When another young girl goes missing, detective Patrik Hedström finds himself pitted against dead ends plus literary conundrums in a race to save her life.

[2][3] Läckberg acquaints the reader at the outset with what at first might seem an unlikely Swedish import: a pair who feed off holiday-makers from the metropolis, the head of a clan, now overweight yet acerbic.

[5] Like her other novels, this one take place in the quaint, scenic fishing village of Fjällbacka on Sweden's west coast, where the winter population barely reaches 1,000.

There are three generations of misogynist father/son duos in which violations of young girls is central and ramifications occur involving a parent/child relationship with a dysfunctional sliding scale.

Erica, the central character of The Ice Princess, becomes more of an adjunct, very much intimidated by her pregnancy, who finds dealing with guests or unravelling crime daunting.