#Lilja certainly is a ...character

[thatonceandfutureprat]

Reasons why I love my horse so much: when she’s done with me grooming her manes into something resembling...well...manes, she turns around and marches past 5 stalls back into her own and fully expects me to leave half of her manes in tangles because she’s in her stall, Please Leave It Alone, Human.

[fictionfromafar]

My favourite Crime fiction novels in Translation from 2020

Whatever 2020 has thrown at us, it has certainly given us more time to read!

Before listing my favourite books published in 2020, here is a mention of some of the older books that I have enjoyed this year:

The Fragility Of Bodies – Sergio Alguin (Argentina)

The Shadow Of The Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Spain)

Miss Smila’s Feeling For Snow – Peter Hoeg (Denmark)

The Undesired - Yrsa Sigurdardottir (Iceland)

Baby Blue – Pol Koutsakis (Greece)

Red April – Santiago Roncagloilo (Peru)

Endgame – Ahmet Altan (Turkey)

The Body Snatcher – Patricia Melo (Brazil)

The Good Son - You-Jeong Jeong (South Korea)

Havana Fever - Leonardo Padura (Cuba)

The Lady Killer - Masako Togawa (Japan)

Entanglement - Zygmunt Milosewski (Poland)

Snare - Lilja Sigurðardóttir (Iceland)

The Defensiveness - Kati Heikkapelto (Finland)

Three Days And A Life - Pierre Lamaitre (France)

The Winter Queen - Boris Akunin (Russia)

Back Up - Paul Colize (Belgium)

Death of a Red Heroine - Qui Xiaolong (China)

Smaller and Smaller Circle - FH Batacan (Philippines)

Three, An Imperfect Number - Patrizia Rinaldi (Italy)

So due to the above list and more, it took me a while to get really started in 2020. The following 10 novels are at the timing of writing, each but one I have already reviewed, so my favourite reads published this year:

The Silence Of The White City by Eva García Sáenz, translated by Nick Caistor, Vintage Crime / Black Lizard (Spain)

A captivating read about twin murders in the Basque Country – this novel gives a strong location setting, history, intrigue, convincing characters and a great whodunit!

The Man In The Woods by Ilaria Tuti, translated by Ekin Oklap, Weidenfield & Nicholson Orion (Italy)

Set in the Italian Alpes this novel features both a unique lead detective and a unpredictable and wild perpetrator.

The Coral Bride by Roxanne Bouchard, translated by David Warriner, Orenda Books (Canada)

Set in a remote fishing community in Quebec, this is a captivating read in an enchanting setting.

The Creak On The Stairs by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir, translated by Victoria Cribb, Orenda (Iceland)

Such an accomplished debut novel, set in a small town in Iceland

The Lost and The Damned – Olivier Norek, translated by Nick Caistor, MacLehose Press (France)

The first volume of the Banlieues Triology featuring Captain Victor Coste of the Parisian violent crime unit. Review coming soon

The next five as as follows:

Summer of Reckoning by Marion Brunet, translated by Katherine Gregor. Bitter Lemon Press (France)

Betrayal by Lilja Sigurðardóttir, translated by Quintin Bates, Orenda Books (Iceland)

Like Flies From Afar by K. Ferrari, translated by Adrian Nathan West, Canongate (Argentina)

Mexico Street by Simone Buchholz, translated by Rachel Ward, Orenda Books (Germany)

Sword by Bogdan Teodorescu, translated by Marina Sofia, Corylus Books (Romania)

Special mentions also for Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor – Fitzcarraldo Editions (Mexico) and The Fox by Solveig Palsdottir (Iceland)

I’ve still more books to review from 2020, among this pile are some you may see reviewed soon.

Here is a list of most of 2020's releases available through Bookshop.org

So it’s far from out with the old and in with the new. Happy Hogmanay!

[connan-l]

Insignificant

Fandom: Ciconia: When They Cry

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationship: Lilja Viljakainen/Koshka

Summary: It was a long time ago since she had stopped caring about the things and people of this depraved world. Or at least, that was what she'd like to think.

Content Warnings: Vague mentions of human experimentations, child soldiers/child abuse and allusions to traumas.

________________________________________________________________

Link on Archive of Our Own

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Notes: This is a thanks gift for @TimeTravelTiddy on Twitter!

I originally didn’t intend to write something for Ciconia until we had more of the story because, well, it’s just the beginning and I don’t think I have a good grasp on these characters and their relationships yet. Which is why I tried to stay pretty vague and made it short. But well, here we are I guess, and these girls are good and deserve it.

________________________________________________________________

She was staring vacantly at her drink.

Her thick green mane was messily cascading on her shoulders, her burgundy long skirt falling all over her chair and on the ground, her hands circling her cup limply.

She was all alone in the cafeteria, with no apparent expression on her bandaged, disfigured face. She wasn’t moving, didn’t even seem to breathe at all, like a corpse — a heartless, soulless mannequin. An equipment.

The only thing she was doing was looking fixedly at her drink — a weird bluish milkshake — as if she was hypnotized by it.

And it bothered Lilja.

It shouldn’t bother her, but for some reason it does. And as she couldn’t pinpoint why it bothered her so much, it was starting to piss her off — her teeth grinding, her fingers taping on her arms and her feet stomping on the ground.

“Um… What are you doing?”

It was a small, hesitant voice that got her out of her frustrated thoughts circle. She shrieked, quickly turned around and saw a young girl with blue hair and timorous golden eyes. As soon as she recognized her fellow teammate, her irritation just get only an inch further, annoyed that she had let this moron of all people sneak out on her.

“Since when what I’m doing is any concern of yours, Chloe?” She snaps back. “You better take a look at yourself before playing busybody, meow!”

Chloe shrank under Lilja’s glare and uttered a sound that could only be described as a mouse suddenly founding itself cornered by a cat.

“I-I didn’t mean to play busybody!” She countered. “I-It’s just, well, you’ve been standing there staring at Koshka for quite some time, so I was wondering—”

“I wasn’t staring at her, meow! Who would’ve even stare at this gloomy chick? I can’t even stand to feel her presence!”

The other girl grimaced, her mouth making that weird distorted thing she did whenever she was in a pinch. But strangely enough, for once, she didn’t back down from Lilja’s verbal attack. She sustained her glare, and softly asked:

“Then what were you doing?”

Lilja blinked, not expecting Chloe to retort something to her, which was pretty unusual. She looked away and groaned, crossing her arms. “Nothing,” she mumbled.

“But you’re still acting weird?”

“I’m not acting weird, meow! Koshka’s the one acting weird! And if she wasn’t acting weird then I wouldn’t have to be acting weird, meow!”

“So you’re still admitting you’re acting weird then…?”

“Ahh, don’t try to be a smartass with me or I’ll tell Okonogi you called him a blockhead!”

“No! I’m sorry, I’m not a smartass! I’m not a smartass at all!”

‘Okonogi’ had become the secret magic word that would make Chloe do anything Lilja wanted. Well, it worked with Chloe, but not with Chloevil, and Lilja was never sure when that one was gonna pop up so she had to stay vigilant. Though it didn’t seem like it was gonna be the case right now. Currently, her teammate was fidgeting all while looking nervously from right to left, probably afraid to once again say the wrong thing that would trigger Lilja’s annoyance.

