Some crime stories may not leave you alone, coming back over and over again. The characters penned by the authors and their unended stories stay with you, in between the time the authors are ready to release new books.
For me, it happens with bestseller Icelandic crime author Lilja Sigurdardóttir whose series built around financial private investigator Áróra are always bringing some new elements into the saga, but also deep insights into the underworld of crime that in the end may bring the missing pieces she and her boyfriend Daniel were looking for.
I was waiting for her latest, Black as Death, translated by Lorenza Garcia and published by Orenda Books for enough time to get impatient enough to read it in one long seating. As usual, there is more than a story to the plot, which in the end will lead in an unknown direction that does not promise a clear final ending.
In the previous books from the series, Áróra tried to find out the truth about the sudden disparition of her estranged sister Ísafold, but now, once her body found, there is the main suspect in the crime, the boyfriend, who is found dead. At the same time, she is getting involved in an investigation of money laundering that may just lead to a very dangerous end. Sigurdardóttir is also a screenwriter and those fine skills are very well put at work in this book.
The plot is diverted from one crime to another, and as a reader I asked myself several times if there is any connection between the two. Skillfully, the author is taking us in another investigation only to show us how all those missing pieces of the puzzle are getting together. But for this, we need to trust the plot and allow ourselves to be surprised. Although, in terms of crime stories, the surprises do have a completely different meaning.
As the title suggests, the predominant colour of this book is black, with a dark ambiance surrounding the circumstances and the mood of the story. I think it has to do with the overwhelming darkness of the encounters with evil, a topic this book is an eye opener as well.
Black as Death was originally published in Icelandic in 2023 and it is the last in the series built around the couple Áróra-Daniel. I cannot wait to see what Lilja Sigurdardóttir will write next.
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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