Fresh from maternity leave, Detective Elma investigates complex case of a man murdered in a holiday cottage, while SÆvar discovers something in a discarded box that could help crack the case. The multi-award-winning, NUMBER ONE bestselling Forbidden Iceland series continues... 'She uses complex plots to explore how monsters are made and demonstrate that "evil can lurk behind the most attractive of smiles". Her many characters are people not puppets and she delights in pulling the rug from under their –and our – feet. If you have never read Aegisdottir, now is the time to start´ Mark Sanderson, The Times 'Meticulously plotted, this beautifully written novel has it all: a shocking murder, small-town secrets, a cast of suspicious characters and a compelling female detective ... Eva BjÖrg AegisdÓttir at her best´ Lesley Kara 'Emotive, atmospheric and chillingly suspenseful ... one of the best thrillers I've read...

When a depressed, alcoholic single mother disappears, everything suggests suicide, but when her body is found, Icelandic Detective Elma and her team are thrust into a perplexing, chilling investigation._____________When single mother Maríanna disappears from her home, leaving an apologetic note on the kitchen table, everyone assumes that she's taken her own life ... until her body is found on the Grábrók lava fields seven months later, clearly the victim of murder. Her neglected fifteen-year-old daughter Hekla has been placed in foster care, but is her perfect new life hiding something sinister?Fifteen years earlier, a desperate new mother lies in a maternity ward, unable to look at her own child, the start of an odd and broken relationship that leads to a shocking tragedy.Police officer Elma and her colleagues take on the case, which becomes increasingly complex, as the number of suspects grows and new light is shed on Maríanna's past – and the...

When the body of a woman is discovered at a lighthouse in the Icelandic town of Akranes, it soon becomes clear that she's no stranger to the area. Chief Investigating Officer Elma, who has returned to Akranes following a failed relationship, and her colleagues Sævar and Hörður, commence an uneasy investigation, which uncovers a shocking secret in the dead woman's past that continues to reverberate in the present day. But as Elma and her team make a series of discoveries, they bring to light a host of long-hidden crimes that shake the entire community. Sifting through the rubble of the townspeople's shattered memories, they have to dodge increasingly serious threats, and find justice—before it's too late.