I liked this one better than the first.

Prepare to be spooked and chilled in Iceland’s chilly landscape…..

Booktrail with map: Booktrail of My Sould to Take


Place and setting

The Snæfellsnes is also known as Iceland in Miniature, because many national sights of Iceland that are popular and well known are actually located here including the Snæfellsjökull volcano. You can see it quite clearly fro the capital city Reykjavik on a good day and another exciting fact – its the setting of the novel Journey to the Centre of The Earth by Jules Verne!

Well, if you of a nervous disposition you may want to skip certain parts when reading this as, well, the sound of babies crying in the fog for example is not something you forget easily.

The supernatural theme in this book is quite fascinating though so I persevered as there’s something about a building on the old grounds of an area which has a strange and spooky history.

The air of strange and gruesome goings on starts when you realise just how the victim has been found murdered. Even before I got to that point though – the very first chapter seen through the eyes of a small frightened child was perhaps one of the most chilling for what it leads to.

I’m amazed I was able to continue reading - as vivid as my imagination is – but I had to know what happened to her!

The book is interesting on so many levels – the Icelandic setting is only one of them – but the culture and heritage as well as the mythology alluded to is quite interesting and there were many things I felt I discovered from the book. The role of Nazism in Iceland during the war was one.

Bbrrrrr Iceland is very chilly indeed!

Downloaded and read this almost immediately after finishing the first in the series and it offered much the same as that book with some slightly different themes. I will say that there were A LOT of characters in this story and with much of the action taking places over 50+ years it was hard to fully understand who was who and how they were all related (both as family but also in the investigation) and so around 70% in I sort of gave up trying to "solve" the mystery, which is sometimes half the fun for me, but also sometimes not. Again I felt some of the language and key characterisations and plot points were ableist and dated, and I wonder if this will change as the books in the series have more recent publication dates...

Vielleicht habe ich schon zu lange keinen Krimi mehr gelesen, aber der hier hat mir nicht gefallen. Ich fand es ziemlich mühsam, ständig auf eine falsche Fährte gelockt zu werden.
Überhaupt passiert hier ziemlich viel, was nachher einfach keine Konsequenzen hat. Anderes wiederum ist vollkommen überflüssig und dient nur dazu, einige Seiten zu füllen, statt den Plot voran zu treiben. Oder warum sollte es wichtig sein, dass der Sohn der Protagonistin seine Freundin geschwängert hat und diese am Ende ein Baby bekommt und sich herausstellt, dass keiner der beiden eine Ahnung hat, was bei einer Geburt eigentlich passiert und wie das alles geht?
Die Auflösung ließ mich mit mehr Fragezeichen zurück als Verständnis. Warum genau jetzt diese Person verantwortlich ist, ist mir nicht klar. Ich möchte nicht um tausend Ecken denken müssen und ehrlich gesagt glaube ich auch nicht, dass diese Person so viel Verständnis und Einsicht in die ganze Situation hatte, um das zu tun, was passierte. Ein Motiv ist wichtig, aber so richtig Sinn ergibt es hier für mich einfach nicht. Schade. Aber wenn man fast einen Monat für einen Krimi braucht, spricht das halt nicht besonders für große Spannung.

One of the major disappointments of thus year. Everybody reads Yrsa in Iceland, and most recommend this one, but it was just a load of prolongations, needless red herrings and unrealistic interrogations until the truth is revealed to our narrator quite by accident. I highly doubt that I will read another book by her. There are other Scandinavian crime writers who are more interesting I'm sure

Hokey with plenty of “I’m not like the other girls” vibes

Loved how it seems to keep moving along

This must have been 1 of the most confusing books ever but weirdly enough I enjoyed it. I love the connection between the main characters

Pitkästä aikaa vietin koko päivän kirjan parissa koska en vain malttanut laskea sitä käsistäni. Joku tämän kirjailijan kirjoitustavassa on sellaista, että sivut vain soljuvat eteenpäin ilman että kertaakaan tulee sellainen olo, että eikö tämä vieläkään lopu. Paikoitellen kirjan loppuratkaisu oli miltei arvattavissa, mutta historia motiivien taustalla oli sen verran kiinnostavaa, että mielenkiinto pysyi yllä loppuun saakka. Henkilöhahmot olivat enimmäkseen kiinnostavia ja hyvin toteutettuja, eikä toki haitannut että päähenkilöt olivat jo ennestään tuttuja aiemmasta Thora Gudmundsdottir kirjasta Kolmas merkki. Islanti on tapahtumapaikkana itselleni riittävän eksoottinen vaikka pohjoismaa onkin, joten myös se toi kirjaan oman sävynsä. Kaikin puolin maukas lukuelämys genrestä jota en ihan hirvittävän usein tule lukeneeksi.