One winter evening, bestselling crime author Elãain S. Jãaonsdãaottir goes missing. There are no clues to her disappearance and it is up to young detective Helgi to crack the case before it's leaked to the press. As Helgi interviews the people closest to her—a publisher, an accountant, a retired judge—he realizes that Elãain's life wasn't what it seemed. In fact, her past is even stranger than the fiction she wrote. As the case of the missing crime writer becomes more mysterious by the hour, Helgi must uncover the secrets of the writer's very unexpected life
Jónasson...writes in his native Icelandic, and as usual, Victoria Cribb has done a fine job of translating his crisp, vivid style ... The author spins his tale swiftly, but the search for Elin comes off as a low-stakes mental exercise that generates little sense of urgency. What tension there is comes from a few short sections in which Helgi’s violent ex, Bergthora, stalks Anita.
Top-notch ... Cleverly plotted, slyly humorous, and bursting with love for the golden age of detective fiction, this outperforms even its outstanding predecessor.