But, to be honest… she would never be as anxious as Lilja was in her presence. Chloe was so unpredictable, and although it was fun to tease her, Lilja couldn’t help but always have her guard up around her, to always be tense. She would never admit it to anyone, of course, but that uneasiness wouldn’t leave her.

In a way, she felt that way with Koshka too, but with her, things were even more complicated.

“So… why is Koshka acting weird?” Chloe finally asked tentatively.

Lilja looked at her, then sighed, and redirected her eyes towards the last member of Grave Mole who was a few meters away from them. She still hadn’t noticed them, and seemed a lot more interested in her gross-looking milkshake than in anything else. Was that thing even a milkshake to begin with?

“Lilja?”

“She’s just been weird since this morning. Like, she’s…” She hesitated, and winced instinctively. “Depressed. Or something.”

“Oh. I… I think I noticed that a little, yeah. She was acting a bit off during our training session…”

That she certainly had. Miyao had reprimanded her about how she was slacking off even more than usual, and even Gunhild had given her a gentle warning. But it wasn’t that she was being lazy. Lilja knew when Koshka was slacking off, and this wasn’t it. There was… something different. Like she was just… feeling down. And it was weird. And it irritated her that it was weird.

“Are you… worried about her?”

Lilja’s mind had gone blank at Chloe’s suggestion. Then she was annoyed, and angry. And then she felt like laughing. So she did.

“Me? Worried? About that stupid hick?” She repeated after calming down, her voice full of disbelief. “Geez, I’ve always known you were an idiot, Chloe, but here I’m really stunned, meow! Do you honestly think I would ever be worried about her? Or about anyone? Do you really love Okonogi’s chops that much, meow?”

Chloe squealed, and all while muttering “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” she quickly jumped away from Lilja like a rabbit, her blue ponytail bouncing back at the same time. The blonde let out a sigh, finally being alone and in peace. Or so she thought, because as soon as she did Chloe’s voice yet again interrupted her:

“You should go talk to her.”

Lilja’s green eyes widened. Chloe had an odd, small smile on her lips. But she didn’t add any more that she quickly ran out of the cafeteria, disappearing behind the door. Lilja just stared at where she had been in astonishment. Once again, she felt completely baffled by Chloe. That girl made absolutely zero sense. But…

She looked over at the table where Koshka was sat, just as still as ever. Chloe was a weirdo, but maybe she wasn’t entirely wrong this time. She certainly couldn’t stay here in the middle of the cafeteria staring at her teammate silently. It was even creepier and wackier than Koshka herself. But even so, she was just… unsure how to approach her.

Lilja wasn’t worried. She really wasn’t. After all, their entire relationship rested only on lies and deception. There was nothing genuine in there, so nothing like care or concern could ever birth in her mind. No, it was nothing like that. She was just…

She inspired profoundly, placarded her usual smug grin on her face and finally took a few steps forward. Once she reached Koshka’s table, she forcefully put her hand on the surface — practically hit it, really — making the other girl jump and almost knocking over her drink.

“Heya! There you are, you gloomy hick! Meow, meow, meow!”

Koshka slowly raised her head towards Lilja, and stared at her in silence. Well, at least Lilja thought she was staring at her. It was hard to say really, given her eyes were always hidden behind all her cluster of hair and bandages.

Sometimes, Lilja wondered what Koshka’s eyes looked like.

What shapes they must have, what color they must be tainted of. What sort of glitters and sparkles they must shine with.

But then she wondered why she was even thinking about it at all and got weirded out by her own self.

“Well, well, you’re just as peppy and chatty as usual, huh?”

“Shut up. I don’t want to see you. Go away.”

Lilja’s smile disappeared and she frowned a little, but it was only for a brief second. It wasn’t unusual for Koshka to speak to her dryly, but again, there was just something off with it today. That didn’t mean she was gonna listen to her, though. At the contrary, she took a chair and sat at the table in front of her rival. She crossed her legs defiantly as if she owned the place, and glared down at Koshka.

“For real,” Lilja started off in an atypical serious tone. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing. Go away.”

“C’mon! You can do that with Miyao or stupid Chloe, but not with me!”

“This is none of your business.”

“Oh, really now? You’re really playing it like that?”

“Why are you insisting so much? Since when do you even care?”

Koshka raised her head towards her once again, and although Lilja was still unable to see her eyes, she was pretty sure she was glaring at her. And for some reason, this made her freeze. Somehow, there was something in Koshka — in her mannerism, in her voice — that felt… wrong. There was no biting remarks, no insults, no snappy comebacks. Just coldness and indifference. And it made her uncomfortable.

“I…”

She hesitated. Stopped. Looked away, looking outside the window while putting her chin in her hand.

The response was obvious. She didn’t care. She had no reason to care. This was all lies and falseness and pretense. What was there to care about?

“It’s just… You’re weird, and like, not in your usual, depressing weirdness, and I… don’t like that. Okay? It pisses me off, meow! So, yeah, if you wanna know, I don’t care! Sheesh, I’m just angry.”

And this, this wasn’t a lie. She was angry. How could she not be angry, when Koshka was acting like that? Still, the other replied nothing, seemingly preferring to go back at staring mindlessly at her cup of milkshake. Lilja sighed.

“Does it… have something to do with the experimentations? With Geroy?”

Lilja thought that whatever happened, it was probably the only thing that could put her in such a state. But Koshka stayed quiet. Not that she was truly expecting an answer — especially if it was related to Geroy, it was unsurprising that Koshka didn’t want to tell her anything about it. Lilja knew that, despite the fact she had managed to create some sort of bond with Koshka, managed to more-or-less crack up her shell a little, the other girl was still deeply suspicious of her. Of everyone, really. After all, Koshka said it herself all the time — she believed in no one.

Not that Lilja blamed her. She was the same, after all.

Maybe it was why, out of everyone, she was able to understand Koshka the best.

Slowly, she extended her arm, and with a gentleness unbecoming of her, she touched Koshka’s hand. She was pretty sure she heard her gasp slightly, but that didn’t stop her. Her fingers tentatively brushed her skin, searching for a reaction, a yearning, a warmth maybe. She intertwined them with her own, clumsily, as if it was the first time she was doing something like this. But then she realized that it really was, actually, the first time she was doing something like this.

Initiating contact with someone else. Holding a person’s hand. Reaching out to another human being.

As human as the two of them could be, anyway.

Koshka’s hand was cold and rough; her fingers were pudgy and her skin was covered in small scratches and scars, both old and fresh. Lilja always thought she was a really plain and ugly girl, really — and she was sure she would still be one even without her mutilated, grubby body. Still, she didn’t let go of her hand.

She’d first thought Koshka was going to protest — slap her hand away, throw at her a few insults and leave the cafeteria. But oddly enough, she didn’t. Maybe there truly was something off with her today, because she just kept staring at Lilja’s hand holding hers in silence — and Lilja would have honestly killed to have a clear view of her face right now, to know what her expression was truly like.

And when she felt Koshka’s hand move and returning her grasp, her heart genuinely skipped a beat for a second. What the hell was going on? She had no idea. But she didn’t dare to do anything, to say anything, for fear to break this moment.

It seemed as if the entirety of the cafeteria had disappeared — the entirety of this cursed world even — and for this fluttering, fragile moment, they were just the two of them in the whole universe, and nothing else mattered.

