Review: THE DEPTHS, Yrsa Sigurdadottir

• 
  this edition supplied by my local library
  
• first published in Icelandic in 2023
• Translated from Icelandic to English by Victoria Cribb
• Published by Hodder & Stoughton UK 2026
• ISBN 9-781399-722964
• 363 pages 
• Black Ice #3 

Synopsis (publisher)

Just how low do people sink to get away with murder?

A human skull unearthed on the outskirts of Reykjavík.
A neighbourhood dispute turned deadly.
A daughter, trapped at sea, looking for answers.

What police officers Týr and Karó don’t know is that these events are all linked through a terrible tragedy, many years ago, when a trawler caught fire on the waves, the crew trapped inside.

The answers lie buried at the bottom of the cold Icelandic Sea. 

My Take

You always know that these three separate stories will coincide but part of the cleverness of the plot is that it is almost impossible until the last act to see how. And meanwhile the stories develop, get lives of their own. And you hang in there because you know somehow IT will happen.

Highly recommended. 

My Rating: 4.7

I've also read

4.8, SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME

5.0, THE SILENCE OF THE SEA 

4.8, WHY DID YOU LIE? 

4.9, THE PREY 

4.5, THE DAY IS DARK 

4.8, CAN'T RUN, CAN'T HIDE - Black Ice #1

4.8, THE WAKE - Black Ice #2  

Review: THE MISSING CASE OF THE MISSING CRIME WRITER, Ragnar Jonasson

• 
  this edition published by Penguin Random House UK 2026
  
• English translation by Victoria Cribbs
• ISBN 978-0-241-71111-8
• 314 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

One winter evening, bestselling crime author Elín S. Jónsdóttir goes missing.

There are no clues to her disappearance and it is up to young detective, Helgi, to crack the case before it's leaked to the press.

As he interviews the people closest to her – a publisher, an accountant, a retired judge – he realises that Elín’s life wasn’t what it seemed. In fact, her past is even stranger than her stories.

As the case of the missing crime writer becomes more mysterious by the hour, Helgi must uncover the secrets of a very unexpected life, before someone else goes missing . . .

My Take

A central theme to this novel is why people disappear. Helgi occupies an office once occupied by Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir whom we met in THE DARKNESS  when she had been forced into early retirement and then disappeared. No explanation has ever been given for her disappearance and occasionally Helgi thinks of her.

However the case he is working on at present is the disappearance of a popular crime fiction novelist who has apparently ceased writing after publishing 10 very popular novels over a period of twenty years. He learns from her friends that she has done disappearing acts before.

Helgi has other problems on his mind too - a new girlfriend is being stalked by one he walked on after she had become violent towards him.  

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

4.4, THE MIST

4.5, WHITE OUT 

4.5, WINTERKILL 

4.6, THE MIST

4.6, RUPTURE 

4.7, THE DARKNESS 

4.7, REYKJAVIK - with Katrin Jakobsdottir

4.6, OUTSIDE  

Review: OUTSIDE, Ragnar Jonasson

• 
  this edition published by Random House 2022
• translated from Icelandic by Victoria Cribb
  
• ISBN 978-0-241-49366-3
• 324 pages  

Synopsis (publisher)

Four friends. One night. Not everyone will come out alive . . . 

In a deadly Icelandic snowstorm, four friends break into an abandoned hunting lodge, hoping to wait out the storm until morning.

But nothing can prepare them for what's inside...

With no other option, they are forced to spend a terrifying night in the cabin: watching as intently and silently as they themselves are being watched. As the night darkens, old secrets spill into the light, and tensions rise between the four friends. Soon it's clear that what they've discovered in the cabin is far from the only mystery lurking there.

Nor the only thing to be afraid of... 

My Take

The story opens with the group of four friends battling through a snow storm to find shelter in an abandoned hut. They have come to this remote area in Iceland to hunt ptarmigan but the weather has closed in.  They were university students together but haven't met for a number of years, so this is a sort of reunion. The snowstorm emphasises how treacherous Icelandic weather can be. The days are short and darkness closes in quickly. When they find the hut the door is padlocked and they need to break in.

Terrified by what they discover inside, they decide that two of them will go back for help.

We gradually piece together bits of the past through narratives from each of the group.

A very atmospheric thriller. 

