Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Sigurdardottir is very good at this, in many ways this is a right on the money procedural. I particularly love how instead of giving our male and female leads sexual chemistry it is just nonstop sexual awkwardness, it's a great touch. Like the previous in the series it's very brutal, awfully gory, and filled with horrific stories. (Big content warnings for sexual assault of a child, more than once, on the page in some cases.) The ruthlessness of Karin Slaughter but going for procedural pacing instead of thriller.

The start to this one is a bit bumpy, it takes it a while to feel like there's an actual mystery. And like any Icelandic crime novel where there are these wild, complicated crimes it's kind of ridiculous especially since characters often note how rare violent crime is in Iceland. Except for this string of absolutely off the wall murders every so often, I guess.

I have a lot less patience for police procedurals these days and while Sigurdardottir does acknowledge that not all cops are good cops and that they make mistakes and are prone to corruption, there's still too much of a "don't worry the good guys will fix this" happening for my liking.