None of them said anything. There was no bickering, no insults, no silly rivalry or noisy bravado.

And maybe everything was all lies and falseness and pretense, and maybe genuineness was something Lilja annihilated from herself a long time ago.

Maybe this moment meant nothing at all, in the middle of their twisted, unstable world — something that was soon going to be destroyed and forgotten, like everything else.

But still, in this tiny, silent, inconsequential short time, this suddenly felt real.

It still existed. It still was there.

This was a pointless, worthless moment between two broken girls, and maybe among all the deceptiveness, this was genuine, and so maybe the rest of the world didn’t matter.

[lyendith]

Ciconia no Naku Koro ni Phase 1 : To You, The Replaceable Ones

I had planned to write this… review? analysis? of Ciconia Phase 1 right after finishing the game about two weeks after its release, but since then I've had trouble organizing my thoughts. The reason is that this first installment alone tackles a lot of themes: war, nationalism, technoscientism, media consumption and manipulation, the blurring limits between physical and virtual reality, education systems, generational gaps induced by technology, artificial procreation, old people robbing the youth of their dreams, the meaning of family and interpersonal bonds, and even transidentity (albeit briefly). And it is quite remarkable that almost all of those themes are represented by one object: the Gauntlet and the idea of “parallel processing” associated with it.

It's gonna be a long and messy review, I'll probably forget to mention some aspects of the story or overlook others, and I won't talk about every single character, but I'll try to cover the essential parts. Not easy considering how densely-packed the story is, but let's go!

So to start, I should probably focus on this VN's protagonist, Mitake Miyao. On a surface level, he's a bit of what you'd call a “tsundere”: harsh, a little irritable and sarcastic with his pals, but always well-meaning and easy to befriend in the end. One of the running threads of the story so far is that he's too well-meaning in fact, idealistic to a fault, which contributes to his odd charisma but also makes the increasing realization of his powerlessness all the more depressing. You don't want to see this guy fail, but because of the way the story is framed, you know he inevitably will.

For a while, the narration and dialogue like to repeat that “youngsters are each generation's main characters”, but that's a sentiment I couldn't quite share − in our real world, youngsters may be the ones will all the dreams, but they sure as hell aren't the ones making the decisions. The climate change crisis, for example, wouldn't be left unaddressed if that was the case. And sure enough, Ciconia isn't so naïve as to ignore that reality. Every single step of the way, Miyao thinks he can use his power to overturn the situation. Every single step of the way, he's reminded that in the end he's just a pawn moving however his higher-ups or other nebulous forces wish him to. That's a really powerful and relatable theme in this day and age, which raises the question of how far you can oppose a system you're an essential part of.

One thing that makes Miyao special, at least compared to his pals from the AOU, is that he's “ciconia-born” − born from natural procreation. Which means that unlike Jayden or Gunhild, he has bilogical family bonds but also hasn't been subjected to a genetic selection that would predetermine his path in life. At least supposedly, but we gradually learn that that may not quite be the case. In fact, that biological link to Toujirou ends up acting as a tether that robs Miyao of even more control on his own life than he thought, leading to the final tragedy of this first Phase.

There also lies this story's commentary on technology and man's increasing dependence on it − technology makes the kids' life easier, but it's also their undoing. One technology prevented an apocalypse that another caused, and the loss of the former brings about a new apocalypse. Humans created the 8MS but only a handful of scientists have a full understanding of how it works, just like today's technology are only fully understood by a small elite of technicians. We are increasingly dependent on tools whose principles are increasingly out of our grasp. Again, the Gauntlet is another reflection of that.

But back to Miyao and the Gauntlet Knights. In retrospect, it is clear that the way both the characters and readers learn about most dramatic developments through disincarnated news reports (with a goofy “news flash” alert by the frog AI Keropoyo to make it worse) is meant to build up that feeling of powerlessness, and also of disconnect. We should be alarmed that war is approaching, that terrible things are happening… but it all feels distant. After all, do you cry or tremble in fear when you learn that an eathquake killed a thousand people on the other side of the globe? No, you'll think “it's terrible” for a minute and then move on, because what can you do about it? Reading the second half of Ciconia felt a lot like that. And while that's part of the message, it is also to the detriment of the reading experience a lot of the time.

For a while (around the 60-to-80% portion of the game, roughly) we get a lot of redundant dialogue about commenting the news and Miyao rambling on about how they're all COMRADES MAINTAINING THE WALLS OF PEACE, again and again and again, to the point it becomes annoying. That's my only real gripe with the game − the feeling that, at times, Ryukishi forgot he was writing a story and went into political or philosophical essays about its themes instead. Maybe a manga or anime adaptation could help make these parts more… show-don't-telly. But as it is, it could have used some serious trimming down. That's hardly something entirely new − who can forget Krauss' tangent about 1986 Japan's economic situation or Beatrice's explanation of Hempel's crow? But in Ciconia the narration doesn't seem to come from any specific point of view except that of the author (and even on that front, the opening disclaimer warns us that the views expressed don't necessarily reflect the author's opinions), so those parts become all the more conspicuous. Unless this all turns out to be part of a Witch's game, which wouldn't be surprising.

Where Ciconia shines however, is at weaving a web of connections between the characters, one by one, to make you care about some and suspicious of others, sometimes both, and deliberately confuse you about who really controls whom. First we have the kids, with Warcat and Grave Mole which instantly grew on me (the slice-of-life TIPS focused on them had some of my favorite scenes actually), then the other kette with their own quirky charms… then the “villains”, with Toujirou and Seshat, then the Three Kings and Jestress who has a delightful dynamic with Toujirou, and then Toujirou is revealed to be Miyao's father, etc... It's a testament to how well all of those characters are established that I could remember almost all of them very quickly despite their massive number. Save for the Cairo Squad maybe. They're just kinda there. The (mostly) gorgeous character designs certainly help, even if Ryukishi still has a somewhat loose grasp of body proportions and of the… number of fingers on human hands. There's some improvement even in that department though.

While Miyao is for the most part the center of the cast, at least on the kids' side, that doesn't mean the others aren't interesting in their own right. Jayden is your classic “best buddy dudebro” whose easygoingness lets him bounce off Miyao's more strait-laced personality in a fun way, but his relationship with Meow, Miyao's “little sister” who shares the same body, allows him to show more sensitivity and shyness he would otherwise have. Speaking of Meow, she brings about another interesting element of worldbuilding − the existence of “Congenital Parallel Processors”, or CPPs, i.e. people born with multiple personalities, who are not considered mentally ill but a full-fledged minority with its own issues and “coming outs”. Although that aspect isn't developped much (Meow herself kind of disappears from the radar in the second half), we do get other examples of how it can manifest, notably with the character of Naima, whose unnamed alter-ego is violently protective of her, or Rukshana who's prone to abrupt personality changes when she laughs. The way Jayden kinda walks on eggs but genuinely tris to to treat Meow as her as her own person while respecting her and Miyao's privacy is frankly adorable, and I almost wish we got more of that at least in the TIPs!