My rating: 4.6

I've also read

4.4, THE MIST

4.5, WHITE OUT 

4.5, WINTERKILL 

4.6, THE MIST

4.6, RUPTURE 

4.7, THE DARKNESS 

4.7, REYKJAVIK - with Katrin Jakobsdottir

Review: REYKJAVIK, Ragnar Jonasson & Katrin Jakobsdottir

• 
  this edition a paperback published by Penguin Random House UK 2023
  
• first published in Icelandic 2022
• translated into English by Victoria Cribb
• made available by my local library 
• ISBN 978-0-241-62600-9
• 371 pages 

Synopsis (publisher)

An ice-cold mystery haunts Reykjavík in 1986, in this heart-stopping new crime novel co-written by the Icelandic Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdottir

What happened to Lara?

Iceland, 1956. Fourteen-year-old Lara spends the summer on the small island of Videy, just off the coast of Reykjavík.

In early August, the girl disappears without a trace.

The mystery becomes Iceland's greatest unsolved case. What happened to the young girl? Is she still alive? Did she leave the island, or did something happen to her there?

Thirty years later, journalist Valur Robertsson begins his own investigation into Lara's case. But as he draws closer to discovering the secret, it's soon clear that this is a mystery someone will stop at nothing to keep unsolved...

My Take

The book is dedicated to Agatha Christie, and certainly there are some Christie-like effects to the plot. The story takes place over 30 years, from the mysterious disappearance of 14 year old Lara to the climax of the story in 1986, the year of the celebration of Iceland's 200th Anniversary.

I thought the Icelandic climate played a less-than-usual role in the story. There were plenty of red herrings and the eventual revelation of the murderer came as a real surprise in true Christie fashion.  

My rating: 4.7

I've also read (by Ragnar Jonasson)

4.4, THE MIST

4.5, WHITE OUT 

4.5, WINTERKILL 

4.6, THE MIST

4.6, RUPTURE 

4.7, THE DARKNESS 

Review: HOME BEFORE DARK, Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir

• 
  This edition a hardback from my local library
  
• First published in Iceland by Verold Publishing 2023
• First published in UK by Orenda Books in 2025
• English translation by Victoria Cribb
• ISBN 978-1-916788-60-2
• 305 pages 

Synopsis (publisher)

Struggling to separate her dreams from reality, a young woman investigates the disappearance of her sister ten years earlier … worried that she might be next. A breathtaking, twisty standalone thriller from the international bestselling author of the Forbidden Iceland series…

November, 1967, Iceland. Fourteen-year-old Marsí has a secret penpal – a boy who lives on the other side of the country – but she has been writing to him in her older sister’s name. Now she is excited to meet him for the first time.

But when the date arrives, Marsí is prevented from going, and during the night her sister Stína goes missing – her bloodstained anorak later found at the place where Marsí and her penpal had agreed to meet.

November, 1977. Stína’s disappearance remains unsolved. Then an unexpected letter arrives for Marsí. It’s from her penpal, and he’s still out there…

Desperate for news of her missing sister, but terrified that he might coming after her next, Marsí returns to her hometown and embarks on an investigation of her own.

But Marsí has always had trouble distinguishing her vivid dreams from reality, and as insomnia threatens her sanity, it seems she can’t even trust her own memories.

And her sister’s killer is still on the loose…

My Take

Other reviewers have called this book a "twisty thriller" which it certainly is. It has a characteristically complex Icelandic plot. Two time frames set against family trauma and the unsolved disappearance ten years before of Marsi's older sister.  Marsi's mother struggles to cope with mental problems resulting from what happened to her during World War II.  Unsettled family life has led to Stina, the older sister, a talented artist, resolving to leave home as soon as she can and when she disappears, no-one is sure that she hasn't gone voluntarily. 

The plot is complex with a cast of players. And in the end, a surprising resolution.

My rating: 4.8

About the author: Eva Björg Ægisdóttir

Born in Akranes in 1988, Eva moved to Trondheim, Norway to study my MSc in Globalisation when she was 25. After moving back home having completed her MSc, she knew it was time to start working on her novel. Eva has wanted to write books since she was 15 years old, having won a short story contest in Iceland. Eva worked as a stewardess to make ends meet while she wrote her first novel, The Creak on the Stairs. The book went on to win the CWA Debut Dagger, the Blackbird Award, was shortlisted (twice) for the Capital Crime Readers’ Awards, and became a number one bestseller in Iceland. The critically acclaimed Girls Who Lie (book two in the Forbidden Icelandseries) soon followed, with Night Shadows (book three) following suit. You Can’t See Me (book four) is out in 2023. Eva lives with her husband and three children in Reykjavík. 

