing is rather basic, the characters uninteresting, the dialogue often cringing, there are too many clichés, too much sentimentality and there is far too much domestic drivel for my taste. Enough of nappies, winking adults, pushing prams, the author seems infatuated with it all. Sorry, I try not to be too critical when a book doesn't do it for me, but while I thought better of her previous books (3 to 3.5 stars), I just can't find anything particularly good that stands out about this one.
    • 4/5
      This is a great mystery revealing the spectrum of human emotion. Patrick Hedstrom and Erika Falck live with their daughter Maja in a quiet village in Sweden. The peaceful atmosphere of Fjallbacka is shattered one day when a murder victim is discovered by two young boys. Patrick works for the police department investigating the case, but he is on paternity leave. Coincidentally, Erika finds that she is acquainted with the victim, Erik Frankel, a quiet, retired history professor with a special interest in World War II. Erika had recently discovered some of her mother’s possessions and diaries and determined to unearth the secrets of her mother’s past, she brought the Nazi medal she found to Erik, hoping he could identify it. As she uncovers her mother’s previous life, and as the investigation unfolds, many secrets will be unearthed connecting the past to the present .Part of the story takes place in 1943, at the time of World War II. Although Sweden is not occupied, German troops are in control in nearby Norway. Some brave men are engaged in an effort to smuggle people out of that country. Elof, Erika’s father, is one of those men. It is a terrible time, a time when madness reigns and men are sometimes driven mad by what they see and experience.As the story unfolds, the reader learns that Erika’s mother was once a young and carefree girl, part of a close group of friends. There were five of them, four were childhood friends: Elsy Mostrom, Erika’s mom, Frans Ringholm, whose father is a hateful man, Erik Frankel who had an older brother Axel, a Nazi hunter, Elsy’s girlfriend Britta, a bit of a flirt, and Hans, a young man who came late to the group. Hans suddenly appeared as a stowaway on Elsy’s father’s boat, in 1944, and is subsequently sheltered by her family. He had escaped from Norway. Frans, Erik and Axel come from the better side of town and Elsy and Britta from the poorer side. All kinds of prejudice existed at the time, and their different social class makes their friendship unusual. How they all fit into the present day murder mystery that Patrick is quasi involved in investigating, and Erika becomes drawn into as she investigates her mom’s past, is neatly knitted into the story. Without Erika’s insight and Patrick’s expertise, the police force is portrayed as a bit inept, haphazardly handling the investigation. However, the characters all grow into their jobs and their lives, admirably, as time passes.I enjoyed the writing style of this author and didn’t want the book to end too quickly. Although it is part of a series, it stands well on its own. Erika and Patrick are characters that endeared themselves to me. So many of the quirky characters were charming and the dialog between the characters felt so natural and real with their honest expression of feelings and the injection of humor into their conversations, that I felt like I was a fly on the wall, listening in and watching the scenes unfold in real time. Although there were many unlikely coincidences, they were handled deftly by the author, woven so smoothly into the tale, they just naturally seemed to fall into place. I enjoyed the way the plot twisted and turned and kept me guessing as the mystery unfolded. It was a pleasure watching the characters grow and behave as I would have expected normal people to in real life, not stilted in any way, like watching Martin, a detective, grow into his investigator’s job and gain confidence, and watching the Chief, Bertil Mellberg, as he becomes caregiver to a charming dog named Ernst and falls in love with a salsa dancer, and observing him as he softens into a more loveable character as time goes on, although watching Patrick engage in a friendly relationship with his ex-wife stretched my imagination a bit. I was engaged by all of the characters, complete with the dog, and although some were not very likeable, all were simply human beings behaving as humans do, subject to their follies and foibles, subject to the realities of life, to its unexpected fortunes and misfortunes, compassion and malevolence.I did find it a little contrived throughout the book because practically every societal issue arose in one form or another. Every character had some kind of an issue from sexual to domestic abuse, infidelity to divorce, gender issues to prejudice encompassing sexual preference, class and ethnic purity, from immaturity to insecurity, and it covered family relationships and dysfunction in all its forms. Still, each incident felt that it was true to form in the way that it was exposed.If you like a good murder mystery steeped in historic fiction and flavored with romance in its many forms, this book is surely for you. This author has a gift. She makes even the goriest of scenes easy to read because they play out with realistic description rather than sensational explanation meant simply to arouse the reader. There s a lightness, a friendliness, kind of a comfort zone feeling in her words and presentation. She is never crass.And as a yummy aside, like Erika, I love chocolate caramels and I ate them right along with her! To chocolate covered caramels, long may they live!
