AN ÁRÓRA INVESTIGATION #3

OUT NOW!

The atmospheric, twisty, breathtakingly tense An Áróra Investigation series continues, as crimes committed far beyond Iceland’s shores come home…

Book blurb

Daníel and Áróra hunt a brutal killer when a shipping container with the bodies of five women is found outside Reykjavik, as Áróra continues the search for her missing sister. Book three in the addictive, chilling An Áróra Investigation series.

On a snowy winter morning, an abandoned shipping container is discovered near Reykjavík. Inside are the bodies of five young women – one of them barely alive.

As Icelandic Police detective Daníel struggles to investigate the most brutal crime of his career, Áróra looks into the background of a suspicious man, who turns out to be engaged to Daníel’s former wife, and the connections don’t stop there…

Daníel and Áróra’s cases pit them both against ruthless criminals with horrifying agendas, while Áróra persists with her search for her missing sister, Ísafold, whose devastating disappearance continues to haunt her.

As the temperature drops and the 24-hour darkness and freezing snow hamper their efforts, their investigations become increasingly dangerous … for everyone.

My thoughts

Élin is besotted with her boyfriend. Sergei wants Élin to hurry and sort out registering with the authorities so that they can get married and he can get his permanent residency. This, his phone calls in Russian and that he doesn’t want a prenup are making alarm bells ring for Élin. She asks Daniel, who is not only a police officer but her ex husband, for help. Daniel refers her to Áróra.

A shipping container is reported as it has been left on parkland outside Reykjavik. Daniel, as part of CID, goes to check it out. When he arrives he finds an horrific scene, five bodies which have obviously been in the container for some time. Five women, seemingly not Icelandic, dead!This is going to be a very difficult case. As he checks for any sign of life one of the women gets up and leaves the container. How could she have survived?

Áróra takes Élin’s case, it’s not her usual but since Daniel made the referral and Élin turns out to be related to her she agrees to check Sergei out. It should be fairly easy to do but as Áróra investigates she uncovers some odd things. She’s worried that Élin, like Áróra’s missing sister Ísafold, is in a toxic relationship and when she realises who Sergei is things take a nasty turn!

As Daniel, who is the main character in this book, and Áróra each investigates their own cases they share information that takes them back to the case in Red as Blood and helps move the current case forward.

In White As Snow we have three threads that of Áróra’s investigation, of the investigation that Daniel is part of and the moving story of how and why Bisi came to be in the container.

A dark, sad story which, whilst it gives some small hope for individual instances, highlights the absolutely horrific and devastating effects of human trafficking and how this modern day slave trade has infiltrated every corner of the world. It is an appalling indictment that this still goes on today – if there was no profit, in other words no market, for the traffickers and organised prostitution then surely it would stop? Why is there such a need? It seems that it is almost by luck that these criminals are being caught and brought to justice.

There is a little lightness in the form of the incomparable Lady Gúgúlú and Daniel’s children that is welcome and brings relief to Daniel and the reader.

Lilja Sigurdardóttir has written a wonderful, chilling, tense, multi layered and compelling story. She writes beautifully about the landscape and the way these horrendous acts impact the investigators as well as the victims of such crimes. She allows the reader to become immersed and really understand what the characters are feeling as well as how they deal with what is and has happened. You feel the horror, the desperation, the fear, the pain and the anger. You feel disgust for the perpetrators and how chillingly indifferent they are to what they are doing and how it has such devastating consequences.

Surely one of the best Icelandic writers Lilja Sigurdardóttir is certainly a terrific, talented writer who is an amazing storyteller. A favourite author of a wonderful series I would always highly recommend.

With thanks to Orenda Books for bringing readers these wonderful books in translation and to Quentin Bates for his terrific translation of White As Snow by Lilja Sigurdardóttir.

Thanks

Many thanks to Orenda Books for an eARC of White as Snow by Lilja Sigurdardóttir and to Anne at RandomThingsTours for the invitation to this amazing BlogTour.

BlogTour

Why not take a take a look at all these lovely blogs for more insights into White As Snow? Then check out the links below to get your very own copy of White As Snow by Lilja Sigurdardóttir.

Information

Published: Orenda Books (12th October 2023)

Buy: Orenda Books | Your local bookshop | Your local library | Bookshop.org (affiliate link *)

Author: Bestselling crime-writer Lilja Sigurðardóttir was born in the town of Akranes in 1972 and raised in Mexico, Sweden, Spain and Iceland. An award-winning playwright, Lilja has written ten crime novels, including Snare, Trap and Cage, making up the Reykjavík Noir trilogy, and her standalone thriller Betrayal, all of which have hit bestseller lists worldwide and been long- and shortlisted for multiple awards. The film rights for the Reykjavík Noir trilogy have been bought by Palomar Pictures in California. Cold as Hell, the first book in the An Áróra Investigation series, was published in the UK in 2021 and reprinted twice, and was followed by Red as Blood, a number-one digital bestseller. Lilja lives outside of Reykjavík with her partner and a brood of chickens.

Lilja Sigurðardóttir – website | @lilja1972 | Orenda Books Ltd

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In Translation

Quentin Bates is a translator and author in his own right you can find more information about him, his translations and his books on his website and you can follow him on Twitter /X.