Translated by Lorenza Garcia
Black as Death is the fifth and last novel in the ‘Áróra Investigation’ series, which has a continuing arc. You could join the series here, but you would miss the back story to the characters. So please be aware there may be slight spoilers ahead.
The first novel, Cold as Hell, started the ball rolling as Áróra returns from abroad to Iceland to find her sister Ísafold who has gone missing. Policeman Daníel is on the scene from the start, but it is not until later that he and Áróra will become a couple. Ísafold’s partner Björn is a suspect right from the start. But, when his and Ísafold’s bodies are discovered in a glacial ravine in the fourth book Dark as Night (reviewed here), more questions arise, which is where we are at the start of the final novel. They had been certain that he’d killed Ísafold before disappearing, but who murdered him?
We begin with a short section told from Ísafold’s PoV, obviously while she was still alive. Ísafold’s tale continues throughout the novel in between the chapters of Áróra’s and Daniel’s own investigations. Ísafold’s story is one of terrible sustained abuse from Björn, a classic situation in which she loves him but is scared to leave and after each time he beats her he says it’ll be the last. The sad thing is that we know how they’ll end up, just not how or whodunnit.
We don’t go straight to Áróra next. We’re travelling with Felix, a young man who is a out collecting money for his boss Sturla, a well-known shady dealer. Felix prefers to go in soft, using the threat of Surla not being happy if they can’t pay. Felix and Sturla will become key characters as the plotlines develop and interweave.
Áróra’s day job is as a tax investigator, and she’s noticed something odd about the balance sheets of a small chain of coffee shops – they’re off the tourist trail, they shouldn’t be doing so well. She approaches her boss with her hunch, and she agrees to sample their accounts to see if money-laundering might be going on.
Then there is the ongoing police investigation. They’ve uncovered something, which Daníel has not told Áróra – which gives a different feel to the investigation.
I can’t possibly tell more about the plot, other than it will reach a thrilling conclusion with a surprising coda.
Áróra is such an interesting character aside from her grief and need to find out what happened to her sister. She has lived and worked outside Iceland so has a slightly different perspective on her homeland, and her relationship with policeman Daníel can be awkward, she’s wary about making that final commitment.
Sigurðardóttir tells the narrative in 82 chapters – in just 225 pages, so all are only 2 or 3 pages. Those in the present take place over five days up until the last couple of chapters. This style really makes for punchy reading and an unrelenting pace. The way the plotlines of the deaths of Ísafold and Björn, the shady dealings of Sturla and Felix, and then Áróra’s tax investigations come together is masterful and I couldn’t have quite predicted it.
The two volumes I’ve read in this series were both brilliant. I’d love to return to the beginning to discover the build-up to the climax, but also the human side of how Áróra and Daníel began.
Source: Review copy – thank you! Orenda paperback original, 225 pages.
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