The Creak on the Stairs – Eva Björg Ægisdóttir

When a woman’s body is discovered at a lighthouse in the Icelandic town of Akranes, investigators discover shocking secrets in her past. First in a disturbing, chillingly atmospheric new series.

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.

 

My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the chance to host today’s leg of this tour.

 

The Creak on the Stairs comes with a sub heading on Amazon which states it is Book 1 in the Forbidden Iceland series. Initially I didn’t give this too much consideration, but on finishing The Creak on the Stairs I remembered the “Book 1” part and was hopeful we would return to these characters.  More importantly was the “Forbidden” element of the sub title as “forbidden” conjured up the suggestion of more unsettling and unexpected stories – if they are anything like The Creak on the Stairs then they are stories which I shall very much look forward to.

Akranes is the setting for this book – a small Icelandic town of around 7,000 inhabitants. Big enough to merit a police force but still small enough to realise that most people know the majority of the townsfolk by sight and that everyone knows everyone else’s business. I always maintain that small town stories lead to the best opportunities for crime fiction as secrets are so much harder to keep and tend to impact so many more people when the secret gets out. This would very much appear to be the case in The Creak on the Stairs.

The story is driven (in present day) by police officer Elma. She has been working in Reykjavik but after her relationship ended she returned to Akranes where she had lived as a child. Elma was able to secure a role with the Akranes police department and is just settling into her role when a woman’s body is found in the water beside a lighthouse by two courting teens.

Initial investigation quickly establishes that the woman has been murdered and her body moved, no accurate crime scene and no.obvious clues.

The dead woman’s story is told retrospectively through a series of chapters set in the late 1980s and early 90s.  We see Elisabet (the victim) enduring the tragedy of loss, the despair of neglect and then become victim to circumstance worse than being overlooked. Her childhood was a terrible ordeal and as we learn more about Elisabet through the book we see how her struggles shaped a cold and un-compassionate soul.

The present/past narrative works very well for this police procedural tale. The investigation progresses and Elma and her new partner Saevar are developing a good working relationship. The reader gets Elisabet’s childhood chapters to reveal a little more about characters that may become relevant to Elma and Saevar or to show some of the pain Elisabet endured which also has an influence on her subsequent murder.

There came a tipping point in the reading when all the clues and hints started to fall into place and the dark secrets got exposed. Those pages blurred for me as I practically inhaled the last sections of the book – everything came together so well. And that final reveal in the last chapter was devastating.

Today marks the end of the blog tour for A Creak on the Stairs and I have seen fellow bloggers wildly enthusing about this book all month. It’s easy to see why it has been gaining so much praise, it’s very, very good.

 

The Creak on the Stairs is published by Orrnda Books and is available in digital format with the paperback to follow later in the year.  Order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Creak-Stairs-Forbidden-Iceland/dp/1913193047/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+creak+on+the+stairs&qid=1590825139&sprefix=the+creak+&sr=8-1