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Ice and Crime #1
The Fox
Hoping to put behind him tragedy in his professional life and to resolve the turmoil in his personal life, Reykjavík police officer Guðgeir Fransson has moved as far away from home as he can, marking time in a dead-end job in a small town in eastern Iceland.
His detective’s instincts are triggered when he hears about a foreign woman who arrived in this tight-knit community – and then disappeared as suddenly as she had appeared. The trail of the missing woman takes him back to Reykjavík, and then to a remote farmhouse beneath dark mountains where an elderly woman and her son live with their sinister past.
His detective’s instincts are triggered when he hears about a foreign woman who arrived in this tight-knit community – and then disappeared as suddenly as she had appeared. The trail of the missing woman takes him back to Reykjavík, and then to a remote farmhouse beneath dark mountains where an elderly woman and her son live with their sinister past.
206 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 93 reviews
September 27, 2020
Booktrail it to the literary locations in THE FOX
The Fox set in Iceland? This sounded good from the start and it was. Quite a short novel but it packs a punch. Setting, interesting characters, intrigue, a remote farm, dubious men…this has it all. The Fox takes us to a very interesting town in Iceland – small and coastal at the south of the country, this is as remote as it can get.
So, imagine you’re from Sri Lanka, can speak a little of the language when you are offered a job in a beauty salon and then move to a new town where you know no-one. Previously living in shared accommodation and working as a cleaner in Reykjavik Sajee feels this is a new start. Nervous she gets on the plane and oh my god that turbulence! (you might want to skip this bit if you’re due to fly). When she lands at the small, icy airport, there’s no one to meet her. I really felt for her at this point as you just know things are going to get worse.
Much of the story is told by Sajee but the other thread is taken up by Guðgeir. You really want him to find her as you know what she is going through. I wanted to ring him up and tell him where she was, I was that involved in her fate. Sajee was an endearing character who brought with her tales and superstitions of her homeland. She has a buddha which she places in her dirty room and it’s the little details like that which really make her distress and situation all the more human.
It’s not a spoiler to say that a lot of this story takes place at a remote farm, at the foot of the mountains, at the far side of a lagoon…sounds nice but there’s never anyone around… The setting here was very powerfully evoked. Vividly chilling!
If you do go to Iceland and get lost however, you’d want someone like Guðgeir to look for you. He’s not giving up any time soon! I wonder if we will find out more about his past in future books as I bet that is full of things which could fill several books. I found his search for her extremely compelling to follow and his compassion a light in a dark novel.
The title becomes very meaningful at the end and it left me thinking about this for ages afterwards. This is a small novel with a big bite. Like the fox in the title, it lingers, traps the reader, stops still for a moment and leaves you waiting to see what it will do next.
Incidentally, that cover is one of the best I’ve seen in a long time!
October 3, 2020
Sólveig Pálsdóttir began her writing career only a few years ago and this is her first novel to be translated into English. The Fox is the fourth installment in the Guðgeir Fransson series, though the previous three have not been translated yet. It is rumored that Corylus Books, a new publishing house that aspires to translate some of the most unique works of contemporary European crime fiction into English, has plans to translate the rest of the series in due course. The translator of this novel is Quentin Bates, known for his Officer Gunnhildur series that is also set in Iceland, and he does a magnificent job in adapting the original text to simple, easy-to-read English without spoiling the author's prose. Pálsdóttir's background studies in literature have certainly played a major role in shaping her compelling writing style that succeeds in conveying the mood and atmosphere of this bleak story to the reader. She has an eye for the detail and the splendid descriptive parts of the book add to the overall foreboding aura that The Fox exudes. The setting is Höfn, a small fishing town in the southeastern part of the country, with a population of around fifteen hundred people. The closed-knit community is the perfect backdrop for the claustrophobic story to unfold and the main characters often feel like they are trapped in the confines of Höfn, unable to break free from the surprising limits of their environment. The reader can feel the harshness of the surroundings and empathize with the protagonists. The titular Fox refers to an animal featured in the novel that is muzzled and tethered to a length of chain, thus acting as a symbolism for the protagonists' mental state.
To read my full review, visit https://tapthelinemag.com/post/the-fox
To read my full review, visit https://tapthelinemag.com/post/the-fox
December 17, 2020
As the nights draw in and our thoughts turn towards the Icelandic tradition of Jólabókaflóð, wrapping up cosily and reading on the cold, winter nights, The Fox by Sólveig Pálsdóttir, fits the bill perfectly. With a slow, creeping feeling of unease in its sinister central plot, and all the atmosphere and otherworldly elements of a traditional Scandinavian folktale, Pálsdóttir, with a perfectly rendered translation from fellow author Quentin Bates, proves to be a striking new voice in Icelandic fiction…
Similarly to Ragnar Jonasson’s Dark Iceland series whose central character ups sticks from Reykjavík to a more remote community, so Pálsdóttir’s main character Guðgeir Fransson, on suspension from the police force has retreated to the small town of Hofn, where he lives a solitary existence. Estranged from his family and eking out a living as a security guard, his days are defined by personal and professional anxiety, as the reasons for his exile remain shrouded in mystery for the greater portion of the book. Cleverly this not only paves the way for more reveals at a later point, but also toys with the reader’s empathy, as on the surface we see a man adrift, possibly culpable or guilty of a former police colleague’s fate, whose personal life is fraught with uncertainty, but who also appears to be a decent man, with a strong moral core.
I instantly took to him, with his gruff, unpolished character, and his tenacity and determination to solve this perplexing mystery, through the cloud of disillusionment that hangs over him. I thought the scenes with his estranged wife Inga were very powerful indeed, with this awful stilted communication, filled with gaps in their dialogue that spoke more than their words in between, and it was a perfect portrayal of the recrimination and festering tensions that can break the marital bond. It’s no mean feat to invent a character such as Fransson, robust enough to hang an entire series on, if this is Pálsdóttir’s intention, but this proves to be a strong start, with plenty of scope for his character and back story to be further developed.
