Safe Return Doubtful

translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb

I last read Sigurdardottir more than 4 years ago. I have read six of her books, and enjoyed most of them, particularly the ones with an element of the supernatural, I Remember You and The Silence of the Sea, most notably. I stopped because I felt they were becoming too much like police procedurals, but have returned to her thanks to a couple of prompts for this book from online friends at TLS at the Guardian. And indeed, it was every bit as tense and enjoyable as her best work.

Initially set in a remote fishing village on the south coast of Iceland, three separate events lead to the same area. Jóhanna is part of a search and rescue mission that’s been instigated for two missing couples from Reykjavik. Hjövar has recently started working at Stokksnes radar station and experiences some unsettling incidents, and a mystery into a younger sibling after the death of their parents prompts research into the past for two brothers.
The narrative then moves to the frozen winter tundra inland more typical of Sigurdardottir’s stories – a prefect backdrop for her to work her wonders.

What she does so well as to blend the hint of the supernatural into the crime story so that it is quite plausible. The tension she generates is as a result of the characters, which have been well skteched, and that she resists the temptation to get carried away; she could perfectly well write horror, but is best when in that murky territory between the two genres.

My GoodReads score 4 / 5