I like books set in Iceland. This one was ok, not fabulous. ( )

This is a very well written book.
The author passes seamlessly from events about 20 years in the past to
The current day mystery of a dead woman outside a lighthouse.
She maintains an atmosphere of dread….that creak on the stairs mentioned in the title and used effectively in the opening, as a character lies terrified in bed, listening to the approaching danger, is maintained throughout.
There are a couple of connecting threads that are surprisingly woven together, but without them feeling particularly forced.

I’d have given it a five but there is so much abuse and assault of women and children that , had I not been so impressed with the author’s skill, I might have gone down to a two. Read at your own risk. ( )

Most Scandi-Crime novels seem to involve abuse of women or children or both, and this is no exception. I found the story a bit slow to start, but it is the first in a projected series and foundations are useful. It takes place in a small seaside town near Rekyavik (sp), in two different decades and several different voices, but it's not hard to follow. The murder and its solution are well supported by this mechanism.

But it's pretty grim. And to my surprise, the ending is, while technically correct, very unsatisfying. Maybe the next in the series will close some gaps. ( )

An excellent addition to Scandicrime/ Nordic Noir. Elma moves from the Reykjavik police to the more remote area of the Akranes following a difficult breakup. There she joins the Arkranes Police force. In this normally quiet town, the body of a young woman washes up the shore near a lighthouse. With her new colleagues, Saevar and Hordur, Elma investigates this death. Was it a suicide, an accident or a murder ?

We discover the backstories of the characters and that of the victim. The victim's past was especially harrowing, and we learn about it in two time lines, 1989 ,and the present, 2017. The characters are well rounded and layered, and the plot is engaging, disturbing and suspenseful. I loved this story and am eager to read more in this series. ( )

This is the first in a series featuring Elma, a female police detective who has returned to her small hometown of Akranes, Iceland after her long-term relationship ended. I had read the 2d in the series already.
I appreciated that there was no rivalry or hard feelings on the part of other (male) members of the police force. Elma is welcomed and becomes a part of the team without suffering sexist treatment. The experience of returning to her hometown after living in the city of Reykjavik is treated realistically, and she is able to reestablish connections with old friends. I didn't feel the overwhelming despair that some Icelandic fiction can give me.
Elma is charged with solving the murder of a woman within a few days of starting her new job. In order to solve it, she has to trace the woman's history which means investigating important people who still live in Akranes, and this leads to conflicts with her supervisor. I found the time shifts between the dead woman's childhood and the present to be distracting, but I guess that adds to the "mystery." It all came together in the end. ( )