Cold as Hell

LoveReading Says

Anyone who has charted the progress of “Scandi Noir” and “Nordic Noir” will be aware that Iceland has inherited the cold crown of crime through the writing of Yrsa Sigurdardóttir, Ragnar Jón, Arnaldur Indridason and, of course, multi award winning, critically acclaimed and hugely bestselling Lilja Sigurdardóttir.

Her well deserved success comes from an enviable ability to create truly credible, compelling situations, with such engaging characters and a strong sense of place that readers are drawn into her worlds from the opening line, and Cold as Hell marks a new high water mark in Lilja’s superb writing.

Sisters Áróra and Ísafold aren’t on speaking terms and live in different countries. When their mother loses touch with Ísafold, Áróra returns to Iceland to realise that not only has her sister disappeared without trace, but that she has a life more complicated and much darker than Áróra could have imagined.

So far, so noir, but what sets Lilja’s work apart is her ability to thread dark atmospheric tension throughout her writing and to keep the tale so taut that, once you’ve started reading and are drawn into her perfectly weighted web of intrigue and manipulation, putting Cold as Hell down is just not an option.

Translated from the Icelandic by Quentin Bates, himself a crime writer of note, Sigurdardóttir’s crisp writing style – perhaps due in no small part to her second talent as a playwright – scintillates like sunlight on ice as the twists and turns of Áróra’s investigation reveal ever more darkness.

Books two and three of this series have already been written and Sigurdardóttir’s very canny English publishers. Orenda, will doubtless be getting them translated for us. So my advice is this, if you haven’t discovered Sigurdardóttir’s books yet, get started now and read Cold as Hell. It’s a slick, refreshing, glacial blast of a thriller and there’s more great work coming down the line from this uber-cool Queen of ice-cold crime.

Paul Blezard

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