I’m thrilled, in every sense, to be taking part in the blog tour for ‘Trap’ by Icelandic author Lilja Sigurdardóttir (translated by Quentin Bates).
Synopsis
Happily settled in Florida, Sonja believes she’s finally escaped the trap set by unscrupulous drug lords. But when her son Tomas is taken, she’s back to square one … and Iceland. Her lover, Agla, is awaiting sentencing for financial misconduct after the banking crash, and Sonja refuses to see her. And that’s not all … Agla owes money to some extremely powerful men, and they’ll stop at nothing to get it back. With her former nemesis, customs officer Bragi on her side, Sonja puts her own plan into motion, to bring down the drug barons and her scheming ex-husband, and get Tomas back safely. But things aren’t as straightforward as they seem, and Sonja finds herself caught in the centre of a trap that will put all of their lives at risk… Set in a Reykjavík still covered in the dust of the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption, and with a dark, fast-paced and chilling plot and intriguing characters, Trap is an outstandingly original and sexy Nordic crime thriller, from one of the most exciting new names in crime fiction.
The book is published by Orenda Books.
My review
I’d heard of Nordic Noir, of course, and watched several such series on TV, but this is the first time I’ve read such a book in this genre. And what a fabulous introduction it’s been!
I was enthralled from the first page – by the characters, the clever plot and the sheer readability. The book is the second in a series, but I hadn’t realised that when I began reading and I don’t feel I missed anything. However, I shall definitely be reading ‘Snare’ to find out how the characters get into their present predicaments.
All the characters – the good, the bad and the in-between – rise off the page. They’re rounded and convincing, and we get to see what makes each of them tick. Young Tomas is particularly well portrayed I think: we really see things from his perspective whenever he’s involved. That gives a fresh insight into our other characters when we share Tomas’s view of them. Thanks to his childish innocence we get to see these people, his parents chief amongst them, as they might have been had life’s complications not got in the way.
The book’s title couldn’t be more apt. Many of the characters are in traps, some of their own making. Sonja is trying to trap her ex-husband Adam, but he has her trapped into doing what he wants because of her love for her son and the fact she can’t be without her little boy. Agla’s love for Sonja has her trapped too, as does her financial greed. The wife of Bragi, the customs officer, is trapped in her own confusing world of Alzheimer’s. And others are trapped by their indulgent lifestyles and addictions. There are representations of traps of all kinds in this book.
A lot of the characters are flawed. I’ve already mentioned there are some ‘in-between’ ones. They’re essentially good people but are trapped – that word again! – into doing bad things for various reasons, ones which see right to them. The whole issue of right and wrong comes under scrutiny in the novel. We know they should be diametrically opposed but in life, and literature, things are never quite so clear-cut. One merges into the other.
The action is constant, and tension builds as it progresses. Florida, Iceland and Amsterdam are amongst the settings that this story of drug trafficking and corporate and personal greed. It’s a riveting read, it really is. I particularly enjoyed discovering a little about Iceland, somewhere I’ve always wanted to visit, and its culture through the names and places and incidental facts.
Absolutely a book to go on your TBR list.
About the author
Icelandic crime-writer Lilja Sigurdardóttir was born in the town of Akranes in 1972 and raised in Mexico, Sweden, Spain and Iceland. An award-winning playwright, Lilja has written four crime novels, with Snare, the first in a new series, hitting bestseller lists worldwide. The film rights have been bought by Palomar Pictures in California. She lives in Reykjavík with her partner.
Follow the rest of the tour for more reviews, guest posts and extracts:
