Review new crime by Yrsa Sigurdardottir: “Close, close and lock”

Cruel and lingering new crime series from the Icelandic crime queen Yrsa Sigurdardottir.

Yrsa Sigurdardottir is a well-known name to crime readers.

Now the Icelander is launching the book “Lukk, lukk og lås” in Norwegian, the first volume in what will become the “Black Ice Quartet”. According to the publisher, the book became the best-seller in Iceland in the year it was published there (2021), and the start doesn’t look bad at all.

An eerie sight meets the helpful Karl who makes his way into the farmhouse on the neighboring farm in windswept Hvalfjördur. The mother, daughters and another young woman have been murdered in a particularly bloody manner, and the man in the house has disappeared without a trace.

When police officer Tyr and forensics technician Idunn arrive at the scene, it turns out that someone has been in the house several days after the murders took place. Is it about the family man Reynir or someone else? And if it is a perpetrator other than Reynir, then what would be the motive?

The police fumble blindly for a long time in the snowy Icelandic winter landscape, while the reader follows their search for more or less good answers.

The author has made a bold narrative move: the book alternates between the present, after the murders have been committed, and regular jumps back in time where we follow the murder victims through their last days.

A main character here is the young girl Sóldi, who, on the run from a threatening ex-partner, has taken a job with the rich couple on the farm.

Soon an additional sense of insecurity creeps in.

Inexplicable events occur, things disappear and figures appear in the snowdrift outside the windows. Experienced from the inside in this way, even the hideous murders become all the more gruesome.

Yrsa Sigurdardottir is a writer who takes her time, and the language is consistently varied and good.

Here there are evocative depictions of nature and animals. Both dogs and horses play important supporting roles.

There is an effective contrast between the somewhat grotesque action, and the calm tone in which it is all told. The relationships between the characters are slowly built up, but several of the characters could have been better developed.

Halfway through, a new moment is launched, when Tyr accidentally discovers a shocking truth about his own parents. This is in line with the conventions of crime fiction, that the police officers we meet must struggle with personal problems.

But here, fortunately, the author’s imagination has stretched further than the clichés of divorce, alcohol and difficult children!

Moreover, the author has included an open ending when it comes to this particular part of Tyr’s personal history. Continuation follows in other words.

The book’s ending is paradoxically also the beginning of the story. Now we get to describe the murders themselves in detail. You must have a strong stomach to read this. Quite upsetting, quite simply. “Close, close and lock” is not a book for the faint of heart. But exciting, it is!