The Stranger (originally published as The Gallows Bird) cover art

The Stranger (originally published as The Gallows Bird)

Patrik Hedström and Erica Falck, Book 4

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The Stranger (originally published as The Gallows Bird)

By: Camilla Läckberg
Narrated by: Eamonn Riley
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About this listen

To avoid disappointment, please note this book is now published under the title THE STRANGER. Swedish crime sensation and No. 1 international bestseller, Camilla Lackberg’s fourth psychological thriller – for fans of Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo

A woman is found dead, apparently the victim of a tragic car crash. It’s the first in a spate of seemingly inexplicable accidents in Tanumshede and marks the end of a quiet winter for detective Patrik Hedström and his colleagues.

At the same time a reality TV show is being shot in the town. As cameras shadow the stars’ every move, relations with the locals are strained to breaking point. When a drunken party ends with a particularly unpopular contestant’s murder, the cast and crew are obvious suspects. Could there be a killer in their midst?

As the country tunes in, the bodies mount up. Under the intense glare of the media spotlight, Patrik faces his toughest investigation yet…

©2011 Camilla Lackberg (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Genre Fiction International Mystery & Crime Mystery Police Procedural Psychological Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction

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All stars
Most relevant  
good enough book totally utterly ruined by the reader! awful mock acting! really hated him and will avoid books read by him in the future!

awuful reader

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really liked it... narrator very nice... quite expectable.... nice theme... can't wait for next one...

quite expectable but nice

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I've listened to two books by this author before so was really pleased when this book was available. So disappointed, too much happy families and not enough mystery/crime.
The Preacher and the Stonecutter's Daughter are much better and I would give them five stars but not this one.

Disappointing

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Thought this was just ok, many other titles I enjoyed better. Can only recommend to a select few.

Just Ok

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Again as with all Camilla Lackberg novels I really was excited to get this book and couldnt wait to read it once purchased. The narrative is ok although a bit slow on this one. I love the small details of the character lives we are given as they are quite funny in parts. I enjoy the whodunnit aspect of the story. Could not recommend this one but you may wish to read if going through the whole series.

Enjoyed but others are better

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I wish there was more about Patrick and Ericas relationship to make it more believable. More importantly though, the crime is great and leaves you guessing almost to the end.

Enjoyed

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the suspense was good. all characters had depth and the background information was interesting

brilliant

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But this audio book is let down by two things. The first is the at best workmanlike translation by Steven T. Murray with his usual heavy handed approach to language. Many subtleties of meaning seem to get lost and there is over use of the same phrase time after time. It is almost as if it has been translated by machine but I cannot simply put it down to being translated into American English rather than British English as I have with some of his previous translations, it's just really bad this time around.

Secondly is Eamonn Riley's delivery which seems very hurried. He does not leave enough space between sections in a chapter when the narrative moves from, for example, Patrick to Erica which means you are not sure who is speaking for a while. Similarly he leaves big gaps between paragraphs dealing with the same narrator but when listening you are expecting there to be a change and again it is confusing as to which character in the story is narrating. Finally his pronunciation of some Swedish names and places is also either off or he mumbles his way through them.

The story is actually quite good but is badly let down the translation and narration. The story alone deserves 4 stars.

I really love Camilla Lackberg novels

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I have fallen in love with Swedish writers and if Camilla is a good writer I will never know. I switched off after 10 minutes of tripe reading and awful ponderous English--something must have happened in the translation. Worst book in 5 yrs of membership and bin the reader please unless its a comic book....

john at stock

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After enjoying immensely The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the rest of the books in that trilogy, I decided to sample some more Swedish crime writers and started with this one. This seemed so ordinary and run-of-the-mill in comparison that I haven't tried any other Swedish writers since (though I probably will later). But when compared to other crime writing, excluding Stieg Larsson, this is probably quite good. Maybe I just shouldn't have read it so soon after such masterpieces of crime fiction.

Nothing out of the ordinary

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