Review: Girls Who Lie, by Eva Bjorg AEgisdottir

At once a startling, tense psychological thriller, and a sophisticated and twisty police procedural from a rising star in Icelandic literature.

When single mother Maríanna disappears from her home, leaving an apologetic note on the kitchen table, it is assumed 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 tragedy.

Police officer Elma and her colleagues take on the case, which becomes increasingly complex, as the list of suspects grows ever longer and new light is shed on Maríanna’s past – and the childhood of a girl who never was like the others…

My Review

Thanks to Anne Cater for organising this blog tour, Karen Sullivan at Orenda for sending me a physical ARC and the author and translator for writing and translating this book. I have a Goldsboro Books/Orenda Books hardback edition of AEgisdottir’s first novel. Due to other commitments I’ve only read the first few chapters but I enjoyed what I have read so I was really chuffed when this blog tour came up and I was able to get a physical copy.

As you may be aware, I’ve been ill. It’s only a cold but it knocked me off my feet and I’m still recovering. I sleep a lot, but less than last week. I managed to go swimming on Tuesday, but I took it steady and only did 80 minutes. I still exhausted myself. Today (Wednesday) I planned to go to Immingham to collect my meds, but Mum’s partner got them for me and dropped them off, meaning I didn’t have to go out. I had a nap then settled in for an evening of reading.

I’d started reading Girls Who Lie last Friday but work and being ill slowed progress, so I still had most of the book to read. This evening, I raced through about 270 pages to finish the book. At 314 pages, this is an average sized crime novel, so three hours is a reasonable amount of time to read it.

There’s a couple of narratives going on in this novel. There’s the present day investigation into the disappearance and then murder of a young woman called Marianne, and there’s the diary of a young, single mother and her child, fifteen year to five years in the past. To investigate the murder Elma and her colleagues have to find out about the victim and her past. This means talking to her daughter, the daughter’s foster parents and Marianne’s father. Over the course of the investigation the reader is led in one direction. Reading the diary extracts, however, provides clues that things aren’t quite adding up. It’s a tale of teenage cruelty, small town prejudice, lies and the children who suffer for the sins of their parents.

Elma and her colleagues are good characters, very human and real. They are so messy in their reality. Their relationships and resentments, confusion and affections are so utterly human. I like them, and feel so sorry for her boss.

The characters of Hekla and her foster family, Elma’s family, Margret and Tinna are all fleshed out too, although, naturally, the focus is on the recurring main characters. The complex reasons for their actions and beliefs is very well handled and explored.

The descriptions were very evocative and the writing flowed well. It was simple and plain, rather than flowery. I enjoyed that. The plot was good, really kept me guessing. I was utterly surprised by the conclusion. Absolutely convinced that I knew who the murderer was until the end. The diary extracts between the present day chapters are a brilliant piece of misdirection. The reveal is totally unexpected. Elma is going to have to keep an eye on some of these characters. They will kill again, I tells thee!

I need to ask the author, is Tinna meant to be autistic? Because those are some stereotypical traits she has, right down to the lining up toys, having no friends/being bullied and using mimicry to fit in. Seriously, I learnt to be human from reading fantasy and a friend of mine learnt by watching soaps. We mimic better than most, because mimicry keeps you from being bullied too badly. Her mum is totally aware too, because she keeps things ‘black and white’ and knows that Tinna is trying to work out what she is expected to say. Margret is just a straight up psychopath though. Straight up manipulating everyone.

Really enjoyed this novel, if I did star rating, it would definitely be a five.

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ABOUT EVA BJÖRG ÆGISDÓTTIR

Born in Akranes in 1988, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir studied for an MSc in Globalisation in Norway before returning to Iceland and deciding to write a novel – something she had wanted to do since she won a short-story competition at the age of fifteen. After nine months combining her writing with work as a stewardess and caring for her children, Eva finished The Creak on the Stairs. It was published in 2018, and became a bestseller in Iceland. It also went on to win the Blackbird Award, a prize set up by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir and Ragnar Jónasson to encourage new Icelandic crime writers. It was published in English by Orenda Books in 2020.
Eva lives in Reykjavík with her husband and three children and is currently working on the third book in the Forbidden Iceland series.

Follow her on Twitter: @evaaegisdottir