Regular readers of this genre, will full appreciate the strange ethereal atmosphere that permeates this book throughout, and adds a frisson of the supernatural to the story. The book is primarily focussed on the fate of Sajee, a Sri Lankan woman lured to this community with the offer of a job, but whose fate becomes the stuff of rumour and supposition with her instant disappearance. Obviously, there is a particularly unsettling and disturbing reason for her vanishing act, which suffice to say, I will not elaborate on here to avoid spoilers. Take it from this reviewer though, it’s good and dark and creepy, with some particularly unpleasant individuals involved. There is a slow, solid pace to the book, so reminiscent of the Scandinavian genre generally, that keeps the reader on a constant state of high alert, waiting for the reveal, the unexpected jump, the scary moment. Although I did find the reasons for her disappearance and subsequent treatment a little muddied at times, I did appreciate the consistent air of tension that Pálsdóttir evokes throughout the book, which perfectly mirrors the foreboding landscape and mercurial weather that forms a sold backdrop to the story. The weaving in and out of the story of elements of Icelandic folklore, working in concert with the own supernatural beliefs of Sajee’s Sri Lankan culture is a particular highpoint in the story too, and the symmetry and similarities between the two paths of belief in the folkloric and the ethereal is very well depicted and combined.
Consequently, The Fox was very enjoyable, so redolent of this unique voice of the Scandinavian crime genre, containing all the recognisable elements that so endears crime readers to these books, and with an understated and polished translation by Quentin Bates. Packed full of atmosphere with a pervading feeling of threat and ominous intent, Pálsdóttir has created a strong central character in Guðgeir Fransson, which bodes well for further additions to the series, and by insinuating episodes of the supernatural to the main plot, gave the book some intriguing little layers of darkness and strangeness to the whole affair. A sometimes bleak, but ultimately life affirming read, and an author to watch…
Similarly to Ragnar Jonasson’s Dark Iceland series whose central character ups sticks from Reykjavík to a more remote community, so Pálsdóttir’s main character Guðgeir Fransson, on suspension from the police force has retreated to the small town of Hofn, where he lives a solitary existence. Estranged from his family and eking out a living as a security guard, his days are defined by personal and professional anxiety, as the reasons for his exile remain shrouded in mystery for the greater portion of the book. Cleverly this not only paves the way for more reveals at a later point, but also toys with the reader’s empathy, as on the surface we see a man adrift, possibly culpable or guilty of a former police colleague’s fate, whose personal life is fraught with uncertainty, but who also appears to be a decent man, with a strong moral core.
I instantly took to him, with his gruff, unpolished character, and his tenacity and determination to solve this perplexing mystery, through the cloud of disillusionment that hangs over him. I thought the scenes with his estranged wife Inga were very powerful indeed, with this awful stilted communication, filled with gaps in their dialogue that spoke more than their words in between, and it was a perfect portrayal of the recrimination and festering tensions that can break the marital bond. It’s no mean feat to invent a character such as Fransson, robust enough to hang an entire series on, if this is Pálsdóttir’s intention, but this proves to be a strong start, with plenty of scope for his character and back story to be further developed.
Regular readers of this genre, will full appreciate the strange ethereal atmosphere that permeates this book throughout, and adds a frisson of the supernatural to the story. The book is primarily focussed on the fate of Sajee, a Sri Lankan woman lured to this community with the offer of a job, but whose fate becomes the stuff of rumour and supposition with her instant disappearance. Obviously, there is a particularly unsettling and disturbing reason for her vanishing act, which suffice to say, I will not elaborate on here to avoid spoilers. Take it from this reviewer though, it’s good and dark and creepy, with some particularly unpleasant individuals involved. There is a slow, solid pace to the book, so reminiscent of the Scandinavian genre generally, that keeps the reader on a constant state of high alert, waiting for the reveal, the unexpected jump, the scary moment. Although I did find the reasons for her disappearance and subsequent treatment a little muddied at times, I did appreciate the consistent air of tension that Pálsdóttir evokes throughout the book, which perfectly mirrors the foreboding landscape and mercurial weather that forms a sold backdrop to the story. The weaving in and out of the story of elements of Icelandic folklore, working in concert with the own supernatural beliefs of Sajee’s Sri Lankan culture is a particular highpoint in the story too, and the symmetry and similarities between the two paths of belief in the folkloric and the ethereal is very well depicted and combined.
Consequently, The Fox was very enjoyable, so redolent of this unique voice of the Scandinavian crime genre, containing all the recognisable elements that so endears crime readers to these books, and with an understated and polished translation by Quentin Bates. Packed full of atmosphere with a pervading feeling of threat and ominous intent, Pálsdóttir has created a strong central character in Guðgeir Fransson, which bodes well for further additions to the series, and by insinuating episodes of the supernatural to the main plot, gave the book some intriguing little layers of darkness and strangeness to the whole affair. A sometimes bleak, but ultimately life affirming read, and an author to watch…
April 22, 2022
Nordic mysteries are a lot more about the environment than the story. This book holds good - set in Iceland's remote village where a suspended policeman is sucked into a search for a missing woman. Parallely we see the woman's plight - Sajee - a Sri Lankan who has been duped into coming to Iceland with a fake job offer and finding herself as a caretaker in an odd family.
What the book does really well is keep the suspense alive and the plot hidden for the majority of the book. What could have been better is the plausibility of a complex plot. Evidently this is a 4th book in a series which was the first to be translated - so the entire backstory of the cop is non-relatable.
It's a quick drama. The symbolism of the fox becomes evident only in the last chapter and the characters are eerie and scary. The plight of Sajee makes you perplexed and there are some chapters that are tough to take.
A promising author.
What the book does really well is keep the suspense alive and the plot hidden for the majority of the book. What could have been better is the plausibility of a complex plot. Evidently this is a 4th book in a series which was the first to be translated - so the entire backstory of the cop is non-relatable.
It's a quick drama. The symbolism of the fox becomes evident only in the last chapter and the characters are eerie and scary. The plight of Sajee makes you perplexed and there are some chapters that are tough to take.
A promising author.
November 30, 2020
I have a real fondness for Icelandic crime, following on from my love affair with the books written by Ragnar Jonasson, so if you also adore his Hidden or Dark Iceland series then The Fox by Solveig Palsdottir is a book that should be on your radar. Iceland delivers the perfect setting for this very sad but gripping tale of a missing woman and those who won’t rest until they have sought her out.
Police officer Fransson has moved away from home for personal reasons although he is hoping to return at some point once he has sorted out the domestic issues that caused his departure. Whilst working as a security officer in a small town in the south east of Iceland, he hears tell of a young Asian woman who he fears has been trafficked due to her unexplained disappearance…
I loved how seamlessly this book has been translated by Quentin Bates so that you forget it isn’t in it’s original form and quickly become part of the small town Icelandic community. The contrasts between the cultural differences that were faced by Sajee were well developed and to read how she interacted with those she came into contact with kept me intrigued and very, VERY nervous for her!! But there was a wonderful cast of characters here and I loved uncovering the secrets of their pasts and how they reacted now in the present. Sajee was a wonderfully sweet young woman who’s naivety came across as quite heartwarming even though we can see how vulnerable it makes her.