Review: THE DARKNESS, Ragnar Jonasson

• 
  This book read as an e-book on Libby from my local library
  
• The Darkness (2018)
• (The first book in the Hulda series)
• Translated from Icelandic by Victoria Cribb  

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Spanning the icy streets of Reykjavik, the Icelandic highlands and cold, isolated fjords, The Darkness is an atmospheric thriller from Ragnar Jónasson, one of the most exciting names in Nordic Noir.

The body of a young Russian woman washes up on an Icelandic shore. After a cursory investigation, the death is declared a suicide and the case is quietly closed.

Over a year later Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir of the Reykjavík police is forced into early retirement at 64. She dreads the loneliness, and the memories of her dark past that threaten to come back to haunt her. But before she leaves she is given two weeks to solve a single cold case of her choice. She knows which one: the Russian woman whose hope for asylum ended on the dark, cold shore of an unfamiliar country. Soon Hulda discovers that another young woman vanished at the same time, and that no one is telling her the whole story. Even her colleagues in the police seem determined to put the brakes on her investigation. Meanwhile the clock is ticking.

Hulda will find the killer, even if it means putting her own life in danger. 

My Take

Another title that I'm reading for discussion with my U3A Crime Fiction Group. 

Although it is the first in the Hulda series, chronologically it is the last in her story. I recently read THE MIST and I think I have read them in the correct chronological order. I am wondering if this "out of order" feature is actually based on the discovery of the books by the English publisher.

Hulda is not ready for retirement but her boss has already discovered a younger person to replace her. Hulda has a reputation of being hard to work with, although over the years she has achieved incredible results, but she is not a team player.  

My Rating: 4.7

I've also read

• 4.4, THE MIST
• 4.5, WHITE OUT 
• 4.5, WINTERKILL 
• 4.6, THE MIST
• 4.6, RUPTURE   

Hulda Series
   1. The Darkness (2018)
   2. The Island (2019)
   3. The Mist (2020)  

Review: RUPTURE, Ragnar Jonasson

• 
  This edition read as an e-book on Libby, provided by my local library 
  
• published in English originally 2016, in Icelandic 2012
• translated by Quentin Bates 
• The fourth book in the Dark Iceland series 

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

1955.Two young couples move to the uninhabited, isolated fjord of Hedinsfjörður. Their stay ends abruptly when one of the women meets her death in mysterious circumstances. The case is never solved. Fifty years later an old photograph comes to light, and it becomes clear that the couples may not have been alone on the fjord after all…

In nearby Siglufjörður, young policeman Ari Thór tries to piece together what really happened that fateful night, in a town where no one wants to know, where secrets are a way of life. He's assisted by Ísrún, a news reporter in Reykjavik, who is investigating an increasingly chilling case of her own. Things take a sinister turn when a child goes missing in broad daylight. With a stalker on the loose, and the town of Siglufjörður in quarantine, the past might just come back to haunt them.

Haunting, frightening and complex, Rupture is a dark and atmospheric thriller from one of Iceland's foremost crime writers.

My Take

I seem to be reading books by this Icelandic author all out of order. This title I am reading for discussion with my U3A Crime Reading Group.

However, a saving grace, you do seem to be able to read them as stand-alones, and they do make compelling reads.   

This story in RUPTURE does not originally seem to involve a crime, until detective Ari Thor, time on his hands because the town is in lockdown, doing a favour for a friend, works out that there is a mystery in the old photo from 50 years before.  A great puzzle. 

My rating: 4.6 

I've also read

• 4.4, THE MIST
• 4.5, WHITE OUT 
• 4.5, WINTERKILL 
• 4.6, THE MIST 

 Dark Iceland series in English
   1. Snowblind (2015)
   2. Nightblind (2015)
   3. Blackout (2016)
   4. Rupture (2016)
   5. Whiteout (2017)
   6. Winterkill (2020) 

Hulda
   1. The Darkness (2018)
   2. The Island (2019)
   3. The Mist (2020) 

Review: THE WAKE, Yrsa Sigurdardottir

• 
  This edition read as an e-book on my Kindle (Amazon)
  
• Translated from Icelandic to English by Victoria Cribb
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0DKBLKQLK
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hodder & Stoughton, Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 9, 2025
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 410 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1399722902
• Part of series ‏ : ‎ The Black Ice  

Synopsis (Amazon)

Five friends. One devastating reunion. The new thriller from the legendary Icelandic bestseller (The Black Ice)

AMONG THE MOURNERS AT A FUNERAL, ONE OF IS THEM IS A KILLER...

