Thanks! I have read and quite liked all six of Sigurðardóttir's series titles, but not any of the non-series ones. Nice to get a chance to try a couple at reasonable prices...
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Originally Posted by ATDrake
Bargain @ £0.99-£2.99 in the UK from Hodder & Stoughton (non-couponable, price should be the same at all the regular UK retailers):
Nearly the entire catalogue of mystery/suspense thrillers (minus the very latest) by Icelandic author Yrsa Sigurðardóttir ( SYKM, Wikipedia; known as “Queen of Icelandic Crime”). I quite enjoyed her Thóra Gudmundsdóttir series starring a lawyer in Reykjavik (traveling to places throughout the Nordic regions) when I read the lot last year, and I also read two of her standalone psychological suspense thrillers which were generally pretty decent, though not as good as the Thora series, IMHO. I should probably mention that it's best to read the Thora series in order, as there are significant ongoing personal developments in the characters' lives, which sometimes affect the sleuthing, though the actual casework is all self-contained and can be read standalone if you don't mind reading the family drama out of order.
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@ £0.99:
Last Rituals, My Soul to Take, Someone to Watch Over Me. These are #1, #2, and #5 in the Thora series, respectively. #1 has been offered as a freebie in the past, #2 was a finalist for the Shamus Award, according to SYKM. These are all quite good cases, although not the very best in the series, IMHO.
@ £1.99:- Ashes to Dust, #3 in the Thora series, and one of the best cases in it; nicely twisty, and fitting, and has interesting bits of Icelandic recent history in it (based on the Heimaey volcanic eruptions in the 1970s).
- The Undesired, standalone psychological suspense thriller involving a dual mystery of what happened in the past that affects the present day, and something else disturbing going on in the present day. I've read this one and thought that the story was mildly interesting for its depiction of institutional life and a few surprising revelations, but just a competently-done suspense rather than an outstanding one. YMMV, and this is a decent price to get it at.
- Why Did You Lie?, another standalone, which appears to be one of those stories of apparently not-so-strangers being targeted for as-yet-unknown reasons.
@ £2.99 each (pricier, but down from about £5.99 or more which seems to be the regular price):
- The Day is Dark & The Silence of the Sea, #4 & #6 in the Thora series. #4 is set in Greenland and has a rather nifty explanation for what was really going on with a certain aspect of the case; #6 is probably the best (and saddest) story of the lot, with significant psychological suspense elements as well as the whodunnit case.
- I Remember You, another one of her standalone psychological suspense thrillers with mild supernatural elements, involving something in the past affecting something in the present day. IMHO, this had a better case than The Undesired (or at least I liked it a lot more when I read it), and the suspense build-up for the other stuff was nicely done.
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