This was a compelling read that became unputdownable with its easy to read style and compulsive storyline. I became completely immersed in its pages from the very beginning and loved how gripped it kept me throughout. I can’t wait to read more by this author! Thanks must go to Corylus Books for introducing me to The Fox and for my invitation onto the blog tour.
December 7, 2023
This is an excellent novel. It took quite a while for me to get into but it was then very well paced and in places quite uncomfortable. The writing is very good - with an understated presentation of character so that it takes a while to get to know them and their stories which I like. I will definitely continue with the series.
August 24, 2024
While "The Fox" tries to weave a tale around the protagonist's personal and professional turmoil, the execution doesn't quite live up to the promise. The story feels fragmented, with repeated digressions into the protagonist's woes that don't always drive the narrative forward. Instead of a cohesive narrative, the themes get lost in endless introspection and repetitive contemplation.
The characters in "The Fox" are where the book particularly falters. The protagonist's struggles are portrayed with a lot of emotional weight, but a lack of clarity and depth mars the character's journey. Side characters come across as either underdeveloped or exaggerated to the point of absurdity. The emotional responses, especially the anger exhibited by some characters, felt unrealistic and overblown.
Pálsdóttir's writing doesn't translate seamlessly. The prose often reads awkwardly, with stilted phrases and repetitive elements that disrupt the flow of the narrative. The pacing is another issue; the story feels uneven, with a lot of focus on minute details that don't seem to advance the plot. The symbolic fox, which might have served as a powerful metaphor, remains obscure and ungraspable by the end.
Reading "The Fox" was a bit of a slog. I found myself wishing for the story to pick up pace and deliver something more substantial. The rushed ending didn't provide the resolution I was hoping for, leaving me feeling more puzzled than satisfied.
⭐ ⭐
The characters in "The Fox" are where the book particularly falters. The protagonist's struggles are portrayed with a lot of emotional weight, but a lack of clarity and depth mars the character's journey. Side characters come across as either underdeveloped or exaggerated to the point of absurdity. The emotional responses, especially the anger exhibited by some characters, felt unrealistic and overblown.
Pálsdóttir's writing doesn't translate seamlessly. The prose often reads awkwardly, with stilted phrases and repetitive elements that disrupt the flow of the narrative. The pacing is another issue; the story feels uneven, with a lot of focus on minute details that don't seem to advance the plot. The symbolic fox, which might have served as a powerful metaphor, remains obscure and ungraspable by the end.
Reading "The Fox" was a bit of a slog. I found myself wishing for the story to pick up pace and deliver something more substantial. The rushed ending didn't provide the resolution I was hoping for, leaving me feeling more puzzled than satisfied.
⭐ ⭐
February 25, 2024
Audiobook from the library 🎧
3.5/5, rounded down to 3 ⭐
🌸 A Read the World pick for Iceland, I enjoyed this novel and am glad I picked it up. I'd recommend as a quick thriller.
➕ The setting was really well done - the rural setting fitted the thrilled genre so well and added so much to the story.
➕ Multiple POVs are always a hit for me, and I enjoyed this one a lot. It's interesting to see the two sides of the story develop independently of one another, and eventually see how they intersect.
➕ The main characters were likeable and realistic, and I enjoyed their development.
➖ On the other hand, the side characters were undefined at best and ridiculous at worst. In particular, the anger of some characters was beyond realistic for me.
➖ I didn't understand the symbolism of the fox, even at the end.
➖ Apparently this isn't the first in the series, just the first translated to English, and you could tell: parts of the story are quite confusing. I now understand that this is because there's a backstory I was missing.
➖ The main mystery is never explained - why was the protagonist kidnapped and held against her will? Unless I missed that explanation, it was a bit of a plot hole for me.
➖ The ending felt very rushed, with nothing really explored or explained (see above).
3.5/5, rounded down to 3 ⭐
🌸 A Read the World pick for Iceland, I enjoyed this novel and am glad I picked it up. I'd recommend as a quick thriller.
➕ The setting was really well done - the rural setting fitted the thrilled genre so well and added so much to the story.
➕ Multiple POVs are always a hit for me, and I enjoyed this one a lot. It's interesting to see the two sides of the story develop independently of one another, and eventually see how they intersect.
➕ The main characters were likeable and realistic, and I enjoyed their development.
➖ On the other hand, the side characters were undefined at best and ridiculous at worst. In particular, the anger of some characters was beyond realistic for me.
➖ I didn't understand the symbolism of the fox, even at the end.
➖ Apparently this isn't the first in the series, just the first translated to English, and you could tell: parts of the story are quite confusing. I now understand that this is because there's a backstory I was missing.
➖ The main mystery is never explained - why was the protagonist kidnapped and held against her will? Unless I missed that explanation, it was a bit of a plot hole for me.
➖ The ending felt very rushed, with nothing really explored or explained (see above).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 2, 2020
Sólveig Pálsdóttir has written a fascinating novel about a immigrant woman from Sri Lanka who now is in Iceland. Sajee followed her aunt to Iceland but followed what two Chinesse immigrants said about working at beauty salon in another city as one of their friends was sick and had to quit. They helped her get an airplane ticket and she was off to Höfn to her job. It was a trick to get her room. Thormóđur was on the airplane and helped her read what was on her phone which the Chinesse women put on it for her. She sat at the airport waiting to be picked up but Sveinn who worked there ends up taking her to Thormóđur's hotel. Guđgeir, who was from the police, and working as a contract security guard for a year was told by Sveinn about the woman and wondered what had happened to her. That as far as I'll go with her story if you're interested you'll have to read it for yourself. I will say that it's not noir, so that's almost giving it away and Sólveig has an extremely gifted tale to explain what happens. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.
