This was the third of a trio passed on to me by a friend during a visit in 2023. This series features the detective Huldar and the child social worker Freyja, brought together to investigate and get caught up in various horrific crime sprees in Reykjavik. There is the de rigueur romantic tension between the leads that both enables and interferes with the investigations, as well as a collection of side characters that are intriguing and supportive of the main characters. The murders are complex and graphic, with sufficient plausible red herrings throughout the cases to keep you guessing.
This third book in the series involves some complicated use of social media (SnapChat), and focuses on the impacts and consequences of extreme bullying in grade and high school. While overall the story was very good, the writing in this book was less good than the previous ones. There are some relevant threads from the previous book that require reminding as context for some of the police office politics, but these are repeated so many times that they get boring – even the characters would not be thinking about them as often as the author reminds us of them. That point aside, the book was another page turner and quick read.
I’d read more of these if I came across them.
Fate: all three books have made their way to the little book library down the street (I was kind and put all three in the same one, so that hopefully the next reader can start at the beginning).
1 – a book with a murder
8 – a female author
11 – referral from fellow book-clubber
13 – set somewhere I’ve never been
21 – translated from another language
36 – part of a series
rclr 