    • 4/5
      This is the fifth in a series of novels by Scandinavian writer Camilla Lackberg. Detective Patrik Hedstrom is on paternity leave, caring for young daughter Maja, whilst his crime writer wife, Erica Falck, is attempting to complete her latest book. Erica becomes distracted when she discovers a war medal, a blood stained baby’s shirt and diaries belonging to her late mother in the attic. She decides to take the medal to a local historian Erik Frankel in the hope he can shed more light on it’s origin. Strangely, he seems awkward and slightly dismissive with Erica when she mentions her mother’s name. Two days later, Erik is found murdered.Thus begins a complex and riveting story which switches from the present day to the 1940s and the Second World War. Erica’s mother, Elsy, was always distant and cold towards Erica and her sister Anna and Erica finds it hard to equate this personality with the sweet and kind young woman portrayed in the diaries. As Patrik finds it hard to keep away from his police station and the ongoing investigations, it becomes clear that there is a strong link between his wife’s mother and Erik Frankel. Not only that, other childhood friends, including Erik’s brother Axel and a woman named Britta all seem to have secrets to hide. When Britta is found murdered, there is no doubt that coincidence is not at play here.I particularly enjoyed the way Camilla Lackberg weaves ordinary domestic scenes in to the thriller element of her novel. She also writes about very relevant topics such as the rise in Far Right Neo Nazism in Scandinavia, seen recently in the shocking massacre in Norway. Some of the translation could have been sharper and there was one small loose end ( the strange behaviour of a local librarian) which wasn’t resolved……which was a pity because the rest of the storylines are brilliantly brought together at the conclusion of the book. In summary, a very well written psychological thriller which made me want to read the previous four books. This book was made availble to me for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      lot of plots and characters to keep things moving. Enjoyed it!
    • 4/5
      I picked this up bracing myself for a Swedish Noir experience - grey, slightly depressing, everyone smokes, and lots of heavy drinking - and I was pleasantly surprised to find a different type of story. Yes, this book takes place in Sweden, but the cast of characters didn't have that jaded, tired of life attitude. The story starts with Erica Falck discovering among her late mother's possessions a set of incomplete diaries and a Nazi war medal. Erica's memories of her mother have always been of a cold and severe woman, so she dives into researching her mother's early life with the hope of understanding who she really was. Erica takes the medal to a neighbor who was a former history teacher in the hopes of being able to track down its origin. Two days later, the neighbor is murdered. The story switches back and forth between the modern day mystery searching for the killer and the same town, Fjallbacka during WWII when many residents were supporting the Norwegian resistance against the Nazis. The mystery aspect of the story was good, but I think the real attraction to this series is the relationships between the different police detectives and other people in the town. Definitely engaging and a good enough mystery to interest me in more. One special benefit was that I listened to this book and it was narrated by Simon Vance, the narrator of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series. Just love his Swedish accent!
    • 4/5
      A Swedish crime procedural with an interesting WW11 twist. Lackberg develops a likeable set of characters and an interesting and well written plot.
    • 5/5
      Wow! Gift from a student (merci Mélanie!) This book is written by a famous Swedish author. Not the first from the series, but not a problem. The main character is a writter who finds her dead mother's trunk of souvenirs inside which has a baby's shirt and a medal from the Second World War. Great mystery story, and it was interesting hearing about the Europeen side of WW2. It humanizes German people. I was never sure (until the very end) who was the guilty person and the motive for the crime.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book despite the fact that it took me a month to read it. I don't know if I was too busy or if the amount of information in the book over loaded me, but I finished it and it was another winner by Lackberg! The twists and turns between present day and the war years was a lot to keep up with for some reason. No different than any of her other books, but this one just seemed like more. Maybe it was because the information (plot) was regarding such heavy material. Natzism and such. I highly recommend it. I only have The Drowning and The Stranger (which comes out in May 2013 left. I will be so disappointed when I finish this series!
    • 5/5
      Detailed characters, a fascinating crime, a great sin hidden in the past. A typical scandinavian crime story. And it's good....
