Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Cold

I Remember You: A Ghost Story by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir: Two missing boys and two vandalized classrooms.  The cases occur 50 years apart, but as a psychologist Freyr begins to piece together the events surrounding the latest disturbance, he becomes convinced that the two are related.  And he should know -- one of the missing boys is his own son.  Split between the police investigation in Ísafjörður and the terrifying happenings in an isolated, abandoned village, secrets from the past refuse to stay buried.  As both narratives reach their climax, will Freyr be able to push aside his guilt and confront the truth about his son's disappearance?  Recommended for fans of
Sigurðardóttir's Thóra Gudmundsdóttir series, as well as readers who enjoyed works by Johan Theorin and John Ajvide Lindqvist.  HM

A Cursed Land

It's always a good day when one of my favorite author's releases a new book.  The Day Is Dark is Icelandic crime writer Yrsa Sigurdardóttir's fourth book in her series following lawyer and reluctant-detective Thóra Gudmundsdóttir.  In this sequel to Ashes to Dust, Thóra finds herself searching for two vanished Icelanders in the wilds of Greenland -- and soon becomes lost herself.  HM

Buried Secrets

Ashes to Dust is the third title in Yrsa Sigurdardóttir's series following the somewhat hectic life of lawyer/reluctant crime fighter/single mother Thóra Gudmundsdóttir.  Following the excavation of a town buried under volcanic ash, Thóra must rush to solve a decades-old quadruple homicide to clear her client's name.  When the only person that could provide insight into the slayings turns up dead from apparent suicide, things get a bit more interesting.  Can Thóra juggle her private and professional lives and get to the bottom of the buried secrets in Ashes to Dust?  HM

In the Land of Mordor?

Where the Shadows Lie by Michael Ridpath is not your ordinary police procedural. When Icelandic expat and Boston detective Magnus Jonson finds his life threatened, he is whisked away into temporary witness protection via the Reykjavik Metropolitan Police. He attempts to swallow his bitter memories of his homeland as he is called to investigate the murder of a professor of Icelandic literature. What follows is a web of greed, buried history, and family secrets involving a supposedly cursed ring, a long-lost saga, and two half-crazed Lord of the Rings fans. Though I found myself having to suspend disbelief at several plot points in Ridpath's tale, it was a quick and enjoyable read that kept me guessing til (almost) the end. HM

Frozen Iceland

Frozen Assets is the first book in a new crime series set in Iceland and features Gunnhildur "Gunna" the cop. She's a tough woman in a man's world and up to her neck investigating government corruption after a body is found floating in the harbor. The book jacket says "...is a piercing look at the endemic corruption that led to the global financial crisis and bankrupted Iceland's major banks..." For the American reader, this is a novel with a great sense of place,and a heroine to admire. ML