Black as Death by Lilja Sigurðardøttir (translated by Lorenza Garcia)

Today's my stop on the blog tour for Black as Death, The last in the An Áróra Investigation series, by Lilja Sigurðardóttir, translated into English by Lorenza Garcia. Because I wasn't organised enough to have written this early and scheduled the post, I'm writing this from a sun lounger in Tenerife! It's a hard life! Normal service will resume next week. Big thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for inviting me and to the publisher for my review copy.

 

The Blurb

The haunting final chapter to an award-winning series…
And a final reckoning…

With the fate of her missing sister, Ísafold, finally uncovered, Áróra feels a fragile relief as the search that consumed her life draws to a close. But when Ísafold’s boyfriend – the prime suspect in her disappearance – is found dead at the same site where Ísafold’s body was discovered, Áróra’s grip on reality starts to unravel … and the mystery remains far from solved.

To distract herself, she dives headfirst into a money laundering case that her boyfriend Daníel is investigating. But she soon finds that there is more than meets the eye and, once again, all leads point towards Engihjalli, the street where Ísafold lived and died, and a series of shocking secrets that could both explain and endanger everything.

Black as Death is published in the UK by Orenda Books and will be out on 23rd October this year.

My Review

This is the last in the An Áróra Investigation series and the overarching storyline told across the books reaches its conclusion here. But whilst you'll have a richer reading experience if you've read the books in order, don't worry if you haven't as all the information you'll need is here. And this book has its own mystery for Áróra (with a little help from boyfriend Daniel) to get her teeth into.

Áróra is such an interesting character. It's taken her a while to feel.more settled in Iceland despite her Icelandic heritage via her father. She's dogged, determined and able to handle herself. Finding out that the case of her sister Ísafold isn't what she or the police had thought throws her off balance and she revisits people and places connected to Ísafold, despite Daniel's warnings. But he does distract her a little with the case he is investigating. Her speciality is financial crime, and there is definitely something afoot at coffeehouse chain Kaffikó.

Daniel is a lovely character, gentle and kind, and whilst he struggles sometimes to know where he is with Áróra, he provides the calm she needs. And I was delighted to see that Lady Gúgúlú, Daniel's former lodger, is back for a visit. Helena has a new trainee and all  these characters, and the more minor ones, are all really well written.

I must confess I wasn't entirely happy with the ending as I wanted something different for Áróra. But the ending Lilja has written totally fits her character - it's just mr.

Considering this is as much about do with financial crime as about Isafold's case it maybe surprising there is a fair bit of violence here. It's tense and exciting. Black as Death is a great story bringing to a conclusion a mystery spanning five books, as well as the one contained just in this novel. I will miss Áróra but excited to see what comes next from author Lilja Sigurðardóttir.

The Author

Icelandic crime writer Lilja Sigurðardóttir was born in the  of Akranes in 1972 and raised in Mexico, Sweden, Spain and Iceland. An award-winning playwright, Lilja has written eleven 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. Snare was longlisted for the CWA International Dagger, Cage won Best Icelandic Crime Novel of the Year and was a Guardian Book of the Year, and Betrayal was shortlisted for the prestigious Glass Key Award and won Icelandic Crime Novel of the Year. The film rights for the Reykjavík Noir trilogy have been bought by Glassriver. Cold as Hell, the first book in the An Áróra Investigation series, was published in the UK in 2021 and was followed by Red as Blood, White as Snow and Dark as Night. TV rights to the series have been bought by Studio Zentral in Germany. Lilja lives in Reykjavik with her partner and a brood of chickens. 

Deadman's Pool by Kate Rhodes

I'm delighted to share my review of Deadman's Pool by Kate Rhodes as part of the blog tour. Big thanks to Anne Cater for the invitation and to the publisher for my review copy. 

Kate is a new author to me and I raced through this. 

The Blurb

The islands’ secrets run deeper than the sea…

Winter storms lash the Isles of Scilly, when DI Ben Kitto ferries the islands’ priest to St Helen’s. Father Michael intends to live as a pilgrim in the ruins of an ancient church on the uninhabited island, but an ugly secret is buried among the rocks. Digging frantically in the sand, Ben’s dog, Shadow, unearths the emaciated remains of a young woman. The discovery chills Ben to the core. The victim is Vietnamese, with no clear link to the community – and her killer has made sure that no one will find her easily.

