Yet another Swedish mystery writer made a big splash this year (there must be some magical mystery ingredient in all those lingonberries Swedes eat). Camilla Lackberg's The Stonecutter is an ingenious tale of rotting families and the long reach of evil. There are two primary and at least five subsidiary storylines in Lackberg's diabolical novel; all of them slither seamlessly in and around each other in one big snake pit of warped desire.

The most disturbing storyline

The Stonecutter, by Camilla Lackberg, is one of those mysteries that can ruin a vacation. Take it to the beach and your eyes will be so locked on its pages, you'll never know there's an ocean in front of you. Lackberg, who's been hailed as "the Swedish Agatha Christie" for previous novels like The Preacher and The Ice Princess, is one of those Nordic wonders — like Stieg Larsson, Henning Mankell, Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo — who craft taut suspense plots graced

—Maureen Corrigan