A group of young professionals travel to the Westman Islands off the coast of Iceland to attend an old friend's wake. Their reunion soon turns into a living nightmare, as the memories of a party they attended at university, and desperately tried to forget, come rushing back.

When two bodies are found on a rocky beach close to the refurbished lighthouse keeper's house that the group had stayed in, medical examiner Iðunn is sent to provide the local police assistance.

For Iðunn, who grew up on the island, this takes her back to the heart of her complex family and the ghosts of her own past she would prefer to keep at bay.

But as the deadly secrets soon become insurmountable, can any of them escape unscathed?

My Take

What a tangled web! The author makes the read work overtime to get the sequence of events sorted out.

The events take place in the last week of January but there is a very convoluted time frame, and at least two settings. Nor are the chapters in order. It reminded me at the beginning of a choose your own adventure book, but once where the author had taken the finished chapters and shuffled them into a semi-random order. Not quite - but you get my drift.

Idunn is Iceland's only pathologist and she is sent off to the Westmann Islands to work out what has happened, and how there are so many dead bodies. 

Four days earlier a group of friends arrived by ferry from Reykjavic to attend the funeral of a friend whom they haven't seen since they were students at university in the capital 7 years before. They are not clear about how she has died and they are all avoiding thinking too much about when they last saw her.

In 4 days time 4 of them will be dead, and the investigation will begin.

An incredibly complex story, so many strands. It really puts this author on another plane in crime fiction.

This is #2 in the Black Ice series, and we meet up with part of the investigation team who featured in the previous novel CAN'T RUN, CAN'T HIDE

My rating: 4.8

I've also read

• 4.8, SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME
• 5.0, THE SILENCE OF THE SEA 
• 4.8, WHY DID YOU LIE? 
• 4.9, THE PREY 
• 4.5, THE DAY IS DARK 
• 4.8, CAN'T RUN, CAN'T HIDE - #1 from the Black Ice series 

Review: CAN'T RUN, CAN'T HIDE, Yrsa Sigurdadottir

• 
  This edition an e-book on Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CTFDWB1R
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hodder & Stoughton, November 7, 2024
•  Print length ‏ : ‎ 429 pages
•  ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1399722858
•  Part of series ‏ : ‎ The Black Ice - #1
• Translated by Victoria Cribb 

Synopsis (Amazon)

On a cold winter evening in a secluded fjord in Iceland, a neighbour visits the house of a family that has not been seen in a week. No one comes to the door when he knocks. 

After breaking down the back door, his worst fears are realised. Their home is now an horrific crime scene.

Policeman Týr and forensic pathologist Iðunn are called to the house to investigate. As the case advances, harrowing secrets about the family are revealed. Along with a young policeman Karó, the investigative team quickly realise that the case forces them to face their own suppressed past and opens a Pandora's box to much darker crimes.
Can't Run, Can't Hide is a masterclass in tension from one of the world's finest crime writers.

My Take

This was a truly creepy read. Told in essentially two time frames, and the author is set on the path of working out what preceded the crime, and then who the perpetrator was, and why.

Soldis is a young trainee teacher who has come to work as an au pair in a remote house in Western Iceland. She discovers that she is the third in a line of au pairs, and that the previous two were apparently dismissed.

Within days she realises that someone is entering the house, taking or relocating items and then the scary activity becomes worse, so much so that Soldis decides she will also leave as soon as possible.

In the long run the perpetrator came as a surprise to me, although I could claim to have been on the right track.

My rating: 4.8 

I've also read

• 4.8, SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME
• 5.0, THE SILENCE OF THE SEA 
• 4.8, WHY DID YOU LIE? 
• 4.9, THE PREY 
• 4.5, THE DAY IS DARK 

Review: THE DAY IS DARK, Yrsa Sigurdadottir

• 
  This edition published by Hodder & Stoughton
  
• First published 2011
• English translation by Philip Roughton 2011 
• ISBN 978-1-444-70009-1
• 421 pages 

Synopsis (publisher)

In The Day is Dark, when all contact is lost with two Icelanders working in a harsh and sparsely populated area on the coast of Greenland, Thóra is hired to uncover the fates of the missing people. When she arrives in Greenland, she discovers that these aren't the first two to go missing. The local townspeople believe that the area is cursed, and no one wants to get involved in the case. Soon, Thora finds herself stranded in the middle of a wilderness, and the case is as frightening and hostile as the landscape itself.