The storm intensifies as the investigation gathers pace. Soon Scilly is cut off by bad weather, with no help available from the mainland. Ben is certain the killer is hiding in plain sight. He knows they are waiting to kill again - and at unimaginable costs.

My Review

This was my first book by this author and I read it in two days. The discovery of a dead body on an uninhabited island opens a murder inquiry but Ben and his team soon find there is more to it than that, and it becomes a race against time which pushes Ben to his limits.

Scilly is an area I knew nothing about until I read this book so that was a plus point straight away. Ben travelling to work on a boat and sailing between the islands was great, as were the descriptions of the individual islands, the desolute beauty of some of them, and the weather battering all the islands and the residents on the inhabited ones. There is just a small police team, a close knit group, with the exception of Ben's boss who seems to loathe his DI, which I didn't understand. The rest of his team, though, look up to Ben and all work well together playing to their respective strengths. 

I liked Ben. He's a nice, straight up guy who loves his family, his dog, his job and his islands. It was nice to have a straightforward police person as a main character, no drink or drug problem, no dodgy ex, etc. Just a loving, supportive wife and a baby son. He is well drawn, and we can see he is a man full of good and integrity. It doesn't mean, though, that he doesn't make the occasional unwise, rash decision! 

Alongside the police investigation we hear another point of view, that of a young woman who fears for her life and that of her family. It was great to have this alongside the main storyline and to learn her significance as the book progresses. The denouement is exciting and full of tension with the occasional heartstopping moment. I really enjoyed Deadman's Pool and look forward to reading more in this series. 

The Author

Kate Rhodes is an acclaimed crime novelist and an award-winning poet, selected for Val McDermid’s New Blood panel at Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival for her debut, Crossbones Yard. She has been nominated twice for the prestigious CWA Dagger in the Library award, and is one of the founders of the Killer Women writing group. She lives in Cambridge with her husband, the writer and film-maker Dave Pescod, and visited the Scilly Isles every year as a child, which gave her the idea for the critically acclaimed Isles of Scilly Mysteries series.

The Caller by Chris Carter

Well, we're up to book eight in our Chris Carter blogathon, as it's another delve into the dark. You really don't want to answer the phone to The Caller! Many thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for inviting me into the tour. I read from my own bought copy of the book. 

The Blurb

Be careful before answering your next call. It could be the beginning of your worst nightmare.

After a tough week, Tanya Kaitlin is looking forward to a relaxing night in, but as she steps out of her shower, she hears her phone ring. The video call request comes from her best friend, Karen Ward. Tanya takes the call and the nightmare begins.

Detectives Robert Hunter and Carlos Garcia are thrown into a rollercoaster of evil, chasing a predator who scouts the streets and social media networks for victims, taunting them with secret messages and feeding on their fear.

 

My Review

Eight books in and I'm still standing! I will admit, though, that I mainly read these books in the daytime, and will only read them in the evening if someone else is in the house. They're great books, but they are very graphic and pretty terrifying - and I scare easy! 

Chris Carter's imagination is something else! A brand new villain, and some brand new methods of murder! Whilst the crimes committed in these books are undeniably utterly terrifying, they are also hugely creative, and I admire that. 

In The Caller, every crime that the perpetrator commits has a terrible, life changing effect on two people, rather than just his obvious victim. And he leaves no evidence. At all. Hunter and Garcia keep reaching dead ends as they can find no obvious connection between the victims, nor any clear motive for the crimes, and his methods change every time. The crimes, as in previous books by this author, are very, very dark. They are also graphic. This is not a book for everyone. I like my crime dark but there were parts of this book that were a bit too much for me, and I had to skip a few paragraphs. 

But I love Robert Hunter, and find him fascinating. I also like his relationship with his partner Carlos - it provides a few much needed lighter moments. But their trust in each other is lovely to see, and his much Carlos has grown through this series, how much he's learned, is great. There is quite a lot of 'technical' stuff, science and psychology, but I found it all fascinating. And it's never presented in a boring way. 

I'm not going to say any more about the plot than is in the blurb for fear of spoilers but as always the investigation is satisfyingly twisty. What struck me, again, is the sadness in the story, the heartbreak, life changing events, behind all the violence and crime. The Caller is another great entry in this collection. Roll on book 9! 

