Review: Red As Blood, by Lilja Sigurdardottir, Translated by Quentin Bates

THE BOOK

When entrepreneur Flosi arrives home for dinner one night, he discovers that his house has been ransacked, and his wife Gudrun missing. A letter on the kitchen table confirms that she has been kidnapped. If Flosi doesn’t agree to pay an enormous ransom, Gudrun will be killed.

Forbidden from contracting the police, he gets in touch with Áróra, who
specialises in finding hidden assets, and she, alongside her detective friend
Daniel, try to get to the bottom of the case without anyone catching on.
Meanwhile, Áróra and Daniel continue the puzzling, devastating search
for Áróra’s sister Ísafold, who disappeared without trace. As fog descends, in a cold and rainy Icelandic autumn, the investigation becomes increasingly dangerous, and confusing.

Chilling, twisty and unbearably tense, Red as Blood is the second instalment in the riveting, addictive An Áróra Investigation series, and everything is at stake…

My Review

Thanks to everyone at Orenda Books for my copy of this book and for organising this blog tour.

Where do I start? I’ve been procrastinating on Twitter (blocking transphobes) while I try to work out how I feel about this novel.

Firstly, I enjoyed it. I spent a good afternoon while sick with another cold ( I think, the covid test was negative, but I should probably do another) reading it. I found the development of Daniel and Arora’s relationship interesting and the case intriguing. I did guess who abducted Gudrun fairly quickly and who helped, but not the murder part. I thought it was one person, but it wasn’t in the end.

I liked the misdirection. Interesting introduction of the Russian Mafia, which made for some tension and a tiny bit of violence. Arora kicking arse is fun, but she’s realistic about the damage it does. I enjoy the way Arora and her Dad’s relationship is used and written about.

Helena is an interesting character, and her relationships are certainly unexpected. She’s openly lesbian but closeted about her relationships being polyamorous, maybe?

Daniel is an absolute sweetheart. I love it, a middle-aged Nordic detective who isn’t a brooding, semi-alcoholic with a collection of angry ex-wives. His best friend/neighbour is a drag queen, or possibly a trans woman, I haven’t quite worked her out yet. He listens to people, and gives them space to speak.

I enjoyed the pacing and tension of this novel, and the ending was unexpected. Arora is very introspective and that leads to an ending that made me want to yell “You daft potato.” at her. I can’t wait for the next one!

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THE AUTHOR

Icelandic crime-writer Lilja Sigurdardóttir was born in the town of Akranes
in 1972 and raised in Mexico, Sweden, Spain and Iceland. An award-winning playwright, Lilja has written four crime novels, with Snare, the first
in a new series and Lilja’s English debut shortlisting for the CWA
International Dagger and hitting bestseller lists worldwide. Trap soon
followed suit, with the third in the trilogy Cage winning the Best Icelandic
Crime Novel of the Year, and was a Guardian Book of the Year. Lilja’s
standalone Betrayal, was shortlisted for the Glass Key Award for Best
Nordic Crime Novel. In 2021, Cold as Hell, the first in the An Áróra
Investigation series was published, with Red as Blood to follow in 2022.
The film rights have been bought by Palomar Pictures in California. Lilja is
also an award-winning screenwriter in her native Iceland. She lives in
Reykjavík with her partner