GENERAL INFORMATION
TITLE: THE LOST BOY
AUTHOR: CAMILLA LACKBERG
PAGES: 497
PUBLISHER: HARPER COLLINS
YEAR: 2013
GENRE: CRIME
COVER TYPE: HARD BACK
www.harpercollins.co.uk/Titles/78008/the-lost-boy-camilla-lackberg-9780007473212
BLURB FROM THE COVER
Mats Sverin was Fjallbacka’s financial director on a regeneration project worth millions. When he is found murdered, Detective Patrik Hedstrom must find answers.
It seems Mats was a man who everybody liked yet nobody really knew – a man with something to hide.
Is it just a coincidence that his high school sweetheart, Nathalie, has returned to the area? What does she know about who Mats really was?
However, Nathalie has her own secret. Something has made her and her five-year-old son flee to their remote family home on the ‘Ghost Isle’. And that is where she’ll stay and shield her son from the evils of the world.
But, as the murder investigation draws a blank, the police have to dig deeper – and before long, everyone’s lives will be dragged into the light …
EXTRACT
It was only when she placed her hands on the steering wheel that she saw they were bloody. Her palms felt sticky against the leather. But she ignored the blood as she shifted into reverse and a bit too hastily backed out of the driveway. She herd the gravel spray out from under the tyres.
REVIEW
The Lost Boy is a library book. It’s Lackberg’s latest novel. I have become a huge fan of her work in recent months. I’ve read everything she’s had published courtesy of my local library. I thought The Lost Boy was great. The Lost Boy contained everything I would expect from a Lackberg novel. The Lost Boy offered great writing, great characters, great story and great twists and turns.
Lackberg uses the same structure in The Lost Boy as her other novels. The long chapters contain various short scenes that offer a brief glimpse of all the story threads going on in The Lost Boy. These story threads include Erika and Anna recovering from the car crash at the end of The Drowned that cause Anna to lose the child she was carrying, the mysterious Nathalie and he son Sam fleeing to Ghost Isle after she plucks up the courage to leave her abusive husband and the main investigation into the murder of Mats. These alternate with flashbacks to 1870 and the story of the first light house keeper at Ghost Isle, his family and the mysterious disappearance of everyone one stormy winter night. I enjoyed this structure with The Lost Boy as much as her other novels. I liked being drip fed the story in little sections. This created a fast pace and a compulsion to read on. Lackberg laid sinister breadcrumbs for you to follow. This structure also added to the fast pace of the novel.
I thought the characterisation was great in The Lost Boy. Erica’s sister Anna is one of the strongest in the novel. She sinks into a deep depression when the car crash causes her to lose the child she was carrying. The love and support of her family gradually brings her round. I think Lackberg did a great job of portraying a woman grieving. I also really like how Patrick’s pompous boss Mellberg develops. In previous novels he’s been the token buffoon stumbling from one disaster to another. He comes into his own in The Lost Boy and becomes likable. Lackberg shows him in a new light. He worships his girlfriend, Rita and dotes on her grandson. I also really like Nathalie’s character. She’s very complex. She comes across as very cold and distant at first and Lackberg gradually reveals that she killed her husband to get away from him. A stray bullet killed her son. She had been living on the island with his corpse for two weeks in a state of denial, believing him to be very much alive and in need of protection. I found her plight heart-breaking.
Like Lackberg’s other novels, one of The Lost Boy’s strengths is plot. There is a lot going on in The Lost Boy. The main story involving the investigation into Mats’s disappearance is one of many story threads. There’s Erica and Anna’s recovery from the car crash. The opening of a fancy new spa on a historical sight and all the problems that go along with it. Nathalie’s flight to the island with her son. A mysterious woman flees her gangster husband. To name but a few. There’s plenty to keep your mind occupied for the 400+ pages. I never saw the conclusion to Mats story coming. I had no idea who the villain was until Lackberg revealed this and blew me away. I love it when writers keep my guessing.
RATING
Up next: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. This is a library book.
