The Silence of the Sea

A repossessed yacht is being brought back to Iceland from Portugal. However, when it arrives in Reykjavík, there’s nobody on board. How can seven people disappear like that? Thóra Guðmundsdóttir is hired by the family of AEgir, the bank employee who brought his family along on the trip, to find out what happened and deal with the awful bureaucracy that comes from being missing, presumed dead. Later, a body washes up on the shore…

The book alternates between what Thóra and the family left behind learn about the fatal voyage, and the voyage itself. It is a chilling, heartbreaking story and caused me to choke up a few times, particularly at the very end.

I also found the nautical details fascinating; not all readers share my show more interest, but for me, this book ticked a lot of boxes, and it is my favourite of the Thóra series. It’s a shame there won’t be any more for the foreseeable future, but the way things are left in this one, it’s a good place to stop (while leaving room to come back if the author changes her mind). show less

Haunting

What a wonderful mystery. You go in thinking it’s supernatural and just realize the tragedy of the whole book. It does drag a lot though (why the 4 stars). I think this may be the last book in the series, you can guess what can happen next I think from context clues, but said to not get another Thora mystery.

"The Silence of the Sea" follows Thora's investigation into what happened to her clients son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren. The son was able to bring his family aboard a journey to return a luxury yacht from Lisbon to Iceland. His employers had seized the yacht and he thought it would be great to bring his family along. However, weeks later the yacht crashes into a harbor in Iceland and the family and crew are all show more missing.

Thora does what she does best, talks to people and does her own investigation. She is puzzled and troubled by the missing family of her clients and assumes they are dead, but she wonders how and why. She has her cranky secretary Bella along due to her ties to someone close to the case. I thought in the end that the book did well enough with bringing more interest to Bella. With regards to Thora, she's reeling because her son has plans to move to Norway with his girlfriend and son to live with his father. She's fighting against it, but realizes she can't do much about it. Since her and Michael are at an impasse about it, I wish we had more scenes with the two of them at least discussing things. Michael felt weirdly absent in this one.

The book really slows down to a crawl though when we follow the family on the boat and we slowly get to what happened to them and the crew. I will not lie, I started to skim in self defense after about the 6th time we left the present to jump back to the past in the boat. I saw a lot of readers had the same issue I did and rated the book lower because of that. Honestly I get it, the flow was way out of wack throughout. The boat scenes pick up towards the end though and then you get some reveals about things.

I thought at first this was playing into the supernatural mystery that Sigurdardottir has been
playing with the last few books. I was wrong, but I liked how the book came together in the end.

The conclusion to the book was really interesting. I like that everything was tidied up. This was similar in my eyes to "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie. It was a great little locked room mystery in essence taking on board a yacht. show less

Lawyer Thóra Gudmundsdóttir continues her journey through life in a mixed bag of good, mediocre and bad.
Or better, a mystery ship and an amount of body bags. All hands on a repossessed luxury yacht on its way from Lisbon to Iceland are mysteriously lost. The boat hits Reykjavik harbor with deadly precision, but empty - until bodies start to show up, in reality or just as hearsay.

One pair of (grand)parents - of the couple and their two daughters that are all four missing - ask Thóra to handle the aspects of a multi-million life insurance of the (repo) man and his wife as to continue providing care for the youngest sibling, a two year old daughter who wasn't on the trip and is now presumed orphaned. To do so, Thóra must prove beyond a show more reasonable doubt that all are dead.

The story alternates between the ship and the research of Thóra after the fact. This works well most of the time, but not always. As a lot of chapters playing on the boat end with a cliffhanger it is necessary that the chapters in between with Thóra, her research, her family troubles and her unbelievable secretary from hell (providing a final clue) are able to keep up the sawtooth-curve for the reader to stay interested in the mystery. In a few cases we have alternating chapters with first a cliffhanger, followed by a dull description of Thóra's research. As said this is not beneficiary for the story, making the reader losing focus.

The story includes a high society bimbo who is depicted rather stereotypical - not good - a crew and their companions with surprises - good - and family developments in Iceland - basically an uninteresting footnote.
Many other characters, including the police detectives, are flat characters as well. I get the impression that Yrsa Sigurdardóttir is not that enchanted by the quality of the Icelandic force, but then, I could be mistaken. Also Thóra's friend, Matthew, ex-München CID and (ex- and again) safety officer with the bank, is very apathetic and uninterested in this (as soon as a body turns up) criminal case. What's the matter, bro? It seems Yrsa Sigurdardóttir is running out of ideas what to do with him.

As the description of the book makes clear from the beginning, the story contains little children and things not going well for them. I don't think that this is a problem, but the way in which Yrsa Sigurdardóttir uses this story element is not convincing. It looks like they have been added for the drama. The dramatic and in my opinion unbelievable climax in the last chapter only reinforces this suspicion of mine. There is simply no need for it and it even distracts from the intricacies of the mystery at hand.

Because the mystery, well, I like it. Very much. It keeps you guessing to the end. It's almost a pity when everything is finally being revealed. Yrsa Sigurdardóttir is keen on using Gothic and supernatural elements and this book is no exception. The creepiness seeps through the story con gusto and is solved in an immensely clever way - reason why I read these books. Like Agatha Christie's Ten Little Niggers you know what's coming, but don't know why (and by whom). This should be the main focus of a good mystery. And in the end, it's nothing supernatural at all. Very cool tied together.

