I am thrilled to be taking part in the Orenda Books celebrations for the wonderful Icelandic writer, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir. I thoroughly enjoyed her debut, The Creak on the Stairs, and you can read my review here. I also loved the second in her Forbidden Iceland series, Girls Who Lie, and my review is here. Night Shadows will be published on July 21st. I also have a great giveaway with the chance to win a paperback copy. Details on how to enter are at the foot of this post.
The small community of Akranes is devastated when a young man dies
in a mysterious house fire, and when Detective Elma and her colleagues
from West Iceland CID discover the fire was arson, they become embroiled
in an increasingly perplexing case involving multiple suspects. What’s
more, the dead man’s final online search raises fears that they could be
investigating not one murder, but two.
A few months before the
fire, a young Dutch woman takes a job as an au pair in Iceland,
desperate to make a new life for herself after the death of her father.
But the seemingly perfect family who employs her turns out to have
problems of its own and she soon discovers she is running out of people
to turn to.
As the police begin to home in on the truth, Elma,
already struggling to come to terms with a life-changing event, finds
herself in mortal danger as it becomes clear that someone has secrets
they’ll do anything to hide…
My Thoughts
Deception seems to me to be a word which sums up this novel. On the surface, life seems pretty humdrum in this remote Icelandic place but you soon realise that under the surface, there are secrets and hidden motives. In some ways, it is the everyday nature of people's lives which makes their actions seem all the more chilling. Some act with calculation, whereas others are reacting to situations as they evolve.
This is the third in the Forbidden Iceland series which features Detective Elma and you get to find out more about her life and relationships. She is an impulsive character who ferrets out the truth to the mystery, at the same time, coming to terms with huge changes in her life. I enjoy the author's writing style as she slowly uncovers the clues, partly through flashbacks. Victoria Cribb's translation also deserves special mention as you quickly forget that you are reading in translation.
In short: domestic noir at its best
About the Author
Born in Akranes in 1988, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir studied for an MSc in
Globalisation in Norway before returning to Iceland and deciding to
write a novel – something she had wanted to do since she won a
short-story competition at the age of fifteen. After nine months
combining her writing with work as a stewardess and caring for her
children, Eva finished The Creak on the Stairs. It was published in
2018,
and became a bestseller in Iceland. It also went on to win the
Blackbird Award, a prize set up by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir and Ragnar
Jónasson to encourage new Icelandic crime writers. It was published in
English by Orenda Books in 2020. Eva lives in Reykjavík with her husband
and three children and is currently working on the third book in the
Forbidden Iceland series.
Thanks to Eva Björg Ægisdóttir, and Karen Sullivan and Anne Cater of Orenda Books for a copy of the book and a place on the tour.
Check out these brilliant bloggers!
To win a print copy of Night Shadows, just Follow and Retweet the pinned Tweet at @bookslifethings and good luck!
Closing date is July 24th 2022
and there is one winner.
*Terms and Conditions –UK only. The winner will be selected at
random via Tweetdraw from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter
and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right
to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the
competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with
third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed
to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize. I am not
responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.
If you enjoyed this post, subscribe by clicking here
.jpg)
Thanks for the blog tour support x
ReplyDelete