Chilling, unsettling, and compulsively readable, The Day is Dark is a must read for readers who are looking for the next big thing in crime fiction coming in from the cold. 

My Take

I found this a challenging book to get into. Thora and her team are not clear what the Icelanders missing in Greenland have been working on, something to do with a mine. In any case all the other workers who had been there have have come back to Iceland and are refusing to return.  Thora has been employed by a bank who are covering insurance for the project.  She has been told that the local Greenland residents have been very hostile to the mining team and she discovers that there is at least one more of the mining team missing.

The book is slow to reveal what the project was about, and in the first part Thora's team is looking for the missing workers, initially without much success. 

I found there was a lot of local Greenland customs and superstitions to absorb, a lot of characters to get to know, and even by the end it needed a long denouement for me to understand what had happened, and what the book was about.

A challenging read.  

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

• 4.8, SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME
• 5.0, THE SILENCE OF THE SEA 
• 4.8, WHY DID YOU LIE? 
• 4.9, THE PREY 

SPOILER:  You might want to check this link to confirm the deadly disease that the missing drillers contracted, as well as the dead Greenland woman. It is the disease that the original Greenland villages died from (and why the land where the mine was situated was regarded as a prohibited area). It is an interesting comment on the persistence of deadly diseases.

Review: THE PREY, Yrsa Sigurdadottir

• 
  this edition supplied by my local library
  
• published by Hodder & Stoughton 2023
• translated from Icelandic by Victoria Cribb
• ISBN 978-1-529-37743-9
• 341 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

THE FIRST PHONE CALL SHOCKS A FAMILY

A box of photo albums is found in the attic of a house in Hofn, a small fishing village on the south coast of Iceland. The new owners return it to the man who sold them the house, along with a muddied child's shoe with a name written on the sole: Salvor. The man is baffled; they never knew anyone called that. Shortly after the phone rings - it's the nursing home where his mother, an Alzheimer's patient, lives. She's suffered a heart attack and the doctors don't expect her to live much longer. The nurse asks him to let his sister, Salvor, know as well. Their mother has been asking for her.

THE SECOND TRACKS TWO MISSING COUPLES

Johanna is a member of a search and rescue team in Hofn and she's searching for two couples from Reykjavik. Their phones' last location has been pinpointed as the road leading up into the highlands. It's far from clear why these people would have made such a risky trip in the middle of the harsh winter, and they soon find the first dead body. More troubling, Johanna senses her team is being tracked out in the snow.

A THIRD FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE?

Hjorvar works at the Stokksnes Radar Station in the highlands. He is alone when the phone connected to the gate rings. It's the first time it's done so since he began working there five months ago. He picks up the phone but can hear only interference and what sounds like a child's voice asking for her mother.

How are these events connected? And what may be searching for its prey out on the ice? 

My Take

It is some time since I last read a book by this author but I have recommended her as one of the authors my U3A crime fiction reading group will discuss this year.

I had forgotten how well she writes and how complex her plots can be.

This one is no exception. It is a stand-alone which is structured as three separate stories and the connections between them don't immediately emerge. In fact, the reader is not told the total story until the final chapters, and even at the end, you have the feeling that there is still another element that may rise up in the future. 

My rating: 4.9

I've also read

• 4.8, SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME
• 5.0, THE SILENCE OF THE SEA 
• 4.8, WHY DID YOU LIE? 

Review: WINTERKILL, Ragnar Jonasson

• 
  This edition made available as an e-book on Libby by my local library
  
• ISBN: 9781913193447
• ISBN-10: 1913193446
• #6 in Dark Iceland series
• Number Of Pages: 276
• Published: 1st March 2021
• translated into English from French by David Warriner

Synopsis (publisher)

When the body of a 19-year-old girl is found on the main street of Siglufjordur, Police Inspector Ari Thor battles a violent Icelandic storm in an increasingly dangerous hunt for her killer . . . The chilling, claustrophobic finale to the international bestselling Dark Iceland series.

Easter weekend is approaching, and snow is gently falling in Siglufjordur, the northernmost town in Iceland, as crowds of tourists arrive to visit the majestic ski slopes. 

