Award-winning Icelandic author Lilja Sigurðardóttir is returning to my blog with another title that promises a lot of intrigue, local insights into Reykjavik´society and thrilling suspense. Translated by Quentin Bates, White as Snow published by Orenda Books is following detectives Áróra and Daníel as they are trying to trace a case that leads to international human trafficking and crime. The book was published in the original Icelandic in 2021 and only now brought to the broader public via translation into English. Last year, it was shortlisted for the Icelandic Crime Novel Award.
As in the case of the other books by her that I had the chance to read, White as Snow is not only a thriller/crime novel, but through the plot it deals with serious society and mentality problems, from migration to women rights.The fate of the five women discovered in a container leads to an investigation whose targets are beyond the expectations of everyone involved in the inquiry. It touches upon social and personal issues, such as the search for Áróra´s long disappeared sister.
And as the maze was not complex enough, here comes the snow, covering everything and doing what usually nature does, jeopardizing the efforts of poor helpless humans. The reference to colour white, both in the title and in the book do use the ambivalence of colour code and the different feelings and occurrences we associate with.
White As Snow is an intelligent crime novel with a topic and a pertinent outreach creating the context for a wider discussion about global society topics and human nature. An elaborated story as well, with complex characters and situations at the end of which your take on human behavior will definitely change.
Rating: 5 stars
Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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