One review on 05 Jan 2022

First Published: 2020

Fiction

The Creak on the Stairs

Author: Eva Bjoerg AEgisdottir 

Summary: A murder resulting from child abuse 30 years ago in a small town community

Original Language:
Icelandic

Other Production Roles

  • TranslatorVictoria Cribb 
Date first read: Wed 5th Jan 2022

Format:   Kindle

Catalogued: 7th Jan 2022

Synopsis

When a 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 collegues 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.

Reviews

Average small town average crime mystery

by rogerco on Wed 5th Jan 2022.

Elma, the young detective, was a bit hard to believe in - her back-story didn't seem quite right (and it turned out in the end that she didn't know her long term boyfriend who she broke up with just beforw moving back to her home town was dyding of some unspecified disease).  Dealing with the Icelandic names sometimes makes it a bit difficult to remember who is who, but aside from that it is a good quick read.

Towards the end the circle of suspects narrows although the police have no hard evidence, but we have already been told who the paedophile is (the slacker brother of the town big-man)

but right at the end suddenly everyone seems to be let off the hook - the town big-man's wife seems to get away with attempting to murder her husband, who she thought was the paedophile. His brother, who was the original criminal that started the chain of event does a flit and gets away with it, and various other loose threads are left dangling.