Ari Thor Arason is now a police inspector, but he's separated from his girlfriend, who lives in Sweden with their three-year-old son. A family reunion is planned for the holiday, but a violent blizzard is threatening and there is an unsettling chill in the air. 

Three days before Easter, a 19-year-old local girl falls to her death from the balcony of a house on the main street. A perplexing entry in her diary suggests that this may not be an accident, and when an old man in a local nursing home writes "She was murdered" again and again on the wall of his room, there is every suggestion that something more sinister lies at the heart of her death . . . 

As the extreme weather closes in, cutting the power and access to Siglufjordur, Ari Thor must piece together the puzzle to reveal a horrible truth . . . one that will leave no one unscathed. Chilling, claustrophobic and disturbing, Winterkill marks the startling conclusion to the million-copy bestselling Dark Iceland series and cements Ragnar Jonasson as one of the most exciting authors in crime fiction. 

My Take

Easter is approaching when a girl's body is found near a house in the main street. At first she seems to have fallen from a first floor balcony but there are no witnesses. And then the balcony has only her fingerprints, and the owner is away in Reyjavik, and the conclusion is that the girl must have jumped. Her mother is understandably distraught and her father flies in from America. Both seem convinced that she was pushed, and they in turn push Ari Thor to investigate the incident thoroughly. 

His girlfriend and young son arrive from Sweden for the weekend, and Ari Thor is determined to give them as much time as he can. He gives them his house and stays in the local hotel. There are aspects of this case that are unsettling and on closer attention he unearths some disturbing ideas. 

In the long run Ari Thor discovers another murder, one that others had accepted as a natural death.

I find it hard to put a finger on what is different about Icelandic writing. I think Jonasson's style is deceptively simple, and it is not just the effect of the text having been translated. 

My rating: 4.5 

I've also read

• 4.4, THE MIST
  
• 4.5, WHITE OUT  

Series
Dark Iceland
   1. Snowblind (2015)
   2. Nightblind (2015)
   3. Blackout (2016)
   4. Rupture (2016)
   5. Whiteout (2017)
   6. Winterkill (2020)

Review: THE LEGACY, Yrsa Sigurdardottir

• this edition published by Hodder & Stoughton UK 2017
  
• first published in 2014 as DNA
• translated from Icelandic by Victoria Cribb
• ISBN 978-1-473-62152-7
• 455 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

The first in a thrilling new crime series from international bestseller and prizewinning author Yrsa Sigurdardottir.

The first in an exciting new series from the author of THE SILENCE OF THE SEA, winner of the 2015 Petrona Award for best Scandinavian Crime Novel.

The murder was meant as a punishment - but what sin could justify the method?

The only person who might have answers is the victim's seven-year-old daughter, found hiding in the room where her mother died. And she's not talking.

Newly promoted, out of his depth, detective Huldar turns to Freyja and the Children's House for their expertise with traumatised young people. Freyja, who distrusts the police in general and Huldar in particular, isn't best pleased. But she's determined to keep little Margret safe.

It may prove tricky. The killer is leaving them strange clues: warnings in text messages, sums scribbled on bits of paper, numbers broadcast on the radio. He's telling a dark and secret story - but how can they crack the code? And if they do, will they be next?

[From the bestselling Queen of Nordic Noir, THE LEGACY, is the first in a new serieswith intriguing, flawed investigators, and crimes as chilling as they come]

My Take

I came away from this novel feeling that the author didn't quite play fair with the reader, that essential information in solving the case wasn't revealed until the very last chapters - or maybe I just didn't pick up on it.

There are three horrendous murders eventually, all connected, and the clues the murderer is leaving don't help the police investigation much. So much depends of the answers given by Margret, the young daughter of the first victim, who was hiding under the bed during her mother's murder. Margret needs to be interviewed carefully so that her evidence is not tainted.

The other clues are found by some students who are interested in short wave radio transmissions.

The plot develops in complexity and from that point of view it is satisfying reading.

Euro Crime has labelled this as the first in The Children's House series, with a second THE RECKONING due in 2018. Fantastic Fiction confirms that we will meet Huldar and Freyja again.

My rating: 4.5

I've already read
4.8, SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME
5.0, THE SILENCE OF THE SEA
4.5, ASHES TO DUST
4.5, THE UNDESIRED
4.8, WHY DID YOU LIE?

Review: WHY DID YOU LIE? Yrsa Sigurdardottir

• first published 2013
• translated into English from Icelandic 2016
• translated by Victoria Cribb
• winner of the 2015 Petrona Award
• ISBN 978-1-473-60503-9
• 394 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Amazon)

The Sunday Times top crime read of the year. 