    • 5/5
      [The Hidden Child] is book 5 in a series, but I had no problem jumping right in. I'm definitely going back to find the first four. Writer Erica Falck has been a stay-at-home mom for a year. Her husband Patrik, a detective, is taking paternity leave so that Erica can get back to writing. Before she settles down to write, Erica goes through some of her late mother's things, a task she's been avoiding, and discovers a Nazi medal and some diaries. The diaries show a completely different person than the woman Erica knew, and she starts a search to learn more about her mother's past.Patrik has a hard time with his paternity leave and ends up leaving his one-year-old daughter with staff at the department so he can participate in a murder investigation.There are a lot of characters in the novel, but Lackberg does a good job of keeping them straight and separating the intertwining stories. Simon Vance does an excellent narration.Do the Swiss have more sexual assaults or misogynists than other countries? I like Swedish crime novels, but either I keep choosing the ones with rape scenes or they have an inordinate number of crime novels that include sexual assaults. I expected this novel to not have one because of the type of crime the main character investigated, and I was hoping that a female author would not feel the need to include a sexual assault in her book. It's not a major scene, but I was still disappointed.
    • 3/5
      THE HIDDEN CHILD is the fifth book centred around the summer tourist town of Fjallbacka on the west coast of Sweden featuring police detective Patrik Hedstrom and his true-crime writing wife Erica Falck. In this outing Patrik is starting paternity leave to look after the couple’s daughter Maja while Erica is looking forward to getting back to work and engaging in more adult intellectual pursuits after a year of looking after Maja herself. However when a dead body is discovered in town on the first day of Patrik’s leave he cannot resist the temptation to take a look at the crime scene, even though it means bringing one-year old Maja along. Erica is a bit miffed with Patrik for taking their daughter to a crime scene and for failing to grasp that looking after Maja does not mean leaving their daughter at home with Erica while Patrick goes shopping. But she too is soon interested in this crime as the dead man turns out to be the historian whom Erica visited when she discovered a Nazi war medal among her dead mother’s possessions. In fact the past has a particular pull on Erica as she also discovered some diaries her mother had kept as a teenager during the war years, and Erica keeps putting aside her own work to read the diaries in the hope they might provide some insight into her mother’s neglectful treatment of Erica and her sister Anna. When it becomes clear that Erica’s mother was friends with the historian who has now been killed Erica becomes involved in the investigation too.

      From a criminal plotting perspective this is probably Läckberg’s best novel, incorporating two strong plots. The contemporary plot to determine the murderer of the historian is well thought out and doesn’t involve nearly as much police incompetence as the previous novels (though there is still a little). All the small police force play useful roles, including new recruit Paola who seems to fit in well, and the case explores some interesting issues including the rise of neo-Nazi groups in modern Sweden. But perhaps the book’s biggest strength is that this storyline links to a second one taking place in 1943-45, involving the recently killed historian, his brother who spent time as a prisoner of the Germans and several other Fjallbacka residents including Erica’s mother. Eventually the solution to the present-day crimes is located in the past though the nature of the connection is well hidden until the end of the book.

      While the family lives of the characters in this series have always been a feature of the novels that I have enjoyed I do think this instalment went a little overboard with the minutiae of characters’ lives. Certainly not all the children are hidden in this novel. In fact the thing is teeming with pregnancies (five), births lengthily described (two), and assorted toddlers and teenagers not to mention yet another love interest for Patrik’s romantically unlucky boss Bertil, an encounter with Patrik’s ex-wife and assorted other minor dramas. It doesn’t feel like Läckberg has held much back for inclusion in the next instalment (aside from several more births I suppose). I do generally enjoy the lighter side of these novels though and it was nice to read a book in which pretty much everyone has a family life in the normal range (i.e. no dramas that can’t be sorted out with a good chat and no alcoholic/near suicidal loners lurking underneath the covers).

      Overall then I enjoyed THE HIDDEN CHILD and thought the translation up to the usual good quality even though duties have switched from Steven T Murray to his wife Tiina Nunnally. I think it interesting that my two favourite mysteries to be solved by Läckberg’s fictional characters are the ones where Erica takes more of a central role in the investigation (my other favourite is the first book in the series, THE ICE PRINCESS in which Erica really takes centre stage) and wonder if she’ll continue taking more of a proactive role in future novels.