March 25, 2023
This is the first of a series translated into English, but turns out it’s actually the fourth book in the series. I would have liked to read them in order as to understand what really happened in our main guy’s (personal) life, which was mentioned quite often
It didn’t matter though to follow the actual plot. It reminded me a lot of ragnar’s books, short chapters, interesting Icelandic characters and a good description of a small isolated Icelandic village. Albeit maybe a bit more simplistic. 3.5 stars
It didn’t matter though to follow the actual plot. It reminded me a lot of ragnar’s books, short chapters, interesting Icelandic characters and a good description of a small isolated Icelandic village. Albeit maybe a bit more simplistic. 3.5 stars
December 29, 2020
I'm grateful to the publisher for an advance copy of The Fox to consider for review and for inviting me to take part in the book's blogtour. This is the first tour I've done with them - and I hope the first of many! Corylus is a newly launched publishing house, a brave step to take in 2020 of all years, and I wish them all good things.
The Fox introduces us to Guðgeir Fransson, a detective with the Reykjavík police who's under some sort of cloud, has been suspended and is waiting for a decision on the future of his career (and also, his marriage). Pálsdóttir only gives us hints of what happened professionally (a colleague and friend died, Guðgeir apparently made a mistake of some sort) and personally (there was an affair, he's estranged from his wife and has decamped to the backwater town of Höfn where he has taken a job as a security guard: the physical distance between him and Inga only seems to a be a barrier to resolving their problems). Guðgeir seems ambivalent about what he wants on either count.
While we shall, I hope, learn more about all this in future books, for now it's mainly background - but it does mean that Guðgeir is restless, poised between two futures and a past: unable to communicate with Inga, unable to commit to a new life and ripe for distraction. He's also a bit of an outsider in Höfn, with no inclination to take things at face value - and so inclined to take notice, when nobody else does, of a mystery on his doorstep.
A young woman, Sajee, originally from Sri Lanka, has been in the area but seems to have disappeared. The circumstances are, however, confused - Sajee arrived by plane from Reykjavík in the midst of a storm but has no connections in Höfn. She was heading for a job that doesn't exist. There is nobody to miss her. Everyone assumes she made her way... somewhere... but it's nobody's business to care whether she did or not.
Guðgeir has no standing to investigate, and he has to fit his enquiries around his job. He is also hoping to make an Easter visit home. Nevertheless, he takes an interest.
Pálsdóttir fully exploits the ambiguity of having part of the story follow Guðgeir and part Sajee, but being vague as to whether these strands are simultaneous and indeed, whether everything is being narrated in the order it happens. It would be spoilery to cast too much light on this - but I will say that we do, for much of the story, sort of know what has happened to Sajee, though not, quite, how things end up for her and therefore just how bad it will get. Pálsdóttir introduces a strange, reclusive mother and son - seen from Sagee's point of view - with a rather sinister backstory. It's clear early on that something is a bit off with them, but exactly what is masked by Sajee's unfamiliarity with Icelandic, culture and by tales of a "Hidden People" dwelling in the cliffs and caves.
We see Sajee try to integrate these stories with both her own culture and the limited amount she knows about Iceland. As a stranger, she's genuinely unsure how much credence to give what she's being told, and so are we. This device - not so much an unreliable narrator as a misinformed one, perhaps - gives the story a real sense of unease and menace, a vacuum in which anything is possible and in which we might anticipate all kinds of bad outcomes. That pressure is kept up to the very end of the book.
This is a story I sat up with well after midnight, I simply had to know what happened and how things would turn out. It is an impressive debut for Sólveig Pálsdóttir and, as ever, Quentin Bates' translation is lucid, unobtrusive and very readable - without over Anglicising concepts and language.
I will look forward to reading more about Guðgeir Fransson and his circle, assuming that mysterious enquiry absolves him for whatever happened - we will have to wait and see about that!
The Fox introduces us to Guðgeir Fransson, a detective with the Reykjavík police who's under some sort of cloud, has been suspended and is waiting for a decision on the future of his career (and also, his marriage). Pálsdóttir only gives us hints of what happened professionally (a colleague and friend died, Guðgeir apparently made a mistake of some sort) and personally (there was an affair, he's estranged from his wife and has decamped to the backwater town of Höfn where he has taken a job as a security guard: the physical distance between him and Inga only seems to a be a barrier to resolving their problems). Guðgeir seems ambivalent about what he wants on either count.
While we shall, I hope, learn more about all this in future books, for now it's mainly background - but it does mean that Guðgeir is restless, poised between two futures and a past: unable to communicate with Inga, unable to commit to a new life and ripe for distraction. He's also a bit of an outsider in Höfn, with no inclination to take things at face value - and so inclined to take notice, when nobody else does, of a mystery on his doorstep.
A young woman, Sajee, originally from Sri Lanka, has been in the area but seems to have disappeared. The circumstances are, however, confused - Sajee arrived by plane from Reykjavík in the midst of a storm but has no connections in Höfn. She was heading for a job that doesn't exist. There is nobody to miss her. Everyone assumes she made her way... somewhere... but it's nobody's business to care whether she did or not.
Guðgeir has no standing to investigate, and he has to fit his enquiries around his job. He is also hoping to make an Easter visit home. Nevertheless, he takes an interest.
Pálsdóttir fully exploits the ambiguity of having part of the story follow Guðgeir and part Sajee, but being vague as to whether these strands are simultaneous and indeed, whether everything is being narrated in the order it happens. It would be spoilery to cast too much light on this - but I will say that we do, for much of the story, sort of know what has happened to Sajee, though not, quite, how things end up for her and therefore just how bad it will get. Pálsdóttir introduces a strange, reclusive mother and son - seen from Sagee's point of view - with a rather sinister backstory. It's clear early on that something is a bit off with them, but exactly what is masked by Sajee's unfamiliarity with Icelandic, culture and by tales of a "Hidden People" dwelling in the cliffs and caves.
We see Sajee try to integrate these stories with both her own culture and the limited amount she knows about Iceland. As a stranger, she's genuinely unsure how much credence to give what she's being told, and so are we. This device - not so much an unreliable narrator as a misinformed one, perhaps - gives the story a real sense of unease and menace, a vacuum in which anything is possible and in which we might anticipate all kinds of bad outcomes. That pressure is kept up to the very end of the book.
This is a story I sat up with well after midnight, I simply had to know what happened and how things would turn out. It is an impressive debut for Sólveig Pálsdóttir and, as ever, Quentin Bates' translation is lucid, unobtrusive and very readable - without over Anglicising concepts and language.
I will look forward to reading more about Guðgeir Fransson and his circle, assuming that mysterious enquiry absolves him for whatever happened - we will have to wait and see about that!