A journalist on the track of an old case attempts suicide.

An ordinary couple return from a house swap in the states to find their home in disarray and their guests seemingly missing.

Four strangers struggle to find shelter on a windswept spike of rock in the middle of a raging sea.

They have one thing in common: they all lied.

And someone is determined to punish them...

WHY DID YOU LIE is a terrifying tale of long-delayed retribution from Iceland's Queen of Suspense
My Take

How to describe this plot? Take 3 seemingly unconnected stories.  You know they must be connected somehow but what or who is the connecting point is really elusive.  Each of the scenarios is fascinating but how they are linked is hidden until the very end. And there comes a final surprise, a real whammy out of left field.

Credit for making the connections goes to the wife of the journalist who, as a result of his attempted suicide, is lying in hospital on life support. Nina is a policewoman in disgrace, on light duties, supposedly clearing out files in the police station basement. She needs to know why Throstur tried to commit suicide and comes across some old files that link him with her boss.

And then right at the end, after we think we know everything, just a hint that it is not yet all over.

My rating: 4.8

I've also read
4.8, SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME
5.0, THE SILENCE OF THE SEA
4.5, ASHES TO DUST
4.5, THE UNDESIRED

Review: THE UNDESIRED, Yrsa Sigurdardottir

• first published 2013, 
• translated from Icelandic by Victoria Cribb
• ISBN 978-1-444-77828-1
• 353 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Good Reads)

Aldis is working in a juvenile detention centre in rural Iceland. She witnesses something deeply disturbing in the middle of the night; soon afterwards, two of the boys at the centre are dead.

Decades later, single father Odinn is looking into alleged abuse at the centre following the unexplained death of the colleague who was previously running the investigation. The more he finds out, though, the more it seems the odd events of the 1970s are linked to the accident that killed his ex-wife. Was her death something more sinister?

My take

An interestingly constructed stand-alone book with dual and seemingly unconnected time frames. which of course are not.

The final resolution of the story relies on a coincidence that stretched credibility a little, but even so the writing is wonderful and there is a little twist to the tale at the end that leaves the reader wondering.

My rating: 4.5 

I've also read
4.8, SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME
5.0, THE SILENCE OF THE SEA
4.5, ASHES TO DUST

Review: ASHES TO DUST, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 923 KB
• Print Length: 468 pages
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (July 22, 2010)
• Publication Date: July 22, 2010
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003Y3BLO4
• translated from Icelandic by Philip Roughton
• #3 in the Thóra Gudmundsdóttir series

Synopsis (Amazon)

The third crime novel from international bestseller Yrsa Sigurdardottir, ASHES TO DUST is tense, taut and terrifying - not to be missed for fans of Nordic Noir.

Thora peered at the floor, but couldn't see anything that could have frightened Markus that much, only three mounds of dust. She moved the light of her torch over them. It took her some time to realize what she was seeing-- and then it was all she could do not to let the torch slip from her hand. 'Good God,' she said. She ran the light over the three faces, one after another. Sunken cheeks, empty eye-sockets, gaping mouths; they reminded her of photographs of mummies she'd once seen in National Geographic. 'Who are these people?'

'I don't know,' said Markus . . . 

Bodies are discovered in one of the excavated houses at a volcanic tourist attraction dubbed 'The Pompeii of the North'.
Markus Magnusson, who was only a teenager when the volcano erupted, falls under suspicion and hires attorney Thora Gudmundsdottir to defend him - but when his childhood sweetheart is murdered his case starts to look more difficult, and the locals seem oddly reluctant to back him up . . .

My take

This novel is #3 in the author's Thóra Gudmundsdóttir series and so I caused myself a bit of confusion because I had read the latest two. I always advise readers to tackle a series in order of publication if at all possible and in this case, things have moved on in Thora's life by the later two novels (so I had memories of events that hadn't yet happened).

The historic element of the story is based around a volcanic eruption which began on the eastern side of Heimaey in the Westman Islands on 23 January 1973 and resulted in the evacuation of the island with some houses buried by lava and others by ash. More information on Wikipedia.
Now, over three decades later, archaeologists are excavating some of the houses and Thora's client Markus Magnusson wants to retrieve a box from the basement of his parent's house. The subsequent discoveryof three long dead bodies and a box containing the head of another is totally unexpected.

