The Silence of the Sea by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
Family members and friends await the arrival of a luxury yacht
from Portugal at the Reykjavik pier. They watch horrified as the yacht crashes
into the pier and it quickly becomes clear that no one is on board. Seven people: the captain, two deckhands and
a family of four are missing. Did they
become victims of the wind and weather?
Or did something more sinister happen?
This is another entry in the Thora Gudmundsdottir series but you
do not need to have read any of the other books in the series to enjoy this
one. This is a great locked room (locked
ship!) mystery. Chapters alternate
between Thora and her investigation in Iceland and life aboard the ship leading
up to the crash into the pier. Yrsa’s
last book was a ghost story and she brings the mood of a horror book to this
mystery. I kept getting more and more
nervous for the people on the ship as time went on, and just when I thought I
had it all figured out, I didn’t. Not
even close. The clues were there, I just
didn’t see them.
I did the thing I tell all librarians not to do: if a patron is
going on a trip never give them a mystery or thriller set in that
location. It puts the place in a bad
light. Who wants to go sightseeing and then
picture the body that was found mutilated right around the corner in the book
they read before bed the night before?
Well…me? Since nothing really
happened in Reykjavik except the investigation it wasn’t strange walking around
the city; I didn’t have to look at it like it was a crime scene. I waited until I got back to start the next
book set there…
