The physical setting is also an important element in this novel. In small towns such as Fjällbacka, everyone knows everyone’s business and that fact is key to the story.

For instance, that’s part of the reason for which Anna doesn’t leave Lucas. There’s a strong dose of “What will people think?” throughout. The setting – the small fishing village and its culture – plays a major role in this novel. She was an intensely private person but more and more, Patrik and Erica begin to believe that Alex was keeping some dark secrets from the past and that those secrets may be the reason she was killed. Both of them come to the same conclusion: Alex was a very enigmatic person who never really got close to anyone, not even her husband Henrik. At the same time, Erica is asking questions, too. So Hedström starts to look among Alex’s family members, friends and colleagues tot find out who would want to kill her. At first it looks like a suicide but very quickly it’s proven that she was murdered. Erica finds herself drawn to the memory of Alex whom she hadn’t really seen for twenty-five years and decides to write a book about her – to begin to get to know Alex as an adult.In the meantime, police officer Patrik Hedström and his team begin asking official questions about Alex’s death.

She alerts the police, and they begin their investigation. She’s especially shocked to hear of Alex’s death because the two women were best friends as little children. She also wants to make progress on a biography she’s writing. Erica has returned to her home in Fjällbacka to sort through her parents’ things after their deaths. He stumbles out of the house and tells the first person he sees, Erica Falck. When Berg gets to the house, he’s shocked to discover Alex’s body in the bathtub. She’s only there on weekends and he’s agreed to keep an eye on it and start up the heat on Fridays so it’s ready for her weekend visits. The novel begins in the small Swedish fishing village of Fjällbacka when Eilert Berg goes to the house owned by Alexandra “Alex” Wijkner to check on it.

The Ice Princess by Camilla Läckberg