    • 4/5
      This is engrossing Scandie thriller that mingles the present and the past -- in this case, the dark days of World War II. In it, we have the fifth appearance of writer Erica Falck and policeman Hedstrom, now the parents of a year-old daughter, and (at last) married. Erica discovers a Nazi medal and a bloody child's dress among her mother's things, at the same time that Patrik becomes involved in the investigation of the brutal murder of an elderly local resident. While each tries to unravel these mysteries, they have to work out how parenting works (Patrik is taking parental leave!), how to deal with Patrik's ex-wife, and how to cope with a seriously interfering mother in law. At the same time, the cast of characters at the police station reappears, pursuing interests of their own. As time passes, of course, Erika's investigation of the long-ago past and Patrik's current day investigation become intertwined.The book is highly suspenseful, and the interweaving of past and present adds to that, for me. And the characters remain likeable, interesting, and at times very funny. One small quibble: I have a little trouble making people's birthdays make sense, but no other reviewers seem troubled by that. I think this is Lackberg's best since "The Ice Princess", and look forward to reading more.
    • 3/5
      The Hidden Child is the fifth book in Camilla Läckberg’s Fjällbacka crime series. It can stand alone though. Some of the characters have storylines that continue from previous books but I was able to follow along without having read all the other books.This book had so many characters that it was hard to keep them all straight, especially listening to the audio book. Since the cast was so large, the narrator couldn’t come up with a unique voice for each one, which didn’t help my confusion. He did have a great dramatic tone and read with emotion.I actually enjoyed the subplots involving the secondary characters more than I enjoyed the murder mystery that was the center of the plot. The timeline kept bothering me. I could never figure out how Erica’s mother could have been a teenager at the end of World War II and still have been young enough to have been Erica and her younger sister’s mother when they were born. I also couldn’t follow the revelation that Erica has towards the end that opens the murder mystery wide open. It didn’t make sense to me – it seemed like she came to her discovery out of the blue. So I much preferred reading about the police chief falling in love and learning to salsa dance and the police woman who was starting a family.I didn’t like this book as much as I did The Stonecutter (the third book in the series and the only other one I’ve read) but I liked it enough that I want to keep reading more of the books in this series.
    • 4/5
      This book sounded right up my street. It's set in the present, but with flashback chapters to the 1940s, and involves a bit of detective work and some family secrets. The book didn't disappoint me and I found it an interesting read as the story unfolded.I haven't read any of the previous books in the series, and it really didn't matter. The writer did mention things that have happened previously, but she tended to explain them if they were important.There was a nice twist towards the end, something that I never saw coming, and I think the story was well-plotted. It kept me interested throughout, although I did find it slightly over-long.I haven't been the biggest fan of translations in the past as I think they can often be very clunky and spoil the flow of a book. This, however, is an example of a good translation. Never did it feel that the book had been written in another language, and I was very impressed with it.This book is a good mix of crime and family life, with interesting characters, and an intriguing historical aspect.
    • 4/5
      What do entries in a diary, a Nazi Iron Cross medal, and a retired history professor found murdered in his chair by teens who broke into his house have in common? Secrets. A dreadful secret held by a scared young man who escaped into Sweden, fleeing the Germans. Secret payments to a man by the murdered victim. A horrific secret held by a group of young friends in the 1940s. Someone is out to protect those secrets at all costs. Patrik Hedstrom has to only participate in this murder investigation on the fringe because he's supposed to be on paternity leave. His wife, Erica, starts to read some of her mother's old diaries and is inadvertently drawn into this investigation.This psychological thriller takes us into the world of resistance fighters during WWII and the risks taken by them, including that of being captured by the Nazis and placed in concentration camps, the strength of friendship and family bonds. It's a page turner that holds you in its tight grip and you can't put it down until after all secrets are laid bare.
    • 4/5
      I love the crime writing from Scandinavia, and this Swedish mystery is a cracker.
    • 5/5
      When Erica Flack finds a chest with childhood drawings, a few old diaries, a bloody baby shirt, and a WWII German medal she begins to wonder why her mother hid these things together in a dark corner of the attic. She hopes that by reading the diaries she will discover why her mother was so reserved and withdrawn from both her and her sister's lives. Now she must use all her abilities as a writer to investigate her own famiy's past. Surprises are numerous when Patrik becomes involved with a murder case while on paternity leave that seems to be connected to Erica's own investigation.Ms Lackberg continues her successful Fjallbacka/Hedstrom series with another stunning tale of murder, history, family, and the ties that bind. This novel is a perfect example of how she can take the everyday and make it into an interesting mystery that remains believable. If read in order, her series is a cohesive look at life in Sweden. Her writing is domestic in a way that readers are able to relate to and feel like they are a part of the family, friends, and culture. This novel is just another example of why she is such a magnificent writer!