Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb
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The popular Icelandic crime novelist Elín S. Jónsdóttir is missing.
Police detective Helgi Reykdal is especially intrigued to be on the case.
Readers first met Helgi in Death in the Sanitorium. He loves classic crime fiction, and was doing post-graduate work when the police recruited him. Helgi has read Jonsdottir’s work. He is intrigued by her life and determined to find out what has happened to her.
Helgi interviews Elin's friends—her publisher Rut and husband Thor, and Lovisa, a lawyer. Lovisa and Elín had gone hiking together. Later they’d met at a favorite cafe, a ritual with them. Lovisa hasn’t seen her since.
They say they are totally flummoxed by Elin's disappearance—but are they, really?
In alternating chapters, a recorded 2005 interview with Elín (by an unnamed, unseen reporter) plays out. The writer and her life are slowly revealed. Other chapters deal with Hulda, Helgi’s predecessor at the police station. In the 1970s, she investigated a bank robbery that resulted in an employee being killed. She has dropped out of sight since she left the force, and Helgi wants to find out what happened to her as well.
Meanwhile, Helgi has broken up with the alcoholic and violent (and scary) Bergthóra but she’s back on the scene, now stalking Helgi's new girlfriend, Anita.
Helgi is a somewhat passive character, yet he is growing emotionally and he is tenancious. Jónasson’s writing has a flat affect, which reflects Helgi’s personality and adds to the tension of the story. The detective’s quiet determination serves him well as he slowly uncovers the secrets of Elín's life. But he fails to confront Bergthóra, and that proves to be a tragic mistake.
I enjoyed this thriller, which kept me turning the pages without clenching my stomach. Helgi is now co-owner of a second-hand bookshop. His classic crime fiction reading list is included. Elín’s writing life, as she describes it in the interview, is absorbing. These are welcome cozy elements that enhance, rather than detract from, the evil doings in the narrative.
Though Hulda’s story eventually intertwines with Elin’s disappearance, her whereabouts are still unknown. Although I usually dislike loose ends, I assume Helgi will be continuing his investigation of Hulda in the next book. At least, I hope so. Hulda is a sympathetic and interesting character.
This, the second book in the series, ends with a shocker, as did the first one. I am already anxious to find out what really happened in the final pages. I was wrong about the first book!
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