September 15, 2020
I've really come to like reading Icelandic crime fiction over the past few years. The love affair started with the isolated mystery of the Dark Iceland series by Ragnar Jonasson, turned a little darker with the devilishly twisted investigations of the Children's House series by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and turned to a touch of the (not quite Joe) exotic with Lilja Sigurdardottir's Reykjavik Noir series, with a little bit of Corylus Books' own Quentin Bates Gunnhildur series along the way. So when I heard that Corylus were going to release Sólveig Pálsdóttir's The Fox, it was a bit of a no brainer when I was asked if I'd like to review it.
There is a kind of essence of the Dark iceland series about this book when you first start reading, albeit with a little twist. Rather than a young Police Officer heading to a remote Iceland town to begin his career, in The Fox we find Police Detective Guðgeir Fransson hiding away in the east of the island to escape the mess his career, and his family life, has become. Now we don't find out the full details of exactly what happened to force Guðgeir into exile but we learn enough. That's okay though as that really isn't the point if the story, although it does put out protagonist in just the right place to solve a mystery. And what a mystery this is.
Sajee, a young woman from Sri Lanka moves to the east for what she believes is a guaranteed job, only to find things aren't as clear as she thought they would be. She disappears almost as quickly as she arrives ... at least that is how it appears to Guðgeir when his landlord, one of the last and only people to see Sajee, mentions her in passing. Once a Detective, always a Detective and with his interest piqued, Guðgeirsets about tracking the mystery woman, a quest that leads him, and us through the course of the book.
The story is primarily told from two points of view, those of Guðgeir and Sajee. Whilst the good folk of Höfn maybe none the wiser as to Sajee's fate, as readers we are right there with her as she unwittingly finds herself in great danger. Sajee is an interesting character, driven by a desire to be more than just a cleaner and guided by the superstitions and traditions of her home land. I couldn't help but feel for her and the way in which her isolation and distress is portrayed is quite effective. Nothing too dramatic or upsetting, but enough for you to root for her to be saved. Guðgeir is another character I grew to like very quickly. He is flawed, has made mistakes, and there is a tragedy in his professional life which clearly haunts him, but his determination to help a woman he has never met is very endearing and his natural instincts for a story written in a very believable way.
The way in which the country itself is presented is very cinematic with a real feel for the various landscapes and the isolation, particularly in the remote farmhouse that Sajee ends up securing a job at. If there is one thing that Iceland seems to do well, it is remote settings and that contradictory feeling of the farmhouse being all at once both dramatically vast and overwhelmingly claustrophobic really plays through in the narrative. Add in the undercurrent of unease that suffuses the novel and you are left with a book that is completely engrossing.
A really intriguing book which I thoroughly enjoyed and I'm looking forward to hearing more from the author. Another brilliant translation from Quentin Bates too that really captured the remote feel of the novel. And if you want to know why it is called The Fox? Well you're just going to have to read it, aren't you?
There is a kind of essence of the Dark iceland series about this book when you first start reading, albeit with a little twist. Rather than a young Police Officer heading to a remote Iceland town to begin his career, in The Fox we find Police Detective Guðgeir Fransson hiding away in the east of the island to escape the mess his career, and his family life, has become. Now we don't find out the full details of exactly what happened to force Guðgeir into exile but we learn enough. That's okay though as that really isn't the point if the story, although it does put out protagonist in just the right place to solve a mystery. And what a mystery this is.
Sajee, a young woman from Sri Lanka moves to the east for what she believes is a guaranteed job, only to find things aren't as clear as she thought they would be. She disappears almost as quickly as she arrives ... at least that is how it appears to Guðgeir when his landlord, one of the last and only people to see Sajee, mentions her in passing. Once a Detective, always a Detective and with his interest piqued, Guðgeirsets about tracking the mystery woman, a quest that leads him, and us through the course of the book.
The story is primarily told from two points of view, those of Guðgeir and Sajee. Whilst the good folk of Höfn maybe none the wiser as to Sajee's fate, as readers we are right there with her as she unwittingly finds herself in great danger. Sajee is an interesting character, driven by a desire to be more than just a cleaner and guided by the superstitions and traditions of her home land. I couldn't help but feel for her and the way in which her isolation and distress is portrayed is quite effective. Nothing too dramatic or upsetting, but enough for you to root for her to be saved. Guðgeir is another character I grew to like very quickly. He is flawed, has made mistakes, and there is a tragedy in his professional life which clearly haunts him, but his determination to help a woman he has never met is very endearing and his natural instincts for a story written in a very believable way.
The way in which the country itself is presented is very cinematic with a real feel for the various landscapes and the isolation, particularly in the remote farmhouse that Sajee ends up securing a job at. If there is one thing that Iceland seems to do well, it is remote settings and that contradictory feeling of the farmhouse being all at once both dramatically vast and overwhelmingly claustrophobic really plays through in the narrative. Add in the undercurrent of unease that suffuses the novel and you are left with a book that is completely engrossing.
A really intriguing book which I thoroughly enjoyed and I'm looking forward to hearing more from the author. Another brilliant translation from Quentin Bates too that really captured the remote feel of the novel. And if you want to know why it is called The Fox? Well you're just going to have to read it, aren't you?
May 13, 2023
well written but turgid
I'm not sure why this book had to spend so much time on the suffering of the victim. Sometimes authors seem to feel they have to show heaps of suffering to justify the gruesome fate of the villain (eg the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and it just turns into torture porn.
Here you don't even get a satisfactory revenge for the pages and pages of suffering inflicted on the poor victim. Even the "happy ending" occurs "offscreen" so it's quite anticlimactic.
I'm not sure why this book had to spend so much time on the suffering of the victim. Sometimes authors seem to feel they have to show heaps of suffering to justify the gruesome fate of the villain (eg the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and it just turns into torture porn.
Here you don't even get a satisfactory revenge for the pages and pages of suffering inflicted on the poor victim. Even the "happy ending" occurs "offscreen" so it's quite anticlimactic.
September 30, 2020
Probably more of a 2.5. Proposed title change: “Sajee, the Asian girl you can’t understand when she speaks because of her conspicuous cleft palate”
I know this is translated so I can forgive some of the odd wording but there were a ton of typos in here and the whole time I was reading it I just wanted it to be over. It felt dragged out but also like it could have been fleshed out more and was a strange plot overall.
I know this is translated so I can forgive some of the odd wording but there were a ton of typos in here and the whole time I was reading it I just wanted it to be over. It felt dragged out but also like it could have been fleshed out more and was a strange plot overall.