The kette I found the most interesting, though, was Grave Mole, composed of Chloe, Lilja and Koshka. While a lot of characters have issues, all three of these girls are complete mental wrecks to some degree. Koshka spends her time between grumpily taking part in Kizuna chat rooms and horrific body experiments (usually simultaneously) when she's not training, Lilja has to take drugs to pretend like she's a happy, cute and mischievous cat-girl for the sake of making Koshka a more-or-less functional human being, and Chloe has to constantly deal with unfair punishments and a constantly battered self-esteem. As comedic as Okonogi's angry rants and karate-chops are played (and as much as I like this version of Okonogi, strangely enough), that scene where she gleefully lets Lilja be killed in battle makes it clear that her mental state is just as unstable as the other two's.

On the antagonists' side, things are a lot more blurry: a lot of them utter the arc phrase “All is in the name of guiding humanity down the right path.” However, what the right path is seems to vary depending on who says it. That's where a lot of the mystery lies − be it with Jestress, Seshat or Toushirou, their goals seem contradictory, and Tak… I mean Vier Dreissig doesn't even seem to have a goal beyond SCIENCE. But a big part of Phase 1's hook is that constant uncertainty as to who is playing whom and for what purpose. Even the Three Kings, who seem like your bog standard Illuminati knock-offs, might not be as much in control as they seem − hell, one of the big catastrophes (the fatal damage to the atmospheric 8MS) happens completely outside of their control, in an almost comically sudden way.

Speaking of comical… let's get to what I found personally fascinating but what other readers might have gripes with: the brutal tonal shifts and dissonances throughout the story. A cheery scene to announce the big success of a plan for the Order of the Public Bath? Keropoyo pops up to gleefully announce… an avalanche of terrible news that make the success from a minute ago meaningless. A big conference for peace where World War IV will most certainly be stopped? All of its participant die in an “accidental” explosion. Not to mention characters that are walking balls of tone dissonance like Chloe (who has many comical scenes but is clearly broken beyond repair) or the Yeladot Shavit girls (who by the end are forced to spew out fanatical bullshit with the same sparkly smile they sport when gushing about yuri ships).

This is of course embodied by the incredible climax where all the Gauntlet Knights celebrate their comraderie together in a virtual room… while their real selves are busy killing each other lest they're court-martialed for treason. The moment where all of Miyao's ideals are brutally trashed and scattered in a battle we don't even know the purpose of. The moment where the kids' taent for “parallel processing” becomes their sole mean of escaping the horror of their situation. The moment where all the absurdity, all the unfairness explodes in a depressing flourish. The moment also where the thematic resonance with Umineko becomes fully apparent − how can we not be reminded of Sayo and Maria escaping their shitty lives through their magic? Though of course Rose Guns Days also constantly came to mind, with the focus on war and nationalism, Japan being divided between a union led by the US and one led by China, and two of Miyao's closest friends being the American Jayden and the Chinese Lingji; as well as Miyao being an idealistic and charismatic leader-by-circumstance whose dreams crash into a wall much like Rose's in RGD.

So…

All in all, Ciconia might not entirely be what I expected from a When They Cry game, but it is certainly what I expect from a 07th Expansion game: a thought-provoking experience. Again, I finished my reading shocked and confused. Although it might seem like it shows its cards more explicitly than the openers of Higurashi and Umineko, deception still plays a big part in the story, even if the interaction with the reader is less direct.

Now there might be no murder mystery for the reader to solve, but that won't stop me from speculating! The invisible turning point to me is the “Proof of a Program” chapter, where Blue Miyao tells Miyao that he'll show him someone's face, and that that will activate Miyao's murder program instantly. Miyao first laughs it off, but then the scene brutally cuts to something that might be a flashback, a flash-forward or a nightmare, maybe all of that at once… The most graphically horrifying scene of the entire game, to the point it's almost at odds with the rest. And then… it's never mentioned again. Not even when Miyao meets again with Blue Miyao. Like it never happened. My theory is that everything Miyao experiences from that point onward is some kind of simulation, and that's where the obligatory When They Cry time loop will come from this time. See you in May for the answer?

That is all for today, folks!

[katajanokka]

11 Questions Meme

Rules: answer the questions of the person who tagged you, come up with 11 new ones, and tag 11 new people. I was tagged by @slothssassin and @occorner, thank you lovelies. :) I am tagging @amys2885, @cactuarkitty, @tessa1972, @somethingbanana, @thejeeperswife, @ieatlazers and @oliviawildesjawline - no pressure. ;) Here are my 11 questions:

1) If you could choose, in which could country would you like to live and why?

2) If you could live in a video game world, which would it be?

3) Do you any favourite herbs?

4) Which fictional character do you admire the most?

5) Do you prefer the sea or mountains?

6) Is there any era in which you would like to have lived?

7) Do you believe in reincarnation?

8) What is your favourite weather?

9) What would you consider your main vice?

10) Are you a family person?

11) Where do you see yourself in 10 years from now?

My answers to @slothssassin and @occorner questions are under the tag. ;)

@slothssassin questions:

1) What’s your all-time favourite song?

Hard to pick only one to be honest. Probably something from Tarja, like Crimson Deep. Depends on the mood. 

2) A country you always wanted to visit?

Iceland (dream come true this year!), more of Finland and then Canada and New Zealand. 

3) How has this year treated you so far?

I can’t complain, it could always be better but also a lot worse. 

4) Do you have any vacations planned?

Yes! :) Iceland soon and then there is the Gamescom with my sis and the Baltic Sea with my family. :)

5) Do you collect anything?

Anything? Well, a lot of things to be honest. :D

6) Which OC of yours is the most developed?

Hard to say...probably my Lynn Shepard, not least cause I had so many playthroughs already. :)

7) Who is your favourite artist? Again, not easy. :D There are so many areas to consider, so I’ll just randomly name some that come to my mind right now: Myazaki, Edvard Munch, Tarja, Ali Smith, Ingeborg Bachmann, Tove Jansson, Christa Wolf, tbc.

8) What’s your favourite book and why do you like it?

There are like 865392 faves here :D One very dear to me is certainly Amy Liptrot’s “The Outrun”. I love the contrast of the anonymous and desperately active city life and the harsh but soothing nature up in the North and how they mirror the protagonists soul.

9) 3 things you like about yourself?

Hum, my legs, my eye for details, my poems if ever I would write some these days

10) Your favourite soundtrack from a videogame?

AH! Dragon Age Inquisition, Fallout 4, Skyrim and Assassins Creed 2 as well as Life is Strange

11) Which game(s) are you currently playing? Mass Effect, again

@occorner ‘s questions:

1. Favorite season and why? I used to love the inbetween seasons, when it’s neither too hot nor too cold. Usually, it was always spring but that seems to get skipped nowadays. 

2. Something to make you happy. What is it? Being silly with my sis, watching birbs and animals in general, immersing myself into any piece of art, the ocean, my gf, talking to my mum...

3. Something that you dislike and it drives you insane? Arrogance, plainly put. The general disregard for our planet. Society’s structures and how people cling to it. 

4. Do you curse a lot? All the damn time, at least at work. 

5. One thing you always have on you, wherever you’re at? Some special pieces of jewelry, like a ring and pendant.  6. The OC of yours, you have most conflicting views with? To be honest, I don’t usually make OC’s whose views differ so much from my own.

7. Writer or artist? Maybe both? if so, which feels more like your element to you? I’ve always considered myself to be a writer and that’s what feels most close my heart, though I have drawn more than written in recent years. 

