Maybe it was the novelty wearing off, but I didn’t enjoy this book quite as much as I did the first one. I still enjoyed it, though, and got through it fairly quickly. I’m excited to read book 3!

A Good Read

Really enjoyed this. The places mentioned are real and you can look them up on Google maps for a sense of place.

Elma is a good character, and the supporting cast were equally as believable.

All in all a good second addition to this series.

Always on the lookout for new voices in Nordic Noir, I devoured the atmospheric first novel, The Creak on the Stairs by Icelandic author, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir. Girls who lie is the second instalment in the Forbidden Iceland series, featuring Chief investigating officer Elma, set in the West Iceland town of Akranes. As I’ve said before, any book that begins with a map and a list of foreign names and words with the correct pronunciation gets me slightly hooked and Ægisdóttir generously supplies both.

Girls who lie is written in two time lines with alternating chapters devoted to the development of two parallel and intersecting stories. I found myself making a number of assumptions about both stories as the book unfolded, both of which were shattered and left me a little jaw dropped at one point as the pieces of the puzzle started to come together and led to a satisfying conclusion that was neither predictable nor unexpected.

We were introduced to Chief investigating officer Elma in the first book in the series and I think I wrote that she was a welcome new addition to the collection of damaged and dark Noir detectives. Ægisdóttir reveals a little more about Elma in this book including the reasons contributing to the sadness that underpins her departure from Reykjavík and return to her childhood home of Akranes. There are a couple of seemingly predictable and cliche elements in the development of her character, including the chemistry that appears inevitable between her and fellow investigator Sævar. There are definitely echoes of fellow Icelandic Noir author, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir’s Huldar and Freya Children’s House series as far as that element goes.

Overall this was a satisfying read and Ægisdóttir definitely sits on my ‘to continue to read’ shelf. I found the translation a little linear and stilted for my liking and would have liked a little more atmosphere and mood to infiltrate the pages to envelop me in the Icelandic landscape that I love so much. 4 star read.

I did not see that ending coming. Nice piece of misdirection, excellent characterisation.

Dark and disturbing but exceedingly good. I must admit, the first part of this book was a bit of a slow burner for me and I did wonder if I was actually enjoying it. The backdrop of Iceland was strangely captivating, however, even if I was a little gutted I had no clue how to pronounce all of the beautiful looking names. The information is, in fact, slowly developing around you, almost without you noticing like some strangely creeping plant then suddenly you start to realise how convoluted and ingenious the story is. The tension and revelations then really start to mount to a brilliant crescendo and I honestly couldn’t put the book down until I’d squeezed out every last secret that had been so cleverly concealed. I’d definitely recommend this one, very satisfying.