The breathless review by Yrsa Sigurdardottir on the front cover compelled me to nab this one quickly and devour it. Sigurdardottir, an Icelandic crime writer, produced one of my Top Five Thrillers, and any Icelandic crime novel she calls a masterpiece is good is enough for me. And sure enough The Darkness is a good one. Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdottir is summarily ordered to retire, and dreads the lonely and unproductive life she sees stretching out in front of her. Before she goes she seizes the chance to look into a cold case; a young  female Russian asylum seeker found dead in a remote spot on the Icelandic coast. She devotes herself to the case with astonishing doggedness, blundering into peoples’ lives on the slightest pretext and demanding information. But it kind of works. Until well…..just read it. The epilogue is astonishing and profoundly moving, highlighting the chasm between our public and private selves. The best thrillers always give you more than a thrill: they take you to dark places and leave you feeling deeply unsettled, and this is no exception.
The Darkness is apparently part of a trilogy with the next two novels taking place twenty five years earlier, for reasons which become clear at the end of the novel. Bring on the next two.