8. If you could live a life of your OC for a day, who you would change places with? Uh hard to say! My Lynn Shep? My Inquisitor Lilja? Or my Dragonborn Lyra, or maybe my Sole Lee? :D 9. Favorite game, which isn’t very popular, but you love it? I don’t know about popular but probably not so well known: The Council? 10. One character you like really much, but fandom/others are keen on criticizing a lot? Uhm, nothing comes to mind right now. I don’t know whether my faves are particulalry disliked?! 11. Favorite piece of clothing you own? One of my many comfy jumpers probably. :D

[wallpaperpainter]

22 Things You Need To Know About Watercolour Cartoon Paintings Today | Watercolour Cartoon Paintings

Blue Moon Arcade is appointed to reopen from 6-9 p.m. Friday, June 5, with four art exhibits featuring bounded and bounded artists, including Tim Decker, a Milwaukee-based action artisan who did appearance blueprint for the award-winning television alternation “The Simpsons,” and Tim Flynn, a Denver-based painter and sculptor now active in Waukegan.

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Decker will be presenting nine huge canvasses of acrylic paintings featuring the abounding bright characters that “live in his cranium.”

Decker is an award-winning action and action artisan for his assignment in children’s gaming with Disney Interactive. He has additionally won three bounded Emmy Awards for his assignment with children’s television and is a accepted bedfellow on Imagination Station, area he aspires to burn the adroitness of the abutting bearing of action artists.

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He is currently a bedfellow academician at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Peck School of Arts and the Milwaukee Area Technical College, area he teaches animation, claymation, puppetry and illustration.

He is additionally the co-founder of Black Cat Alley, a beautification activity in city Milwaukee. Decker’s action art is universal, ambrosial to bodies of all ages, genders and cultures.

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Flynn will be presenting 19 works, including bristles alloyed media sculptures and 14 acrylic paintings. Flynn’s appearance is featuring four 36-inch-by-36-inch canvasses, all of which were created during the coronavirus communicable calm order.

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[miss-mesmerized]

Stefan Ahnhem – Motive X

It’s only four weeks after his life was almost completely devastated, but now Fabian Risk sees light again when his daughter Matilda wakes from the coma. Yet, there is not really the time to spend it with his family since Helsingborg police have several tricky cases to solve: a young boy is found dead in a washing machine, a woman is killed and a third murder case also does not seem to have any recognizable pattern. The team’s nerves are on the edge since all of them also have to fight with their own demons. For Fabian, there is also something that has been nagging him since they found their former colleague Elvin dead in his apartment: he cannot believe in the suicide theory and slowly, the pieces seem to fall into place, but does he like the result? Could one of their colleagues actually be a serial murderer?

 Stefan Ahnhem continues in this instalment of the Fabian Risk series exactly where he stopped in “18 below”. Quite often you can read a novel form a series without knowing what happened before, here, however, you will certainly not understand a lot without any prior knowledge. And it is obvious that there is more to come since, unfortunately, the big questions are not answered and this is why I could not rate it with five stars.

 Again, the author underlines why he is one of the big names of Scandinavian crime. Ahnhem does not tell one story, but he has several plots running parallel, oscillating between them and pushing forward the pots at a very high speed. Admittedly, I could not really say which one is the most important plot here, but it made completely sense since life isn’t a succession of stories that wait in line until their time has come. This happen at the same time and rarely do you have the time to only focus on one case or problem at a time.

 Since there is so much going on in “Motive X”, the character development is a bit reduced, but Risk seems to have found his private case to investigate all alone. This will surely be decisive for his life, even more than his family life which is in a very fragile state. Whom I followed eagerly again was Irene Lilja, she surely is somehow out of control, but her motives are good.

 All in all, a great read with all the ingredients for a thriller that hooks you at once.

https://missmesmerized.wordpress.com/2019/05/07/stefan-ahnhem-motive-x/

[jenmedsbookreviews]

In a week where I almost retired from blogging (well I thought about it fractionally at least) I have to say that I have been at possibly my most stressed in a very long time. It is actually nothing to do with the blog, although I have been ‘complaining’ all week about lack of love i.e. lack of ‘book post’. It is a plight of many a blogger, some of whom can be quite perplexed and upset about it, especially when they see the book they covet in the hands of another blogger or reader. I, to be fair, don’t really care much, but the obligatory ‘book post shelfie’ can lead to many a green-eyed monster in the blogging world, and if we’re honest, it seems we’ve enough of those going around already. You only need to ask some of my fellow bloggers about life in Twitter and Facebook jail.

Least said soonest mended on that front…

When it comes to book post, I’m actually lucky if I received one piece of book post every five or six weeks, and my last hit, until this week, was at the beginning of September, so this month has been nothing out of the ordinary. I think there are only about four publishers on the planet who have my actual address if I am honest so I should not be surprised by the lack of actual post lol. I am still getting review requests (have you folks read my reviews? Why would you do that?) and more than enough approvals on NetGalley which, along with my excessive book purchases, are enough to keep me in books until I actually can retire from the day job. In about thirty years or so…

That said, I was very moved and overwhelmingly grateful to receive a lovely ‘care’ package from Katherine Sunderland on Friday courtesy of her and the team over at No Exit Press (one of the four publishers with my address details :D). I love Katherine and her blog. She is genuinely lovely and such a positive supporter of the bookish world I’m very happy to call her a friend.

Isn’t that lovely? I shall look forward to sitting down and reading Larry and the Dog People. This certainly cheered me up after a very long week at work where my mood was at a considerable low, my swearing at a considerable high and the only highlight worth mentioning was a nice curry out with my team to celebrate nearing the end of part one of budget hell. It’s a tradition and something I do with them every year, in part to say a small thanks for all of their hard work throughout the year.

Book post, it appears, is like the proverbial London bus… You wait weeks for some and then two come along all at once. Saturday I returned home from sorting out a phone upgrade to two more parcels. One was the signed first edition copy of Val McDermid’s Insidious Intent which I was waiting on from Goldsboro. The other one was the second book in the Hendrik Groen series, On The Bright Side which is out in January. I loved the original book so can’t wait to tuck into this one. Big thanks to Sam Deacon at Penguin Michael Joseph for sending it to me. And also a big thanks to Lloyd Otis for the invite to attend his book launch in London in a couple of weeks. I can actually attend this one and I can’t wait.

I feel loved again. But it’s all okay anyway. As you can see from the picture at the top, I have Belgian Chocolate Mushrooms. I am saving them to eat on Friday when my review of the fungi-tastic The Man Who Died by Antti Tuomainen is reviewed on the blog. I’ll need sustenance by then. Several early starts and some property viewings scheduled for this week. It’s going to be a long one…

NetGalley wise I was quite restrained. For me. Only two titles. One I needed for a blog tour the other for my Christmas feature in November so they don’t count… Sort of. I bagged copies of Christmas at Hope Cottage by Lily Graham and Cold Christmas by Alastair Gunn. Another Penguin MJ title that I was actually invited to read. I’m sure many thousands of others were too but it’s almost as if they might like me. Just a little bit…

Amazon and book purchase wise… Yes well. Least said soonest mended on that front too. Whoops.

