The Stonecutter by Camilla Lackberg

All is not as it seems in small Swedish town of Fjallbacka. The body of a young girl is found by a fisherman in what is suspected to be an accidental drowning. But forensics show that the girl was murdered. Sleep-deprived new father Patrick Hedstrom is put in charge of the investigation and he keeps uncovering more and more of the town's secrets as the investigation progresses. The story is told mostly in the present with periodic flashbacks to the story of spoiled rich girl, Agnes, who makes one ill-advised choice that determines the trajectory of the rest of her life--and unleashes her dark side. Agnes's story eventually ties into the the death of young Sara. It's an engrossing book. But my one quibble is that there were so many characters who would pop up at random--and I had a hard time remember exactly who they were. For example, Patrick's girlfriend Erica has a sister named Anna who is trapped in a dangerous, abusive relationship along with her small children. We learn a little about her then don't hear anything else for pages and pages. Then, when the name "Anna" popped showed up again, I really had to think hard about who this Anna person was and why she was important to the plot. I wish I had made a list of characters as they appeared so I could refer back to it when characters didn't reappear for another 100 pages. Still, it was an interesting book about the dark side of human nature. The way it ends makes me think there's a sequel in the offing featuing Patrick, Erica, and Anna.