November, 1967, Iceland. Fourteen-year-old Marsí has a secret pen pal – a boy who lives on the other side of the country – but she has been writing to him in her older sister’s name.

Now she is excited to meet him for the first time.

But when the date arrives, Marsí is prevented from going, and during the night her sister Stína goes missing – her bloodstained anorak later found at the place where Marsí and her pen pal had agreed to meet. November, 1977. Stína’s disappearance remains unsolved. Then an unexpected letter arrives for Marsí It’s from her pen pal, and he’s still out there…

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Desperate for news of her missing sister, but terrified that he might coming after her next, Marsí returns to her hometown and embarks on an investigation of her own.

But Marsí has always had trouble distinguishing her vivid dreams from reality, and as insomnia threatens her sanity, it seems she can’t even trust her own memories. And her sister’s killer is still on the loose…

My Review

What starts off as a slow burn, picks up pace and becomes creepier and more unsettling with every chapter. It’s told from the point of view of Marsí in November 1977, and then goes back and forth to her older sister Stína up until she went missing in November 1967.

Stína appears to have vanished completely, but how is that possible? Her body has never been found, but some believe she wanted to get away enough to leave the country and never return. That makes Marsí cross as she doesn’t believe Stína would do that to her or her parents.

The parents are a bit odd. Their mother wanted to be an actress, but had to give it up when she got married and became pregnant with Stína. Their father owns an intensive chicken farm, which is horrendous, with hens pecking other hens to death. It makes me glad I don’t eat chicken. In one part, the father is feeding chicken meat to his pet chickens, and Marsí is understandably horrified. She won’t ever eat chicken.

While searching for links to her sister’s disappearance Marsí discovers that the house where her sister studied art was previously a home for unmarried mothers called Reykir. This was during the second world war. Reykir is relevant to the story, as are various other characters in the book. There are a number of twists – including one major one – and eventually it all comes together. It’s very cleverly written and I gave up trying to guess what had happened. What makes it all the more complicated is that Marsí is an unreliable narrator, unable to separate her visions and dreams from reality.

Suffice to say I really enjoyed it and look forward to more from one of my favourite authors in one of my favourite genres – Iceland Noir. I love that Iceland is a character in itself. It’s so different from anywhere I have ever been.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours

About the Author

Born in Akranes, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir studied for an MSc in Globalisation in Norway before returning to Iceland and deciding to write a novel. Her debut, The Creak on the Stairs, was published in 2018, becoming a bestseller in Iceland and going on to win the Blackbird Award and the Storytel Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year. It was published in English by Orenda Books in 2020, and became a number-one bestseller in ebook, shortlisting for Capital Crime’s Amazon Publishing Awards in two categories, and winning the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger. Girls Who Lie, Night Shadows, You Can’t See Me and Boys Who Hurt soon followed suit, shortlisting for the CWA Crime in Translation Dagger, the Capital Crime Awards, and the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel. You Can’t See Me won the Storytel Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year in Iceland in 2023. In 2024, Eva won Iceland’s prestigious Crime Fiction Award, the Blood Drop, for Home before Dark and was shortlisted for the coveted Glass Key. The Forbidden Iceland series has established Eva as one of Iceland’s bestselling and most distinguished crime writers, and her books are published in eighteen languages with more than a million copies sold.

Follow her on @evaaegisdottir

About Orenda Books

Orenda Books is a small independent publishing company specialising in literary fiction with a heavy emphasis on crime/thrillers, and approximately half the list in translation. They’ve been twice shortlisted for the Nick Robinson Best Newcomer Award at the IPG awards, and publisher and owner Karen Sullivan was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2016. In 2018, they were awarded a prestigious Creative Europe grant for their translated books programme. Three authors, including Agnes Ravatn, Matt Wesolowski and Amanda Jennings have been WHSmith Fresh Talent picks, and Ravatn’s The Bird Tribunal was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, won an English PEN Translation Award, and adapted for BBC Radio Four ’s Book at Bedtime. Six titles have been short- or long-listed for the CWA Daggers. Launched in 2014 with a mission to bring more international literature to the UK market, Orenda Books publishes a host of debuts, many of which have gone on to sell millions worldwide, and looks for fresh, exciting new voices that push the genre in new directions. Bestselling authors include Ragnar Jonasson, Antti Tuomainen, Gunnar Staalesen, Michael J. Malone, Kjell Ola Dahl, Louise Beech, Johana Gustawsson, Lilja Sigurðardóttir and Sarah Stovell.