I may, may have preordered the signed hardback copy of Whiteout by Ragnar Jonasson from Goldsboro. May… I ‘may’ also have ordered a physical copy of The Man Who Died by Antti Tuomainen. Not that I enjoyed it or anything. Or that I have the kindle version on pre-order. Just saying…

I may also have pre-ordered Before I Let You Go by Kelly Rimmer, Killed, the fifth Henning Juul book by Thomas Enger, Hydra by Matt Wesolwski, Deep Blue Trouble by Steph Broadribb, Shadows by Paul Finch, Her Best Friend by Sarah Wray, Mother by S.E. Lynes, Sometimes I Kill by Alice Feeney,  Gone Missing by T.J. Brearton, Hello Again by Brenda Novak and The CWA Short Story Anthology.

And placed orders for The Undesired by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and The Foster Child by Jenny Blackhurst.

Seriously. I need help. Still, my plan not to leave the family any inheritance appears to be on track 😀

Reading wise, give how busy and tired I’ve been, I managed three books, which I’m happy with.

Books I have read.

The Fallen Agent by Oliver Tidy

Jess Albion has recently started a new life on the other side of the world with a new identity. She used to be MI5. Then a job went bad, someone died and she was made an example of in the British courts. But MI5 look after their own. Or they did until rumours of a planned Al Qaeda biological terror attack on London started circulating. Now someone in the British security services is giving agents up in return for information. No price, it seems, is too high to save London from the ultimate threat.

When Jess’s fresh start is compromised she has a choice to make: run and hide and spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder or go looking for the threat and snuff it out. On her own, she’d run, but she has Nick on her side.

The Fallen Agent is a story of love and hate, of loyalty and betrayal, of revenge and callous disregard for human life in the pursuit of satisfaction.

The first in a new series about former spook Jess Albion, this book is high in action and tension. Centered around the threat of a potential biological attack on London, the story is one of betrayal and revenge. My review will be on the blog in a few weeks as part of the tour. In the mean time you can pre-order the book here.

…

Snare by Lilja Sigurdardottir

After a messy divorce, attractive young mother Sonia is struggling to provide for herself and keep custody of her son. With her back to the wall, she resorts to smuggling cocaine into Iceland, and finds herself caught up in a ruthless criminal world.

As she desperately looks for a way out of trouble, she must pit her wits against her nemesis, Bragi, a customs officer, whose years of experience frustrate her new and evermore daring strategies. Things become even more complicated when Sonia embarks on a relationship with a woman, Agla. Once a high-level bank executive, Agla is currently being prosecuted in the aftermath of the Icelandic financial crash.

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, Snare is an outstandingly original and sexy Nordic crime thriller, from one of the most exciting new names in crime fiction.

Wow. What a book. I raced through this in just under a day and enjoyed every minute of it. Poor Sonia. I really felt for her. I had a bit of an inkling of what was happening but it didn’t make it any less shocking when it was confirmed. And such a compelling story, a bit cat and mouse, with a whole lot of threat. Loved it. My review will be published in a couple of weeks, in the meantime you can preorder a copy of the book here.

…

Fox Hunter by Zoe Sharp

FOX HUNTER is the latest in Zoë Sharp’s highly acclaimed Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Fox crime thriller series.

‘The dead man had not gone quietly … There was a time when I would have given everything I owned to be the one responsible for that.’

Charlie Fox will never forget the men who put a brutal end to her military career, but she vowed a long time ago she would not go looking for them.

Now she doesn’t have a choice.

Her boss and former lover, Sean Meyer, is missing in Iraq where one of those men was working as a private security contractor. When the man’s butchered body is discovered, Charlie fears that Sean may be pursuing a twisted vendetta on her behalf.

Sean’s partner in their exclusive New York close-protection agency needs this dealt with—fast and quiet—before everything they’ve worked for is in ruins. He sends Charlie to the Middle East with very specific instructions:

Find Sean Meyer and stop him. By whatever means necessary.

At one time Charlie thought she knew Sean better than she knew herself, but it seems he’s turned into a violent stranger. As the trail grows more bloody, Charlie realises that unless she can get to Sean first, the hunter may soon become the hunted.

Okay. So as per usual I’m a little late to the party. Way beyond fashionably so but better late than never I always say. This is my first Charlie Fox book but after hearing the author read from it at Noir at the Bar at Harrogate, I couldn’t resist when invited to be a part of the blog tour. High on action, this is totally my kind of book. You can find out how much so in a couple of week. While you’re waiting you can order yourself a copy of the book here.

…

That was it. All I managed. I ran out of time. Some rather ambitious reading targets for this week given that I’m driving all around the country for half of it, but I will achieve. I am determined and bloody minded enough.

Blog wise, another full on week behind me with a mix of reviews and blog tours posts.

Maria In The Moon by Louise Beech

Kisses From Nimbus by P.J. ‘Red’ Riley

#Booklove: Mandie Griffiths

The Surrogate by Louise Jensen

House of Spines by Michael J. Malone

Operation Clean Up Day by Jason Tucker

We’ll Always Have Christmas by Jenny Hale

Lies That Poison by Amanda Fleet

A mad week really when you think about it. And I reviewed my first Christmas book. Go me!

The week ahead is just as manic in all quarters. Blog wise it’s the usual mix of reviews, booklove and blog tours. First up today is Mandie’s blog tour review of The Bad Sister by Anne Penketh. On Wednesday I have a blog tour guest post from Will Campbell, author of Sometimes The Darkness. Thursday I have a Q&S with debut author, Caroline England, and more blog tours on Friday with reviews of The Man Who Died by Antti Tuomainen, The Mistake by K.L. Slater and a further guest post on Saturday from author Donald M Bell and his book, Doing Scary. I’ll be rounding out the week with a review. Hope you can join me.

Tonight, all being well and barring any natural disasters, I will be making the most of my proximity to London with work and attending my first ever First Monday Crime. It’s a cracking line up with Ann Cleeves, Mark Edwards, Caz Frear and Lilja Sigurdardottir. Oh, and some bloke called Rod Reynolds apparently. I can’t wait. I may even see some of you there. All I have to do is find the place. Wish me luck…

Do hope that you have a wonderfully bookish week all. See you next time

Jen

  Rewind, recap: Weekly update w/e 01/10/17 In a week where I almost retired from blogging (well I thought about it fractionally at least) I have to say that I have been at possibly my most stressed in a very long time.

[fictionfromafar]

Harm by Sólveig Pálsdóttir

Corylus Books Tours

Harm

By Sólveig Pálsdóttir

Translated by Quentin Bates

Publication Date: 15 September 2022

Two years ago the independent book publisher Corylus Books introduced English readers to Icelandic author Sólveig Pálsdóttir with The Fox featuring the lead character of Reykjavik detective Gudgier Fransson and his colleague Elsa Gudrún. Following 2021’s Silenced, Harm is the third book in her Ice & Crime series. The translation is by Quentin Bates who many will recognise for his own novels and for translations of other Icelandic authors such as Ragnar Jónasson and Lilja Sigurdardóttir.

One key factor of Pálsdóttir’s translated work to date is the range of locations that her books are set. This definitely makes her novels particularly insightful to an overseas audience. It leads a wider viewpoint about an island too often portrayed as simply dark and cold with dramatic scenery. Harm is largely set in the Westman Islands which are located off the south coast of Iceland and accessed by ferry from the mainland. A doctor by the name of Ríkhardur Magnusson is taking a break with his girlfriend, personal trainer Diljá and two further couples. After having a meal together they leave the other four members of their group to return to their luxury caravan. In the morning Diljá wakes up and discovers that Ríkhardur is dead. Instead of informing the authorities of his death, she flees from the island without even telling her friends. Due to the limited police resources in the area, Gudgier Fransson and a colleague are asked to travel to Westman to help commence the investigation.

