- 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
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