October 17, 2020
3.5 Strange plot, even for Nordic crime fiction. I kept hoping it would be over soon.
June 26, 2021
In my perpetual hunt for new murder writers whom I can enjoy, without having to tolerate too much actual and confronting violence/brutality, I downloaded this novel.
Unbeknown to me, it's actually the third in a series, but the earlier ones have yet to be translated into English. This left me more than a little confused about the back story, but was not hugely detracting from the story line. I also found the narrative a little thin and wobbly in parts, but I suspect that might be due to translation issues.
All that aside, it kept me mildly engaged, without too much stress - so long as I ignored the patchy bits.
Would I read another by her? Not sure.
Unbeknown to me, it's actually the third in a series, but the earlier ones have yet to be translated into English. This left me more than a little confused about the back story, but was not hugely detracting from the story line. I also found the narrative a little thin and wobbly in parts, but I suspect that might be due to translation issues.
All that aside, it kept me mildly engaged, without too much stress - so long as I ignored the patchy bits.
Would I read another by her? Not sure.
January 2, 2023
Story was great. Nordic noir.. disturbing and uncomfortable at place... but the edition was very bad.. cut sentences, word repetitions, misspelled words -all made the reading difficult.. and it was a Kobo edition so I am really disappointed with this...
July 9, 2021
One of those rare books that I finished in a few hours. Excellent.
January 22, 2021
Authentic characters, intriguing plot. Promising new author for fans of Scandinavian crime. A short story, almost one reading can be done with it, mainly because it’s unputdownable, I just had to know how things turn out, what’s going to end.
January 7, 2021
Really enjoyed this Icelandic Noir book. I am a big fan of these types of stories and this one fit the bill. Good story and for some strange reason made me a little nervous. Why , no idea because murder mysteries are my passion .
Michele Zito
Michele Zito
November 1, 2020
The Fox has the perfect mix of the elements readers have grown to love, expect and even demand from Nordic noir novels. In this crime-in-translation debut by Sólveig Pálsdóttir the landscape and characters are grey, gloomy and unpredictable. The plot is dark and twisted. And the subject matter current and relevant as an immigrant to Iceland moves out the countryside and eventually disappears.
The full review of The Fox can be read here: https://westwordsreviews.wordpress.co...
The full review of The Fox can be read here: https://westwordsreviews.wordpress.co...
February 28, 2023
Not a police procedural
Not a thriller
Not a mystery - you know what's happening on all fronts all the time
No murder, no mayhem, no sex. A quick peek into some of the 'issues' of Icelandic folk back then
Short and to the point.
Great characters, great story. Not at all what I expected, Looking forward to #2
Not a thriller
Not a mystery - you know what's happening on all fronts all the time
No murder, no mayhem, no sex. A quick peek into some of the 'issues' of Icelandic folk back then
Short and to the point.
Great characters, great story. Not at all what I expected, Looking forward to #2
June 8, 2019
Ágætis afþreying og góð áminning um að öll erum við fólk sama hvaðan við komum. Það var eitthvað sem ég fílaði samt ekki, held mér hafi fundist persónusköpun flöktandi og ótrúverðug. Svo var líka skringileg flétta með persónuharmsögu sem ég skildi ekki alveg hvernig bætti við söguna.
January 9, 2018
Mjög spennandi
November 6, 2020
Promising new author
Crisp writing, very good plot, credible characters. All in all, a very promising new author for fans of Nordic crime.
Crisp writing, very good plot, credible characters. All in all, a very promising new author for fans of Nordic crime.
March 11, 2022
This is the first book I’ve read by this Icelandic author. Though it is the first to be translated into English, it is apparently the fourth in a series featuring Guðgeir Fransson.
Guðgeir has been suspended from the Reykjavík police force because “He had made a serious mistake and had then made an error of judgement in keeping quiet about sensitive information that concerned him at a personal level.” A colleague lost his life and Guðgeir’s marriage is in tatters. He has taken a job as a security guard in Höfn, a small town in southeastern Iceland. While living in exile, he is trying to repair his relationship with Inga so when his year-long contract is over, he can hopefully return to his family and job.
Guðgeir becomes aware that a Sri Lankan woman, Sajee Gunawardena, has disappeared. She arrived in Höfn believing she had a job in a salon waiting for her. That job does not exist, and though she stayed at a local hostel for a night, she has not been seen since and there is no evidence of her having left town. Guðgeir decides to investigate, though of course he can only do so unofficially.
The story is narrated from two perspectives, that of Guðgeir and Sajee. The reader learns that Thormóður, the owner of the hostel, has taken Sajee to Bröttuskriður, a remote farm home to Selma Ísaksdóttir and her son Ísak. Sajee believes she will work there for a short while as a cleaner and a companion for Selma, but it soon becomes clear that she is like the fox that Ísak keeps tethered and muzzled.
The setting creates a foreboding atmosphere. The farm is remote and isolated; the farmhouse is grey so “its walls blended in with the grey basalt of the scree behind it.” All the windows have “curtains in a coarse, dark material” except the “narrow basement windows which had been covered with black plastic.” The mountain looming over the farm “resembled a vast fist with sharp nails at the ends of long claws.” Sajee is told about the Hidden People who are described as being good “’unless they’re mistreated . . . [and then they become] merciless in getting their own back.’” Believing in spirits but unfamiliar with Icelandic folk culture, Sajee is made uneasy, as is the reader.
The behaviour of Selma and Ísak also adds to the unease. Selma, with her mercurial temperament, is prone to sudden, unpredictable changes of mood. She may have mental health issues; an acquaintance describes her as “a bit odd. Half crazy, I suppose. She went through some terrible shock when she was young.’” Except for a brief time at university, Ísak “’was always very reliant on his mother, and maybe he found it difficult to get on with other people. He was always on his own.’” A comment made by Ísak about his mother is disturbing: “’She wanted to get rid of him because he’d put her in this position. It was pure desperation, you understand?’”
Guðgeir emerges as a likeable character. His complete backstory is not known, but he seems like a decent man. He obviously regrets his past mistakes and is determined to repair his fractured relationship with his wife. He loves Inga and his two children. When he learns about Sajee, he becomes concerned for her welfare and persists in trying to find her, even calling on former colleagues to help. Silenced, a second book in the series has been translated, and I’m interested in finding out what happens to him.
The writing style sometimes seems clunky, but that may be the translation. I will keep an eye out for Sólveig Pálsdóttir.
Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
Guðgeir has been suspended from the Reykjavík police force because “He had made a serious mistake and had then made an error of judgement in keeping quiet about sensitive information that concerned him at a personal level.” A colleague lost his life and Guðgeir’s marriage is in tatters. He has taken a job as a security guard in Höfn, a small town in southeastern Iceland. While living in exile, he is trying to repair his relationship with Inga so when his year-long contract is over, he can hopefully return to his family and job.
Guðgeir becomes aware that a Sri Lankan woman, Sajee Gunawardena, has disappeared. She arrived in Höfn believing she had a job in a salon waiting for her. That job does not exist, and though she stayed at a local hostel for a night, she has not been seen since and there is no evidence of her having left town. Guðgeir decides to investigate, though of course he can only do so unofficially.
The story is narrated from two perspectives, that of Guðgeir and Sajee. The reader learns that Thormóður, the owner of the hostel, has taken Sajee to Bröttuskriður, a remote farm home to Selma Ísaksdóttir and her son Ísak. Sajee believes she will work there for a short while as a cleaner and a companion for Selma, but it soon becomes clear that she is like the fox that Ísak keeps tethered and muzzled.
The setting creates a foreboding atmosphere. The farm is remote and isolated; the farmhouse is grey so “its walls blended in with the grey basalt of the scree behind it.” All the windows have “curtains in a coarse, dark material” except the “narrow basement windows which had been covered with black plastic.” The mountain looming over the farm “resembled a vast fist with sharp nails at the ends of long claws.” Sajee is told about the Hidden People who are described as being good “’unless they’re mistreated . . . [and then they become] merciless in getting their own back.’” Believing in spirits but unfamiliar with Icelandic folk culture, Sajee is made uneasy, as is the reader.
The behaviour of Selma and Ísak also adds to the unease. Selma, with her mercurial temperament, is prone to sudden, unpredictable changes of mood. She may have mental health issues; an acquaintance describes her as “a bit odd. Half crazy, I suppose. She went through some terrible shock when she was young.’” Except for a brief time at university, Ísak “’was always very reliant on his mother, and maybe he found it difficult to get on with other people. He was always on his own.’” A comment made by Ísak about his mother is disturbing: “’She wanted to get rid of him because he’d put her in this position. It was pure desperation, you understand?’”
Guðgeir emerges as a likeable character. His complete backstory is not known, but he seems like a decent man. He obviously regrets his past mistakes and is determined to repair his fractured relationship with his wife. He loves Inga and his two children. When he learns about Sajee, he becomes concerned for her welfare and persists in trying to find her, even calling on former colleagues to help. Silenced, a second book in the series has been translated, and I’m interested in finding out what happens to him.
The writing style sometimes seems clunky, but that may be the translation. I will keep an eye out for Sólveig Pálsdóttir.
Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
August 29, 2023
What do you do when your arrival means the world, when your presence is so symbolic, you simply must not leave?
Guogeir Fransson, hoping to put professional tragedy and personal turmoil behind him, leaves the Reykjavik police force for a dead end job in a small town in eastern Iceland. His detective instincts are triggered when a foreign woman arrives into this tight-knit community, and suddenly disappears soon after. The trail takes him to a remote farmhouse where an elderly woman and her son live with a sinister past.
Sajee, from Sri Lanka, arrives in Hofn to take up work in her aunt’s beauty salon. But it seems the job does not exist. Help from a friendly stranger takes her to the farm of Selma and her son, Isak. They offer board, lodgings and the promise of pay for cleaning and help around the place. It seems like a practical solution to Sajee’s problem, but it is an offer wrapped in mystery. Sajee’s vulnerability is clear. From Sri Lanka’s chaotic district of Colombo, growing up she was left alone with a violent father, finding sanctuary at the local beauty shop among cheerful women, until the shop was forced to close. Postcards from her aunt, who had travelled to Iceland before her, were the hope she had clung to. Now she was alone and illiterate in a strange land. And Selma’s eyes were watching, too closely. What familiarity did she see in the young woman that drew her so tightly? Was it Sajee’s cleft lip that she discretely attempted to conceal? Was it illusion?
The characters were well-drawn and entirely believable. The backdrop to the story is cloaked in mystery and folklore that I found completely compelling. The dead are in the family plot, but the hidden people, tall, dignified, with unlimited senses and a higher consciousness dwell in mountain cliffs. They help people in trouble, spirit problems away, but when wronged, revenge is bitter. Victims have been known to go up in a puff of smoke, or be driven mad. The farm skirts a harbour town where shipwrecks mean people are forced to watch husbands and brothers drown, a place of depression and alcoholism, where people go off the rails. As the layers of mystery unfold, I was absorbed by the world and the unexpected, unfurling of sinister events. A read made more chilling by its relatability, as we are taken down the path of unwittingly losing power; how our own insecurities can trap us, how trust can be fatal.
Guogeir Fransson, hoping to put professional tragedy and personal turmoil behind him, leaves the Reykjavik police force for a dead end job in a small town in eastern Iceland. His detective instincts are triggered when a foreign woman arrives into this tight-knit community, and suddenly disappears soon after. The trail takes him to a remote farmhouse where an elderly woman and her son live with a sinister past.
Sajee, from Sri Lanka, arrives in Hofn to take up work in her aunt’s beauty salon. But it seems the job does not exist. Help from a friendly stranger takes her to the farm of Selma and her son, Isak. They offer board, lodgings and the promise of pay for cleaning and help around the place. It seems like a practical solution to Sajee’s problem, but it is an offer wrapped in mystery. Sajee’s vulnerability is clear. From Sri Lanka’s chaotic district of Colombo, growing up she was left alone with a violent father, finding sanctuary at the local beauty shop among cheerful women, until the shop was forced to close. Postcards from her aunt, who had travelled to Iceland before her, were the hope she had clung to. Now she was alone and illiterate in a strange land. And Selma’s eyes were watching, too closely. What familiarity did she see in the young woman that drew her so tightly? Was it Sajee’s cleft lip that she discretely attempted to conceal? Was it illusion?
