Eva Björg Ægisdóttir is talked about as the new kid on the block of Icelandic thriller writers. Is she up to the task? With only one novel in her pocket, the answer is not easy. But it is an award winning one, so I took some time out of my quite busy reading&writing schedule to give it a go.
Elma
comes back to little, quiet Akranes after some years spent working with
Reykjavik police. To bring her back is a personal event that will be
explained during the course of the story. It is a pity that the explanation comes at the cost of the pact of trust between writer and
reader, but let's put this aside for one minute.
Arkanes being a little "quiet place" becomes object of discussion, though, when the sea reveals the body of an apparently unknown woman. It's only Elma's careful investigation - fortunately she is not distracted by connections in town like the chief of the local police - to dig slowly up the secrets that are somehow always nested in provincial towns. In this respect, it's really a small world, because provincial life is the same in Iceland like in (my) Italy.
The story makes a pleasant reading, and the
solution to the crime is not a simple one. The homicide might be just
one, but the tragic events of the past and the crime committed along the
way are multiple. The formula adopted of coming and going from past to
present, alternating chapters, is well performed and very congenial to
the plot.
I think that if you choose to read a thriller set in Iceland it has also something to do with the unusual setting. At least, this is one of the reasons for me. The author here gives us a chance to know something about her island. Yes, there is crime. And yes. There is traffic!
There are some imperfections in the narration, including a
very slow pace at the beginning (I mean too slow, but keep reading, it gets
definitely better), the violation of the pact I mentioned above (I understand building tension but you cannot do that through cheating your reader so ouvertly) and some threads left open at the end. These loose ends are not of the type letting you wondering after finishing the book, but of the disappointing type. Not all the
bad guys are brought to justice, for example. And this is not acceptable, given that we are talking about serious crime here (i.e., pedophilia).
But I hear that the author is working on a new book and I do hope it will be another episode of Elma's adventures, because I do intend to read on and check if she is satisfying my curiosity and thirst for justice.
Published by Orenda Books
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