So, again, I found the tear jerking story of the children mostly distracting. On the other hand: after closing the book (or better, switching off the Kindle) you probably leave the book behind with the tragic story of the children instead of with the clever solution to the problem where everyone has gone and what the (not inconsiderable) body count is. (Hint: it's not ten).

And maybe that's what Yrsa Sigurdardóttir wanted the reader to realize. To ponder the consequences of a devastated family due to -in the end- very mundane human greed. show less

A luxury yacht crashes into Rekyavik Harbour one night without a soul on board and no immediate signs of foul play; the three-man crew and family of four who were travelling home from Portugal are just…gone. Lawyer Thóra Gudmundsdóttir is hired in desperation by an elderly couple who are looking after their toddler granddaughter. Their son, his wife and twin granddaughters were the family on board the boat and the grandparents need help accessing the family finances and retaining custody of – or at least access to – their remaining granddaughter. Thóra, like everyone else in the town, can’t help but get sucked into the mystery of what on earth could have happened to everyone. Interspersed with this unfolding storyline are show more chapters that take place on board the boat, before things went horribly awry.

If you head into this book without any expectation of a Larsson-esque Girl Who… book (i.e. ignore the moronic red splash on the cover) chances are you will not be disappointed by this creepy tale of things that go bump in the night at sea. Sigurdardottir does a great job of building the suspense from both ends and, as her books often do, incorporates just enough other-worldliness to ramp up the chill factor without making the storyline seem preposterous to those of us with a low tolerance for ‘woo woo’ elements. As a kind of floating locked-room mystery the plotting here is first rate and guaranteed to keep even seasoned genre fans guessing until the end.

As far as character development goes the novel is a little more prosaic. Thóra is her usual determined self, with a smattering of personal tribulations to deal with and needing to wrangle her office’s ever-useless receptionist, but series stalwarts won’t learn anything new about the heroine. Probably the most well-developed character is Ægir, the father who has taken his family aboard the ill-fated yacht on behalf of his company which is re-possessing it from its now bankrupt celebrity owners. It is from his point of view that half the narrative is revealed and his depiction as an increasingly confused and frightened father who wishes he could go back in time is a good one.

For my tastes this author’s previous novel was slightly superior to this one as I enjoyed the way it explored social themes more interestingly. Here I think that opportunity was largely missed as the potential subjects – such as the modern world’s obsession with celebrity and the fallout from the global financial crisis – were largely ignored. However it’s a top notch plot-driven novel and scores high marks for its chill factor. show less

This is an amazing novel, told on two planes.

The opening scene is of a fabulous yacht, several decks high, coming into Reykjavik harbour. On the wharf waiting for it are an old couple with a young granddaughter, a man with his leg in a cast, and the harbour master. Something is wrong. The yacht makes no attempt to slow down and it crashes into the wharf. No one appears on deck and it becomes apparent that there is nobody aboard. The incident makes the headlines of Reykjavik news.

Thora Gundmundsottir comes into the story when the elderly parents of the young father who should have been on board employ her to deal with the paperwork of proving their son must be dead, and with claiming his life insurance. Thora gets in touch with the show more various authorities including the police, and so one plane of the story is narrated from the standpoint of after the event, trying to work out what happened.

The second narration comes from those who are on board the yacht as the events unfold. What should have been an adventure for the young family, passengers on the yacht being sailed from Lisbon to Reykjavik, turns to horror as a body is discovered stored in a freezer and an elusive perfume convinces them that there is somebody else on board.

There is plenty of mystery for the reader to work out, and in the long run, I'm sure you will agree with the judges of the 2015 Petrona Award, given annually in memory of Maxine Clarke, that this is one not to be missed. show less

Ship of horror
By sally tarbox on 12 June 2017
Format: Kindle Edition
If you like thrillers and mysteries then you'll probably enjoy this - I certainly didn't work out what happened and it was a surprise to the very last page.
When luxury yacht, The Lady K, sails into Reykjavik, there's a few people waiting. The grandparents of a tiny tot, whose son, wife and twin daughters are on board. A young man on crutches who should've been part of the crew till he was injured ...
But like the Marie Celeste, it's empty and no one can work out where the family and the 3 man crew have gone.
The grandparents hire Thora Gudmansdottir to find out the truth - are their family really dead?
A complex plot juxtaposes a narrative of the voyage with Thora's ongoing show more investigations and keeps up the cliffhangers - just as some horror dawns on the ship, the reader is brought back to everyday life in Iceland.
Having said that, I did feel it went on a tad and too much horror starts to desensitize you to it, so was glad to reach the end. I also couldnt quite believe in the twins - or get why Thora didnt sack her awful if characterful secretary, Bella. show less

This was the second book I've read by this author. While it took me a while to adapt to her off-beat style, I'm very much warming to it now, and appreciate her lightness of touch. The main character is in the legal profession, but although she's preparing for a possible case, the action doesn't reach a courtroom.

There's a clear narrative drive without mugging the reader with contrived action or drama, and this builds steadily and in its own quiet way to an effective conclusion.

But at the end of the novel I'm still left pondering a couple of things: did anyone manage to clean up and resurrect that copier, or did that turn into an insurance dispute?