The characters were well-drawn and entirely believable. The backdrop to the story is cloaked in mystery and folklore that I found completely compelling. The dead are in the family plot, but the hidden people, tall, dignified, with unlimited senses and a higher consciousness dwell in mountain cliffs. They help people in trouble, spirit problems away, but when wronged, revenge is bitter. Victims have been known to go up in a puff of smoke, or be driven mad. The farm skirts a harbour town where shipwrecks mean people are forced to watch husbands and brothers drown, a place of depression and alcoholism, where people go off the rails. As the layers of mystery unfold, I was absorbed by the world and the unexpected, unfurling of sinister events. A read made more chilling by its relatability, as we are taken down the path of unwittingly losing power; how our own insecurities can trap us, how trust can be fatal.
December 9, 2024
Noir set in EAST ICELAND
The Fox by Sólveig Pálsdóttir, and translated by Quentin Bates, is set in rural East Iceland, where daily life has altered little over the years and can still be a struggle. Solveig’s vivid descriptions of the geography and the weather reflect this hard way of life and give the reader a real sense of place. Chief Inspector Guðgeir Fransson of Reykjavik police has chosen to escape to this setting while he is suspended from his job after a tragedy at work. This past trauma has affected his marriage and his wife has also suspended their relationship for the term of one year. He has condemned himself to spend the year of this ‘sentence’ far away across the country in Höfn, a tiny town where nothing much happens and everyone knows everyone else’s business. Or at least they think they do. The comings and goings of Sajee, a young Sri Lankan woman with a distinctive appearance, ought to draw attention and someone should have noticed when she disappeared. Guðgeir realises something is amiss and his detective instinct kicks in. He has no official authority but he knows something is off and he’s determined to discover what it is.
The Fox is an entertaining read and I enjoyed it. It kept me guessing and I felt thoroughly engaged with the characters, both good and bad. My only issue was with the relevance of the title, which didn´t seem to reflect the most important aspects of the book. Maybe I missed something!
Two of the characters aren’t local to Höfn, which provides the author with the perfect excuse to describe the country through their eyes and enlighten the reader at the same time. I´ve mentioned the importance of the dramatic scenery and oppressive weather conditions but local superstitions and customs also come into play. The locals are keen to share tales of Iceland‘s mythical Hidden People and to share gossip about local families that stretches back many years. These elements both help and distract Guðgeir, as his search goes from mild curiosity to a vital impulse to locate the missing woman. The Fox is both intriguing and fascinating; definitely one for lovers of Icelandic detective fiction. Even better – it’s the first in a series!
The Fox by Sólveig Pálsdóttir, and translated by Quentin Bates, is set in rural East Iceland, where daily life has altered little over the years and can still be a struggle. Solveig’s vivid descriptions of the geography and the weather reflect this hard way of life and give the reader a real sense of place. Chief Inspector Guðgeir Fransson of Reykjavik police has chosen to escape to this setting while he is suspended from his job after a tragedy at work. This past trauma has affected his marriage and his wife has also suspended their relationship for the term of one year. He has condemned himself to spend the year of this ‘sentence’ far away across the country in Höfn, a tiny town where nothing much happens and everyone knows everyone else’s business. Or at least they think they do. The comings and goings of Sajee, a young Sri Lankan woman with a distinctive appearance, ought to draw attention and someone should have noticed when she disappeared. Guðgeir realises something is amiss and his detective instinct kicks in. He has no official authority but he knows something is off and he’s determined to discover what it is.
The Fox is an entertaining read and I enjoyed it. It kept me guessing and I felt thoroughly engaged with the characters, both good and bad. My only issue was with the relevance of the title, which didn´t seem to reflect the most important aspects of the book. Maybe I missed something!
Two of the characters aren’t local to Höfn, which provides the author with the perfect excuse to describe the country through their eyes and enlighten the reader at the same time. I´ve mentioned the importance of the dramatic scenery and oppressive weather conditions but local superstitions and customs also come into play. The locals are keen to share tales of Iceland‘s mythical Hidden People and to share gossip about local families that stretches back many years. These elements both help and distract Guðgeir, as his search goes from mild curiosity to a vital impulse to locate the missing woman. The Fox is both intriguing and fascinating; definitely one for lovers of Icelandic detective fiction. Even better – it’s the first in a series!
March 4, 2021
A year ago, a police investigation in Reykjavik went terribly wrong and detective Guðgeir Fransson was suspended for a year. His family life also suffered so he moved on his own to a small village somewhere among the fjords of Iceland and found a job as a security guide. After the stressful job he did for years, this left him with a lot of time.
Meanwhile, Sajee, a young woman from Sri Lanka, arrives in the same village based on a job offer after having worked in Reykjavik for awhile. Except that the job does not seem to exist so a helpful stranger helps her to find a place to sleep and then even assist her in finding a job. Then things start going weird.
The bored detective hears about that woman who seemed so much out of place and becomes curious. And the whole story unravels.
There are both Sri Lankan and Icelandic legends weaved into the narrative; there is the old US presence which rears its head again. And there is madness and cruelty. It is not always clear if a certain scene is inside of one's head or is really happening; there are times when you know it is reality but you wish it was not.
Sajee's life on the fjord is anything but easy and a lot of the story around that is hard to read. But one still returns to see what happens next. Although in places the novel tried too hard and almost seemed to be going to places just for the shock value. Still pretty readable.
This is the 4th in a series and that explains why we never really get all the details of Fransson's past. There are glimpses here and there and one can almost put the story together. And I suspect that some of the weirdness in the detective is based on what you are supposed to know already from previous books... Why the publisher (and/or translator) decided to start the translations with the 4th in a series is a mystery.
Meanwhile, Sajee, a young woman from Sri Lanka, arrives in the same village based on a job offer after having worked in Reykjavik for awhile. Except that the job does not seem to exist so a helpful stranger helps her to find a place to sleep and then even assist her in finding a job. Then things start going weird.
The bored detective hears about that woman who seemed so much out of place and becomes curious. And the whole story unravels.
There are both Sri Lankan and Icelandic legends weaved into the narrative; there is the old US presence which rears its head again. And there is madness and cruelty. It is not always clear if a certain scene is inside of one's head or is really happening; there are times when you know it is reality but you wish it was not.
Sajee's life on the fjord is anything but easy and a lot of the story around that is hard to read. But one still returns to see what happens next. Although in places the novel tried too hard and almost seemed to be going to places just for the shock value. Still pretty readable.
This is the 4th in a series and that explains why we never really get all the details of Fransson's past. There are glimpses here and there and one can almost put the story together. And I suspect that some of the weirdness in the detective is based on what you are supposed to know already from previous books... Why the publisher (and/or translator) decided to start the translations with the 4th in a series is a mystery.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 93 reviews