We missed them. Although their last appearance, in The witchwas (a little) disappointing, it was seven years old. An eternity for favorite characters. That’s what Erica Falck and Patrik Hedström are, whom the Swedish novelist Camilla Läckberg brought into the world in The Ice Princess (published in French in 2008) and had so far been brought back nine times. Then, after a break during which she signed, with the mentalist Enrik Fexeus, the trilogy featuring Mina Dahbiri and Vincent Walder (The magic box, The cult And Mirage), the “undisputed queen of Scandinavian crime fiction” is back in the saddle solo and, with The Cuckoo’s Nestreturns for an eleventh time to the small coastal town of Fjällbacka.
Erica and Patrik live there with their three children. He is still an inspector at the local police station and she continues her career as a biographer, which revolves around unsolved crimes. At the beginning of the novel, she is lacking inspiration. But she will come across the good idea at the party given in honor of the golden wedding anniversary of a prominent couple, Elisabeth and Henning Bauer. The latter, one of the most famous Swedish writers, is also on the eve of finally seeing his talent recognized: everything indicates that he should receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The celebrations, however, turned to tragedy. A friend of the Bauers, a prominent photographer, was murdered while preparing a retrospective of his work… the final photograph of which, now untraceable, was entitled Guilt. The next day, the couple’s son is shot dead, as are their two boys. Naturally, Patrik and his team take on both cases. While Erica begins to dig into the case she heard about during the fateful meal. The story of a transgender woman, Lola, killed in Stockholm in 1980. Her daughter, Pytte, was a collateral victim of the crime, having perished in the fire that, after the murder, ravaged their apartment.
As you might expect, since we know Camilla Läckberg and her (successful) recipe, the two investigations will end up intertwining, the past and the present will intersperse themselves in the text, social themes will emerge here and there, the crime scenes will be raw. Erica and Patrik’s family life, on the other hand, is a little less present here, and that’s not a bad thing.
Through this familiar mold evolve Lola and Pytte, who are among the most beautiful characters written by the novelist. Their relationship is tender and beautiful. Their life together is full of warmth and that of Lola, complex, described with tact. As for the cultural community in which she evolves, it is vibrant and cool. Pages that are among the strong points of the Cuckoo’s Nest. But, at the same time, there are these twists and turns which, if one or two are surprising, are quite predictable. Especially since one of the tracks followed particularly smacks of something already read.
In short, a reunion that is a pleasure, a pleasant, easy read. But a “cuckoo’s nest” above which one does not fly.