The Ice Princess

The Ice Princess
Camilla Lackberg

The psychological thriller debut of No.1 bestselling Swedish crime sensation Camilla Lackberg.Now she is his forever.A small town can hide many secretsReturning to her hometown after the funeral of her parents, writer Erica Falck finds a community on the brink of tragedy. The death of her childhood friend, Alex, is just the beginning. Her wrists slashed, her body frozen in an ice-cold bath, it seems like she’s taken her own life.Meanwhile, local detective Patrik Hedström is following his own suspicions about the case. It’s only when they start working together that the truth begins to emerge about a small town with a deeply disturbing past…

CAMILLA LACKBERG

The Ice Princess

Translated from the Swedish by

Steven T. Murray

Copyright

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2008

Copyright © Camilla Lackberg 2004

Published by agreement with Bengt Nordin Agency, Sweden

English translation © Steven T. Murray 2007

Cover design by Heike Schüssler © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2017

Cover photographs © Aleah Ford/Arcangel (http://Arcangel.com) (woman); Shutterstock (http://shutterstock.com) (ice)

Fjällbacka map by Andrew Ashton © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2008

Camilla Lackberg asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007416189

Ebook Edition © FEBRUARY 2009 ISBN: 9780007313693

Version: 2017-08-03

Dedication

For Wille

Contents

Cover (#ub62c86a3-37d3-56f0-82c0-82c57b27aedc)

Title Page (#ubd05ebac-247d-51b1-998b-ef437da40708)

Copyright (#u0b689d15-bbc5-5406-9fff-1419fd5e9983)

Dedication (#u119daa9e-049c-5054-be5c-3e7589ee9b5e)

Map (#u8a675f5f-3c1d-53dc-80a2-a27f2dfebf05)

Chapter 1 (#u159cb798-c4c6-5d7b-a511-6ed3dcb1ce48)

Chapter 2 (#ud7a5f4c5-6e9b-56af-b518-5f2fb654d799)

Chapter 3 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 4 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 5 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)

The Preacher (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

1

The house was desolate and empty. The cold penetrated into every corner. A thin sheet of ice had formed in the bathtub. She had begun to take on a slightly bluish tinge.

He thought she looked like a princess lying there. An ice princess.

The floor he was sitting on was ice cold, but the chill didn’t bother him. He reached out his hand and touched her.

The blood on her wrists had congealed long ago.

His love for her had never been stronger. He caressed her arm, as if he were caressing the soul that had now left her body.

He didn’t look back when he left. It was not ‘good-bye’, it was ‘until we meet again’.