Thriller set in the Night Shadows of Iceland by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir

Submitted: 20th July 2022

Head down to Forbidden Iceland

Thriller set in the Night Shadows of Iceland by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir – This is the third in the Forbidden Iceland series and if you havne’t picked up the series before then do so now. It’s unique and fresh, unexpected and gripping.

The small community of Akranes is devastated when a young man dies in a mysterious house fire. What’s more, the dead man’s final online search raises fears that they could be investigating not one murder, but two.

Just a few months before the fire, a young Dutch woman takes a job as an au pair in Iceland. But the seemingly perfect family who employs her turns out to have problems of its own….

Akranes is not the quiet town where nothing really happens that you might have thought it was….

BookTrail the locations in Night Shadows here

Boarding Pass Information : The Night Shadows

Destination : Akranes

Author guide: Eva Björg Ægisdóttir

Genre: Crime fiction, translated fiction

Food and drink to accompany: Something fermented.

#Bookreview

@thebooktrailer

BookTrail the locations in Night Shadows here

A novel to transport you deep inside the dark heart of a small Icelandic town

Akranes

Setting : The small town of Akranes makes the Hidden Iceland series so much more interesting that had it been set in Reykjavik. A small and unfamiliar town makes things more chilling somehow, more remote and strange. Th elack of communication between characters and the hindrances to the police investigation make Akranes a character of its own right.

Akranes (c) Pinterest

BookTrail the locations in Night Shadows here

This is a very intriguing novel. It’s a slow burn but when it builds it burns you just as much, perhaps more than a fast-paced crime novel might have done. When the fire at the start of the novel has such a bizarre and suspicious background to it, the rest of the novel has to be a maze of red herrings and twists which it was.

I like the name that Eva Björg Ægisdóttir has given her series of novels – Hidden Iceland. This is the perfect description of this novel in itself. Everything is hidden here or people are trying to hide something. Secrets are hidden just waiting to be discovered. Bodies are hidden just waiting to be dug up. The tragedy and all of the fall out is more compelling given the pace of the novel as I assume this is reflective of the pace of life in the town itself. How did someone in such a small and non-descriptive place get himself into such a situation?

BookTrail the locations in Night Shadows here

The author did someething really clever with this book I think. She guides you down one path whilst showing you the turnoff for another. She hides something but it is in plain sight. You know that thing what the police say when they read you your rights – anything you do say will be taken down and may be given in evidence – well just keep that in mind when you read this book. It has a bit of a Columbo technique to it whereby something seemingly inconsequential can turn up to be the smoking gun. Don’t worry, that’s no giveaway, just a feeling that the novel surprised me with.

BookTrail the locations in Night Shadows here

There’s an excellent sense of foreshadowing and foreboding in this novel. You’re never quite sure where it’s going to go and what the characters are going to do. Not sure they know either and all of this creates a very brilliantly confusing cloud of mist that floats from each and every page. When the smoke cleared and the ending came, I felt that feeling you get when at the theatre, the curtains close and the mist off the stage disappears into the crowd and you are left feeling bereft but also well entertained.

Despite this being a series, you don’t miss out on too much reading this as a standalone. The relationship between Elma and Sævar however is something I think you appreciate if you’d read them all. The author has crafted a good cast of characters here. Translator Victoria Cribb has used the same magical turn of phraseand vivid descriptions. As a result, the book is brilliantly accessible to more lukcy readers.