While it will take time to discover the cause of Ríkhardur’s death a potential poison is found in the caravan. In such a remote place if his death was suspicious, the list of potential suspects would naturally be very small. When the other members of the party confirm that they were not close to Ríkhardur and that from their observations he and Diljá appeared ill-suited with the latter showing impatience and dissatisfaction over their relationship, it does appears that this could be an open and shut case where the only requirement is to find the missing Diljá. When the toxicology report confirms Ríkhardur died of poisoning and a suggestion implies that Diljá was having an affair was one of the other men, Eygló. He is her colleague at the gym she works at. This appears to make her motive even more categorical. Yet when an unidentified call to the police discloses her secret location, it does seem there could perhaps be more to Ríkhardur’s death than originally envisaged.

There are some interesting moral and ethical considerations to Harm. It becomes clear that Diljá has come from a troubled background. While her relationship with Ríkhardur has provided her with some financial stability, her involvement with him has come at a considerable cost. Twenty years her elder, Ríkhardur, who has been married before, has very set expectations as to the roles his wife should perform for him. It is for the reader to conclude if this has made her life happier. Facing the resentment of his family, Diljá has prefers the company of her friends, particularly Eygló with whom she shares similar interests. Indeed the modern worldly pursuits of happiness and lifestyle choices of the characters is a key theme within the story.

The story also introduces some depth to the regular characters. Fransson has had to come to terms with his onetime assistant now being his boss and has held preconceptions about his daughter’s boyfriend. Elsa Gudrún is attempting to put the emotional and physical trauma she suffered in the previous novel in the series behind her. These delicate nuances between the investigating team are carefully written which is reflected in the translation by Quentin Bates. It certainly helps to ensure that the story feels grounded in realism and credible. Together the team examine several lines of investigation which then appear can be rejected as being red herrings before the detectives eventually reach the path that leads to the truth.

In comparison to the other established Icelandic authors, Sólveig Pálsdóttir can perhaps be most closely associated to the pioneering Arnaldur Indridason in terms of placing and plot development. There are no superficial shocks or scares based on the often inhospitable environment nor are there any episodes of forced melodramatic tension or high body counts in her novels. Instead what Harm offers is a solid socially aware police procedural where subtlety comes ahead of savagery. Like the preceding stories in the series, it is well worthy of your attention.

Many thanks to Corylus Books for an advance copy of Harm and to Ewa Sherman for inclusion on the blog tour. Please check out the other reviews below:

Sólveig Pálsdóttir trained as an actor and has a background in the theatre, television and radio. In a second career she studied for degrees in literature and education, and has taught literature and linguistics, drama and public speaking. She has also produced both radio programming and managed cultural events. Her first novel appeared in Iceland in 2012 and went straight to the country’s bestseller list. She has written six novels featuring Reykjavík detective Guðgeir Fransson, and a memoir Klettaborgin which was a 2020 hit in Iceland. Silenced (Fjötrar) received the 2020 Drop of Blood award for the best Icelandic novel of the year and was Iceland’s nomination for the 2021 Glass key award for the best Nordic crime novel of the year. Harm (Skaði), published in October 2021 in Iceland, made it to the bestseller list just like the previous books, and is her third novel to appear in English, following The Fox and Silenced. She took part in several crime fiction and literary festivals such as Bristol’s CrimeFest, Newcastle Noir, Aberdeen’s Granite Noir and Iceland Noir. Sólveig lives in Reykjavík.

Quentin Bates has professional and personal roots in Iceland that run very deep. He worked as a seaman before turning to maritime journalism. He is an author of a series of nine crime novels and novellas, the Reykjavik detective featuring Gunnhildur (Gunna) Gísladóttir. In addition to writing his own fiction, he has translated books by Lilja Sigurðardóttir, Guðlaugur Arason, Einar Kárason, Óskar Guðmundsson and Ragnar Jónasson. Quentin was instrumental in launching IcelandNoir, the crime fiction festival in Reykjavik

[fictionfromafar]

Cold As Hell By Lilja Sigurðardóttir

Cold As Hell

By Lilja Sigurðardóttir

Translated by Quentin Bates

Orenda Books

Kindle publication date: 28 August 2021

Paperback publication date: 28 October 2021

It’s sometimes hard to believe that it is less than 4 years since Lilja Sigurðardóttir’s English language debut Snare was first published in the English language. It was the first of three books in the Reykjavík Noir series featuring drug smuggler Sonya and her corrupt banker partner Agla. Revealing tense storylines with strong and original characterisations, Sigurðardóttir started to make her international mark on the continually expanding Icelandic Noir scene.

Already known in her home country for 2 earlier novels and writing an award winning play called Big Babies (Stóru Börnin), her stock has continued to rise elsewhere with the 2020 English language publication of standalone title Betrayal about an independent minded politician Ursula. I described Betrayal as evoking a few memories of Borgen “but a very different beast with regular scenes of menace and intrigue.” Since then she has co written Katla, Iceland’s largest scale television production with Sigurjón Kjartansson, Iceland’s most experienced TV writer and Davíð Már Stefánsson, a recently graduated screenwriter from Columbia. Katla is now a hit on Netflix.

Never one to rest on her laurels, Sigurðardóttir has started a brand new five part series - Áróra Investigations. Forthcoming titles will include Red As Blood and White As Snow - the latter of which is to be released in Iceland next month, yet the first in the new series is Cold As Hell.

“Áróra Investigations” might suggest an Iceland based police detective but Sigurðardóttir has come up with a far more original idea. Áróra is actually a financial investigator who is available for hire by anyone looking to trace money that they believe they are entitled to, subject to her own cut of course. This service could be of use to an estranged spouse or former business partner. It's a great example of Sigurðardóttir working outside of the box when it comes to character development. And Áróra doesn’t live in Iceland either.

Brought up in Newcastle, Áróra and her elder sister Ísafold were born to an English mother and their late Icelandic father. Despite being the younger of the two, Áróra is the stronger willed of the sisters and is content with her life based in Edinburgh. Her sister though has been much more unsettled. Conflicted between her British and Icelandic heritage, she has been living in Reykjavík. When Áróra’s mother raises the alarm that she has not heard from her eldest daughter in several weeks, Áróra is persuaded to go to the land of her father to try to find her. She has travelled to Iceland several times before when her sister was physically and mentally abused by her partner, but on each occasion isafold would return to him, driving a wedge between the sisters.

As she has been raised bilingual, Áróra’s search for her sister starts at the hospital without success before visiting Björn, the abusive drug dealer that she had been living with. When he claims she left him, she goes to her sister's last known place of work and approaches some of the people from the neighbouring homes. These are a rich set of characters who all seem to be hiding secrets of their own. The focus switches between Áróra and some of the people Ísafold used to regularly meet including Björn, an elderly lady, an asylum seeker from the Middle East and secretive misfit. Her mother has also put her in contact with her uncle Daniel who is a police detective, whose demeanor is very different from how she original anticipated him to be. While family loyalty has brought her to Iceland, spending her free time in a local hotel, Áróra finds that alone is not quite enough. She develops an interest in a local businessman but is her motivation love or love of money? One thing is for sure, she's certainly prepared to take some dangerous risks go get what she wants.

