We are back in Akranes for book two of the Forbidden Iceland series, and Elma and Saevar have a new case, a new body, and a new mystery to clear up. The body has been found in a cave on a remote hillside and though it has been there a while, it is identified as Marianna Borsdottir, a woman who went missing some months previously.
The missing person investigation then was low key. The woman had mental health issues and a history of dropping off the radar for days at a time, even leaving her young daughter home alone on such occasions. That, and an ambiguous note scribbled on the back of an envelope, led police to favour suicide as the explanation. But now the body has turned up, and this was no suicide, it was murder.
Not exactly a cold case, then, more lukewarm, and Elma and Saevar must try to piece together Marianna’s last movements six months after the event. Who to talk to? Her daughter, Hekla, now a sulky teenager placed with foster parents? Those foster parents, Bergrun and Finnar, who first stepped in on one of Marianna’s earlier episodes and have since become a ‘support family’ for Hekla? The boyfriend, Solvi, who was scheduled to meet Marianna the day she disappeared? Work colleagues? Marianna was a bit of a loner and no-one knows anything, and progress is frustratingly slow.
As is Elma’s love life. Though she’s getting it on with the guy next door, that’s going nowhere. It’s Saevar who piques her interest, and he’s recently split up from his girlfriend - but is it wise to date a fellow officer?
It rocks along nicely. The narrative hook is whodunnit, and there are enough twists and turns, misdirection, and revelations to make it interesting to the end. Interspersed with the investigation are snippets from an un-named narrator that gives the reader insights unavailable to Elma (this seems a bit of a trademark device of Aegisdottir).
An atmospheric
Icelandic noir with a personable lead and twisty plot, what’s not to like?
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