Thora's investigation is made more complicated by the bizarre murder of a woman Marcus was once in love with, and complications with a rape case.

The whole story is indeed complicated and very noir, but I'm happy to report that the author gave me just enough hints so I was able to piece the chain of events together just before Thora managed to,

My rating: 4.5

I've also reviewed
4.8, SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME
5.0, THE SILENCE OF THE SEA

List from Fantastic Fiction
1. Last Rituals (2007)
2. My Soul to Take (2009)
3. Ashes to Dust (2010)
4. The Day is Dark (2011)
5. Someone to Watch Over Me (2013)
6. The Silence of the Sea (2014)

Review: THE FLATEY ENIGMA, Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson

• Format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 823 KB
• Print Length: 349 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1611090970
• Publisher: AmazonCrossing (February 21, 2012)
• Translated from Icelandic by Brian Fitzgibbon.
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005O3CL50
• Source: I bought it

Synopsis (Amazon)

Near a deserted island off the western coast of Iceland in 1960, the dawning of spring brings new life for the local wildlife. But for the body discovered by three seal hunters, winter is a matter of permanence. After it is found to be a missing Danish cryptographer, the ensuing investigation uncovers a mysterious link between the researcher and a medieval manuscript known as The Book of Flatey.

Before long another body is found on the tiny island. This time, in the ancient Viking tradition, the victim’s back has been mutilated with the so-called blood eagle. Kjartan, the district magistrate’s representative sent to investigate the crime, soon finds himself descending into a dark, dangerous world of ancient legends, symbolism, and secret societies to find a killer.

Nominated for the prestigious Glass Key award for Nordic crime fiction, The Flatey Enigma will keep you guessing until Kjartan has cracked the code.

My take

This is a novel set on two levels - the primary level the investigation into the death of a body found on a remote Icelandic island. The nearest "big" island is Flatey and it appears the body has been dead for some time. So it is not a case of real urgency for the Reijkavik Police Department and so they've assigned Kjartan, who has just started working for the district magistrate in a clerical capacity. Kjartan has to determine who the dead man is and how he died. While he does that he will stay with Grimur, the administrative officer for the district of Flatey.

The Book of Flatey is a compilation of various medieval Icelandic sagas. The second level of the story is the Flatey Enigma, a set of 40 questions that have puzzled  those studying the Book of Flatey for over 30 years. Those attempting to solve the enigma are meant to answer the questions in library on the island of Flatey using the copy of the manuscript there. They are not meant to take anything away for future reference. The 40 questions appear, with possible solutions, throughout the novel, as a conversation between two of the characters.

THE FLATEY ENIGMA is set in June 1960 and provides fascinating descriptions of Icelandic remote island life at that time.

Kjartan the investigator has a past he is trying to hide. The island doctor Johanna and her father who is dying of cancer also have hidden pasts. The island of Flatey certainly has its share of strange, even inbred people, one at least who has never left the island, and one who has dreams and sees "little people".

So this novel is crime fiction with a difference, a very Icelandic flavour. The  extracts from the sagas in the Book of Flatey are gruesome to say the least. There are connections between various characters that are unexpected, even though at least two of them come from Denmark.

THE FLATEY ENIGMA was nominated for the Glass Key given by the Crime Writers of Scandinavia in 2004. It was published in English by Amazaon crossing in 2012.

My rating: 4.5
About the author


Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson was born in Akureyri in the north of Iceland on April 12, 1955. He finished his B.Sc.degree in civil engineering from The Icelandic College of Engineering and Technology (ICET), in 1983. He has taken courses in script writing run by the Icelandic Film Producers and at the Institute for Continuing Education at the University of Iceland. In 1990 and again in 1995 Ingolfsson attended classes in Public Relations at the George Washington University in Washington DC. Ingolfsson started working for the Icelandic Road Administration during his summer vacations from school 1969, and has worked there full time since 1983. Since 1985 he has supervised the institution's publications and contributed to Public Relations.

Viktor Arnar has published six mysteries, the fifth of which, "Daybreak" in 2005, was the basis for the Icelandic TV series "Hunting Men," which premiered in 2008. His short stories have appeared in magazines and collections. His third novel, "Engin Spor" ("No Trace"), was nominated for the Glass Key prize, an award given by the Crime Writers Association of Scandinavia, in 2001, and "Flateyjargáta" ("The Flatey Enigma") was nominated for the same prize in 2004.