Random Things Tours: Night Shadows by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir translated by Victoria Cribbs

 

Night Shadows by Icelandic author Eva Björg Ægisdóttir, translated into English by Victoria Cribbs, is an intricate tale built up with the highest finesse and attention to the smallest plot detail. 

Iceland detective Elma is requested to investigate the death of a young man during an unexpected fire accident in Akranes. But the more she and her team are digging deep into the incident, the more surprising the details discovered. Such as the fact that the fire was not an accident but an arson act, and it seems that there is more than one corpse. Meanwhile, Elma herself is dealing with her own personal issues and the terrible secrets she is discovering while investigating this case put her in moral danger.

This is just a short outline of the plot, which leaves over 70% of the rest of the story to be discovered by the reader him/herself.

I love thrillers because it allows me to get involved in searching for a solution myself, obviously based by the details revealed be the author. Sometimes I do guess the ending, sometimes part of it. In the case of Night Shadows, I was completely at lost. As mere details were revealed - at wisely calculate times and moments - , the whole prediction was proved fully wrong in just a delicate twirl of a new twist. It´s annoying, indeed, especially for someone so highly competitive as me, but it´s the good kind of annoyance, that happens when you deal with some intellectually changing person or, in this particular case, story.

With Night Shadows, one of my favorite thriller and mystery edition houses, Orenda Books (here you can find more reviews of their titles) rewards the mystery and crime reader with just another extraordinary suspenseful read. My particular pleasure of reading this book was to have been given the chance to read about some details about Icelandic pronunciation. Thus, the reader is more than immersed into the story, but equally introduced to a culture and its language.

Eva Björg Ægisdóttir herself is born in the city where the action of the book takes place, in Akranes, a port city in the Western part of the country. Night Shadows is part of the trilogy Forbidden Iceland, featuring Elma as the main investigative character. The book can be easily read without being familiar with the others, but it opens the appetite for further readings. Eva Björg Ægisdóttir is the winner of the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger for The Creak on the Stairs. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the blog tour, but the opinions are, as usual, my own