Ashes to Dust - Yrsa Sigurdardottir

I've been reading a number of Nordic mystery/thriller authors lately, but Yrsa Sigurdardottir was the first Icelandic author I've read. Indeed, she is known as 'Iceland's Crime Queen.'

Yrsa's recurring character is lawyer Thora Gudmundsdottir. In Ashes to Dust, the third book in the series, Thora is employed by a former resident of Heimaey Island in  The Westman Islands. This fishing village was covered by a volcanic eruption in 1973 and only now (2007) is her client's former childhood home being uncovered. The government owns the houses and contents, but Markus insists on going to the basement ahead of the archaeologists to recover a box, before he signs off on the waiver. (I found the setting fascinating and ended up reading all about the Westman Islands online)

He swears he has no idea what's in the box - a friend left it in the basement and she is the one who desperately wants it back he says. But when the archaeologists go down after him, what they discover changes the game - three bodies nicely laid out. And the box? It contains a head. Yes, a head. Thora's case has taken a completely different turn.

Thora is a wonderfully different protagonist. She is a grandmother with a young child still at home, divorced, hoping that her long distance romance will work out. She's very, very determined and undertakes to prove her client's innocence. I found this different from North American practices - the lawyer pursuing clues and the truth rather than an investigator. I loved that she took along her secretary - again another character that's a square peg in a round hole. Interspersed with Thora's investigations are chapters from other characters that we know must somehow be related to the case.

Sigurdardottir has created a winding plot that takes us down many avenues, exploring familial relationships as well as those of a small close knit village. There are no great surprises (many of the clues are plainly laid out) and some of the story seems superfluous. At times, I wanted to hurry the tellin along - it seemed it could have been done in about eighty pages less.

I did enjoy the descriptions of Iceland's culture, lifestyle and scenery. But, Ashes to Dust felt a little wooden in parts. I'm not sure if this is in the original text or a result of the translation. It was an entertaining tale, but comparisons to Steig Larsson may be a bit too ambitious.

You can find Yrsa on Facebook. Read an excerpt of Ashes to Dust.

Headhunters - Jo Nesbo

What a great cover eh? Take a second look at it....creepy and clever. And so is the author Jo Nesbo. I picked up Headhunters thinking that it would feature Nesbo's recurring series character Detective Harry Hole. I started reading, realized that it wasn't and felt slightly disappointed. But I lost that feeling about 10 pages in. Nesbo has written an ingenious, intricately plotted stand alone thriller that had me hooked from start to finish.

Roger Brown is a professional recruiter, a 'headhunter' if you will. He's not just one of the best, he is the best, as he'll tell you. And Roger likes having the best of everything. Sadly his salary does not quite match the lifestyle he's created for his wife and himself. So Roger dabbles....in art theft. Conveniently during his many recruitment interviews, he steers the discussion to art. His latest applicant, Clas Greve, has a piece of art that would leave Roger sitting pretty for the rest of his life. Roger breaks into Greve's home in search of the painting and finds much more than he bargained for......

Nesbo's characterization of Roger is perfect - he comes across as a cocky, superior know-it-all, confident in his abilities to out think and out maneuver anyone and everyone. When Clas Greve begins to challenge Roger's abilities, a delicious game of cat and mouse is the result. The dialogue is quick, witty and darkly humourous. The plotting is very inventive and had me guessing until the very end.

Headhunters has been made into a film in Nesbo's native Norway. The publisher's blurb on the back of the book.." Nesbo has crafted a funny, dark and twisted caper worthy of Quentin Tarantino and the Coen brothers" is spot on. 

Highly recommended. Read an excerpt of Headhunters. You can find Nesbo on Facebook.

Bad Intentions - Karin Fossum

Karin Fossum is new to me author and another Nordic author who has made her name known in North America.

Bad Intentions is the ninth offering in her Inspector Konrad Sejer series.  The book opens with three friends spending a weekend at a cabin. Their interactions seem odd and tainted by an alluded to event in the past. The weekend ends with one of them dead. Inspector Sejer and his partner Inspector Jakob Skarre are called in. The victim Jon Moreno had been hospitalized for depression and was out on a weekend pass with his friends. The friends insist he must have been suicidal, but Jon's new girlfriend doesn't agree.

I found Fossum's writing to be very stark, spare  and almost bleak. Not in a bad way though. It was just a very different take on a crime novel. There weren't long graphic descriptions of the crime. Instead Fossum focuses on the characters, their inner thoughts and psyches,  and she does it very, very well. The thought processes of the two friends left alive are the quite frightening part of this book. The event in the past that has affected the lives of these three young men is slowly revealed - I was eager to see what it was.

I appreciated the banter between Sejer and Skarre, but felt I didn't really come to know them in this slim novel. They are protagonists I would like to know better - I would pick up another book by Karin Fossum without hesitation.

Read an excerpt of Bad Intentions.