Steven R. (oblio) reviewed on 11/22/2020 + 10 more book reviews

I thought the first two books in this series were brilliant, and a welcome addition to Icelandic noir. In this one however, Jonasson seems to have given the writing over to a couple of 14 year olds who watch a lot of police televisions shows. Spoiler alert - There is rape, physical child abuse, drug abuse, money laundering, murder, a hero obsessing, really obsessing, about his lost love, a driven television reporter with an incurable disease who is also researching the life of her grandmother who died young from smoking in addition to investigating the murder, a backstabbing television newsroom, people trafficking, a police officer haunted by his past history as a bully in school, a police supervisor whose wife left him, an alcoholic doctor who caused the death of patients, and the hero's former girlfriend who is a shallow, self absorbed doctor who is starting to believe she chose the wrong profession. There is not one sympathetic character and about midway through the book one finds oneself wishing "please let this end." It is a shame, because the mystery is and the solution are good. Some of this result might be passed off as a less than perfect translation from Icelandic, but mostly it is just overdone.

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