The Author

Born in Brazil of Italian origin, Chris Carter studied psychology and Criminal behaviour in the USA. As a member of the District Attorney's Criminal Psychology team, and working together with the Police Department in numerous cases, he interviewed and studied many criminals, including serial and multiple homicide offenders with life imprisonment convictions. He now lives in London, UK.

Sam Hain by Hamid Amirani

One of the things I love about blogging is that, sometimes, something a bit bonkers lands in your inbox. I read the blurb for this one and knew I wanted toread it. I replied to the email and forgot all about it until a copy (a real paper one) arrived at my house. That's another thing I love about blogging - coming back fresh to something that caught my eye a while back. And that's what happened here. Huge thanks to Zoe O'Farrell at Zooloo's Book Tours for inviting me and to the author and Palamedes PR  for my review copy.

The Blurb

A misanthropic horror comedy for people who think humanity had it coming

Sam Hain is a San Francisco P.I. with a permanently raised eyebrow and moronic homicidal parents he hasn’t seen in 18 years — not since they tried to cast him in a DIY snuff film.

Mike is a demon — or, as he prefers, a diabolical entity — with his own ideas about how best to punish the human race.

When an anonymous letter arrives, along with $500 in cash, asking Sam to investigate a murder in a small town, he’s curious enough to get in the car. That, plus he has nothing better to do.

The victim? A man found dead inside a tumble dryer.

The clue? The name MIKE, written in blood above the body.

The twist? The letter was postmarked before the murder happened.

Soon, Sam’s navigating a town full of eccentrics: an elderly laundromat owner who speaks fluent profanity, a death metal teen with conservative parents, a bigoted religious fundamentalist, and a hedonistic teacher on Sam's wavelength who doesn’t believe in small talk. Meanwhile, the local sheriff — experiencing his first murder case in decades — follows Sam around like a kid at Disneyland.

And Mike? Mike is powerful. Mike has plans. And he really, really hates stupid people. In that regard, he and Sam have something in common.

Twisted, sardonic and wildly inappropriate, Sam Hain is a critically acclaimed murder mystery wrapped in a demonic satire — and it absolutely does not want to be your friend.

My Review

As the blurb is so fulsome there's nothing else I need to add here in that regard. As I mentioned in the intro, as soon as I read the details I knew this was a book I wanted to read. Actually, I'd've liked to have known a little less about Mike going in. But I knew within the first couple of pages that I was going to enjoy it. Which was good as it's quite a hefty tome.

Sam is a great character. Intrigued by the note he received he heads to the town where the crime happened. The town is almost a character itself with its quaint wee places like the 'Let Me Be Your BB' bed and breakfast. Actually all the characters are good. Most of them are pretty eccentric too! Nancy made me laugh. I mean she's awful, but she's uniformly awful. To everyone, regardless of who they are, and that made me chuckle. The central three characters - Sam, Sheriff Jockton and Agent Morton all play off each other really well and I enjoyed the interplay between them. Polly and Leo are really well described, possibly too well! 😂 You'll know exactly what I mean if you read the book. But my favourite character was Mike, demon - sorry, diabolical entity - extraordinaire! Or maybe they're all like that, I don't know any so couldn't say. I think the author has had a lot of fun writing Mike because that's certainly how it comes across. 

This isn't a book for everybody, and it's certainly not for the faint hearted. Yes, it's a comedy - I chuckled a few times (loved the  description of the Red Hex bar) and smiled a lot - but it's also a horror. And whilst the violence and aftermath are presented in a comical way, some of it is pretty gross. Particularly if Mike has had a hand in it! But I really enjoyed it and was glad of the chance to read it. 

The Author

Hamid Amirani was born in Iran and came to London not long after. He studied Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Before turning to fiction, Amirani worked across a wide range of media and creative roles – from proofreading and freelance blogging for an American camera bag company, to interviewing director Michael Bay for a print feature. His horror-comedy spec script earned a Recommend from Script Pipeline, the screenwriting platform set up by Donnie Darko producer Sean McKittrick.

In the late 1990s, Amirani was a guest on The James Whale Radio Show after a series of calls as his alter ego GanjaMan led to a studio invitation.

He began writing his debut novel, Sam Hain, during lockdown, which helped stave off cabin fever. A genre-blending satire, it marks his first full-length work of fiction.