As I mentioned in my review of Betrayal, Sigurðardóttir chooses not to focus on the dark atmospheric scenes that we often imagine in Iceland and should be commended for a more distinct character based approach. While it may be cold as hell, this book is set in the summer and one feature of the story is the near unrelenting daylight. Accustomed to Britain, Áróra struggles to adapt to a land that is familiar yet different, cold but almost always bathed in light. Indeed this reflects one of the themes of the novel - the big differences the character encounters between Iceland and the UK. This is reflected in the attitudes and behaviours of the characters as well as the physical landscape.

I've always been drawn to the original characters that Lilja Sigurðardóttir creates as they do not fit a mould. I feel each appears deeply conceived by the author with enough to distinguish each one for the reader to identify with them even in spite of their often unusual or selfish thoughts and actions. An intricately plotted story superbly translated by Quentin Bates sees Áróra gain some of what she is looking for, yet offers so much to be built upon in the four volumes of the quintet to come.

Rather than a reference to the temperature, the cold of the title could refer to a state of mind; to a growing collective sense of lack of belonging and even displacement. It starts in the obvious case of Ísaford who cannot settle or break from an abuser yet this permeates through successive characters that we encounter eventually even reaching her sister. There is deep sadness due to the loss of a son or daughter, the permanent absence from a homeland and its traumatic memories, the feeling of being unable to tolerate living within one's own body, disappointment at a lack of reciprocal physical attraction, or a sentiment that you can never go back; never find your true home. As ever relevant for our times, I feel Sigurðardóttir, who has spent parts of her life living in Mexico, Sweden, Spain and Scotland, is subtly portraying conditions that reflect the modern era in which it is increasingly hard to have a true feeling of belonging and identity.

Cold As Hell continues to see Lilja Sigurðardóttir’s development as a writer. I feel it is best enjoyed reading at a careful pace as there is a lot that happens, much of which is not revealed until later in the story while several strands are left outstanding, boding positively for the future. Kudos to the author, her publisher and translator for another memorable and superbly crafted novel!

Many thanks to Karen Sullivan at Orenda Books who was kind enough to provide me with an advance copy of Cold As Hell.

See Lilja Sigurðardóttir with Eva Björg Ægisdóttir, and Heidi Amsinck at Bloody Scotland on Saturday 18th September from 8:30 pm – 9:30 pm BST at the following online link:

Here is my review last year of Betrayal:

[fictionfromafar]

#Blogtour Review - The Fox by Sólveig Pálsdóttir.

The Fox, Sólveig Pálsdóttir, translated by Quentin Bates, Corylus Books. December 2020, ISBN: 9781916379732

It appears quite remarkable that so many fantastic writers have emerged from Iceland in recent years. Yet perhaps it's not surprising that a country where story telling has been prevalent since the Sagas, and which retains the hobby of book reading far stronger than in the UK, produces so many excellent authors. In recent years I have enjoyed many crime fiction novels from Iceland for their strong narratives and captivating sense of atmosphere in bleak settings.

Therefore, I was very excited to hear that a publication by established Icelandic author and Glass Key Award nominee Sólveig Pálsdóttir was now available for the first time in English. Furthermore, the translation was by Quentin Bates who has worked on books I've read by Ragnar Jónasson and Lilja Sigurðardóttir as well as penning several books set in Iceland himself. Thirdly it also featured a Sri Lankan, and I have had two wonderful trips to the country in recent years. Sadly I've not been to Iceland yet, but maybe in 2021!!

Sajee is the visitor from afar and the novel opens on a choppy internal Icelandic flight. In her early thirties and originally from Colombo, she is travelling from Reykjavik to a remote fishing community in the south east of the country called Höfn. After working as a cleaner and au pair since she arrived in the country, it is her intention to take up a position in a beauty salon. She travels without knowing anyone in the place she is moving to during a freezing February. Upon arrival in the town it becomes apparent that her job offer and indeed the salon do not exist. Shortly after being seen briefly by a couple of locals she apparently vanishes with a trace.

Currently based in the same location of Höfn is former Reykjavik police chief inspector Guðgeir Fransson. We learn early on that he has experienced tragedy in his professional life and is separated from his wife who has remained in the city. As “The Fox” is actually the fourth of Pálsdóttir’s novels featuring Fransson, presumably the events that led to his relocation and trauma are features in those earlier books. While it would have been nice to read Pálsdóttir's novels in the order she wrote them, irrespectively, “The Fox” is a very strong introduction to Fransson. It works almost perfectly as a standalone novel. Hopefully the earlier books will be translated at a later date by Corylus Books, as this is certainly an author you will want to read again.

So Fransson is midway through a yearlong contract renting an apartment and is working as a lowly security guard. He's largely kept himself to himself avoiding much interaction with the locals. Yet when he hears about the mysterious disappearance of Saree, his natural inquisitive nature as a detective lead him to start making some investigations. This takes a while as arranges enquiries around his work shifts but his long established sences do lead him on the right path and also tell him when he is being lied to. While he is doing so we continue to follow Sajee who comes across as a very innocent person who gradually starts to realise that she is in danger. Her character is also well drawn out and the writer succeeds in raising the readers' concerns for her.

Characterisations are a key strength of the novel and the portrayal of Selma and her son Isak are very memorable. They are unpredictable and their behaviour generates a foreboding tension leading to a claustrophobic atmosphere in the places that the sun does not shine. The visible and vocal anguish of a restrained fox replicates the silent suffering of Sajee as her situation grows more and more dire. Although we never quite learn what originally triggers this chain of events, "The Fox" channels a dark and growing tension which rises to a riveting climax and startling revelation.

"The Fox” is very ably translated by Bates. He ensures the prose is fluent and straightforward to read. There are some particularly inspiring descriptions of the countryside as characters travel remote areas. Höfn is on a similar latitude to Reykjavik yet due to the surrounding mountains, it can only be accessed by land by travelling south along the coastline. Yet the onset of modernity is a theme as power lines, tunnels through mountains and the airport have better connected this distant location where tourists now regularly appear. While Sajee struggles to understand her hosts, she does appreciate how Icelandic folk tales of the “Hidden People" can correlate to her South Asian superstitions.

“The Fox” is certainly a welcome addition to the collection of any enthusiast of Nordic Noir. Sólveig Pálsdóttir is clearly a very engaging author able to edge out a gripping psychological story with credible characters. Much praise is due to Corylus Books for introducing both the writer and her story to the English language. I look forward to reading more of Pálsdóttir's novels set before and after this one. Many thanks to Corylus Books for an advance review copy of "The Fox". I intend to discover further translated authors though this exciting new publishing firm.

Paperbacks copies of "The Fox" are available directly from the publisher (while stocks last) £7.50 + £2.50 P&P for UK, and €8 + €4 P&P for anywhere in Europe, up to the end of December. Email: coryluseditor@gmail.com

Kindle edition available at the links below:

An interview between Dr Noir and Solveig Palsdottir will be available on YouTube on the 10th of December, on the Newcastle Noir YouTube Channel here:

Please see also my review of Eva Björg Ægisdóttir - The Creak On The Stairs, another fantastic English debut by an Icelandic author: