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kellyvandamme's review against another edition
5.0
Wave a book at me that has the word lie in the title and you know I’m going to want to read it. Tell me it’s Nordic Noir and written by an up-and-coming author whose debut I devoured last year and wild Icelandic horses couldn’t keep me away! The volcanic grounds of Iceland have produced quite a few fantastic authors and with Girls Who Lie, Eva Björg Ægisdottir shows she is right up there with the best of them.
Girls Who Lie is the second Forbidden Iceland thriller featuring police officer Elma, whom we were introduced to in The Creak on the Stairs. There is one specific aspect of Elma’s personal past carried over to Girls Who Lie that may be a bit of a spoiler if you were to read The Creak later, but her current case is brand-new and I’m sure Girls Who Lie works perfectly well as a standalone, if you are so inclined. (The Creak is really good though, so my advice would be to start there anyway.)
Girls Who Lie alternates between two storylines. The first storyline is told from the POV of Elma. A body has been found in a cave: Maríanna, who was missing and presumed dead by suicide, now appears to have been murdered. Elma and her partner are trying to work out what happened, and as their investigation progressed I was sleuthing from the sidelines, mentally adding, crossing off and re-adding names to my suspect list.
The second storyline is told from the POV of an unnamed woman, starting with the birth of her daughter, and steadily progressing in time. Starting with postnatal depression and then going from low to low, this woman is struggling with her fussy, at times violent child, and neither of them is very happy. Here too, I was sleuthing like it was my job: was this woman one of the people in Elma’s storyline, was her daughter? Finally the pieces started to slot into place, the picture becoming a little clearer with every chapter and now I just want to go back, start over, find out what clues I missed.
What I love about reading is that you can stay in the comfort of your own home, or at your desk at work, or be physically anywhere really, while your mind is travelling the world, discovering new places or revisiting places you’ve been and feel nostalgic about. That is exactly what Girls Who Lie did: part of me stayed on the sofa with the cat, while part of me roamed the lava fields of Iceland, felt the chill in the air, and the looming gloom of a long dark winter. It simply oozes atmosphere. I loved the mystery, I loved the police procedural aspect, I loved Elma, she’s such a brilliant protagonist, but the setting, the vibe, the atmosphere are like a huge juicy cherry on top an already properly lush cake. Recommended!
Girls Who Lie is the second Forbidden Iceland thriller featuring police officer Elma, whom we were introduced to in The Creak on the Stairs. There is one specific aspect of Elma’s personal past carried over to Girls Who Lie that may be a bit of a spoiler if you were to read The Creak later, but her current case is brand-new and I’m sure Girls Who Lie works perfectly well as a standalone, if you are so inclined. (The Creak is really good though, so my advice would be to start there anyway.)
Girls Who Lie alternates between two storylines. The first storyline is told from the POV of Elma. A body has been found in a cave: Maríanna, who was missing and presumed dead by suicide, now appears to have been murdered. Elma and her partner are trying to work out what happened, and as their investigation progressed I was sleuthing from the sidelines, mentally adding, crossing off and re-adding names to my suspect list.
The second storyline is told from the POV of an unnamed woman, starting with the birth of her daughter, and steadily progressing in time. Starting with postnatal depression and then going from low to low, this woman is struggling with her fussy, at times violent child, and neither of them is very happy. Here too, I was sleuthing like it was my job: was this woman one of the people in Elma’s storyline, was her daughter? Finally the pieces started to slot into place, the picture becoming a little clearer with every chapter and now I just want to go back, start over, find out what clues I missed.
What I love about reading is that you can stay in the comfort of your own home, or at your desk at work, or be physically anywhere really, while your mind is travelling the world, discovering new places or revisiting places you’ve been and feel nostalgic about. That is exactly what Girls Who Lie did: part of me stayed on the sofa with the cat, while part of me roamed the lava fields of Iceland, felt the chill in the air, and the looming gloom of a long dark winter. It simply oozes atmosphere. I loved the mystery, I loved the police procedural aspect, I loved Elma, she’s such a brilliant protagonist, but the setting, the vibe, the atmosphere are like a huge juicy cherry on top an already properly lush cake. Recommended!
bookguyinva2022's review against another edition
5.0
First off, who the H is the actual H? What a twisty tale of lies. My head is still swimming.This one will keep you guessing until the end and beyond.
ninagudruna's review against another edition
4.0
4.5* geggjaður krimmi, í senn spennandi, upplýsandi og það er greinilegt að höfundur kynnti sér vel aðstæður og bakgrunnsupplýsingar sem þurfti til skrifanna. Vel farið með viðkvæm málefni og spennnan í hámarki í gegnum alla bókina.
lit_with_leigh's review against another edition
3.0
One sentence review: Another Honda Civic Reliable Nordic Noir
SYNOPSIS
Seven months after a troubled mother disappears, her body is found brutally beaten in a cave. Elma and her team are tasked with tracing the shaky steps of the original missing persons investigation to find the killer. And as they do so, revelations about the deceased and her daughter come to light.
MY OPINION
Another solid HRC addition to this series. And would ya look at that: I read them in order! I'll be grabbing #3 once it goes on sale ( update 12/13 it went on sale! Snatched! ) I quite enjoy this series, even though it doesn't blow me away. In a way, the blandness of the characters and their neutral personalities are what make these reads reliable. Surprise, surprise but NOT being annoyed af at characters (especially if I can't stand the alleged protagonist), makes my reading experience so much better.
But on the flip side, the lack of character depth is what really holds this book back from being great. It's been a year between cases, but nothing has happened in their personal lives. Elma continues to whine about her frayed relationship with Dagny and the subtle, but blossoming, relationship between Elma and Saever went nowhere?? The lack of progress wasn't really addressed either; Elma just said the tension dissipated. How sway?? You can't just go from silently holding hands on a beach to NOTHING happening, not even a lil awkward convo about WHY things can't move forward?? There's not often such a long gap between cases in a series, so the absence of character growth over such a significant period of time was kinda ?????
While I enjoyed this book more than #1, the setup was VERY similar. You've got a troubled woman with hella secrets who moved away from Arkanes but ended up back there and dead. You've got flashbacks and kids being weird. It was sorta like she took the same cookie recipe but swapped out chocolate chips for white chocolate chips lol.
Like the first book, the flashbacks were my favourite part. I'm obvi not a mother, but I absolutely empathized with the unnamed narrators struggles with postpartum depression and newfound motherhood. I can't imagine how emotionally and physically difficult it is to incubate a baby for 9 months and then feel absolutely nothing but contempt for it. And to really have no control over these feelings. Really sad shit. So yeah, big TW for this.
Now, my main rich homie qualm is the twisty twist wasn't foreshadowed enough. There weren't any clues about the unnamed narrator, their identity was just suddenly revealed. In fact, the author could've been like yeah the unnamed narrator is Ivanka Trump and you'd be like ight, I can't really argue with that because there wasn't any evidence of the contrary. If the twist had been more subtly foreshadowed, I would've been more impressed with the reveal.
The ending was... meh. After the twisty twist in one of the flashbacks, the author went full spoon-feed mode and the rest of the novel her telling you how everything came to be. Not a fan. Also one of the reveals made me hella uncomfy :/
PROS AND CONS
Pros: juicy case, great flashbacks (very emotional), switzerland neutral characters that won't annoy you LOL
Cons: the twisty twist wasn't foreshadowed enough to make it bangerlicious, romantic storyline was literally yeeted and then picked back up on the very last page... wut
SYNOPSIS
Seven months after a troubled mother disappears, her body is found brutally beaten in a cave. Elma and her team are tasked with tracing the shaky steps of the original missing persons investigation to find the killer. And as they do so, revelations about the deceased and her daughter come to light.
MY OPINION
Another solid HRC addition to this series. And would ya look at that: I read them in order! I'll be grabbing #3 once it goes on sale ( update 12/13 it went on sale! Snatched! ) I quite enjoy this series, even though it doesn't blow me away. In a way, the blandness of the characters and their neutral personalities are what make these reads reliable. Surprise, surprise but NOT being annoyed af at characters (especially if I can't stand the alleged protagonist), makes my reading experience so much better.
But on the flip side, the lack of character depth is what really holds this book back from being great. It's been a year between cases, but nothing has happened in their personal lives. Elma continues to whine about her frayed relationship with Dagny and the subtle, but blossoming, relationship between Elma and Saever went nowhere?? The lack of progress wasn't really addressed either; Elma just said the tension dissipated. How sway?? You can't just go from silently holding hands on a beach to NOTHING happening, not even a lil awkward convo about WHY things can't move forward?? There's not often such a long gap between cases in a series, so the absence of character growth over such a significant period of time was kinda ?????
While I enjoyed this book more than #1, the setup was VERY similar. You've got a troubled woman with hella secrets who moved away from Arkanes but ended up back there and dead. You've got flashbacks and kids being weird. It was sorta like she took the same cookie recipe but swapped out chocolate chips for white chocolate chips lol.
Like the first book, the flashbacks were my favourite part. I'm obvi not a mother, but I absolutely empathized with the unnamed narrators struggles with postpartum depression and newfound motherhood. I can't imagine how emotionally and physically difficult it is to incubate a baby for 9 months and then feel absolutely nothing but contempt for it. And to really have no control over these feelings. Really sad shit. So yeah, big TW for this.
Now, my main rich homie qualm is the twisty twist wasn't foreshadowed enough. There weren't any clues about the unnamed narrator, their identity was just suddenly revealed. In fact, the author could've been like yeah the unnamed narrator is Ivanka Trump and you'd be like ight, I can't really argue with that because there wasn't any evidence of the contrary. If the twist had been more subtly foreshadowed, I would've been more impressed with the reveal.
The ending was... meh. After the twisty twist in one of the flashbacks, the author went full spoon-feed mode and the rest of the novel her telling you how everything came to be. Not a fan. Also one of the reveals made me hella uncomfy :/
PROS AND CONS
Pros: juicy case, great flashbacks (very emotional), switzerland neutral characters that won't annoy you LOL
Cons: the twisty twist wasn't foreshadowed enough to make it bangerlicious, romantic storyline was literally yeeted and then picked back up on the very last page... wut
tyr2607's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
katarina_11's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
books4annie's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
kiramke's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
3.5
Good, but the ending was a bit unsatisfying and abrupt. I feel like there were notes that should've been more sinister that fell a little flat. Also not thrilled about yet another story hitting those 'very rare' crimes. (You know, the ones that happen far less frequently based on actual records and evidence, but certain people assert they occur all the time and that's why it's necessary to oppress certain other people.)
nodogsonthemoon's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
jules_july's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
4.5
Zurück in Akranes
4,5 von 5
In "Verlogen" nimmt Eva Björg Ægisdóttir uns wieder mit nach Island, genauer Akranes.
Dieses Mal ermitteln Elma und ihr Team erneut in einem Mordfall, der viele Geheimnisse bereit hält und mitreißend ist.
Genauso mitreißend ist der Schreibstil. Er ist authentisch und unaufgeregt. Wenige Details reichen um eine besondere Atmosphäre aufzubauen und das raue Island darzustellen.
Dazu kommen die wechselnden Perspektiven, die für Abwechslung sorgen und bis zum Ende nicht zu viel verraten, allerdings auch Verwirrung stiften, sodass am Ende ein "Aha!" Moment entsteht.
Dies ist ihr hervorragend gelungen, denn immer wieder war ich am rätseln wer was gemacht haben könnte.
Man verdächtigt jeden und doch den falschen?
Aufmerksam lesen ist angesagt.
Aber ob man dann schneller den Mörder findet als Elma und ihre Kollegen?
Um den Überblick, bei den ganzen Protagonisten, zu behalten, hilft das Personenverzeichnis am Ende des Buches weiter. So weiß man immer wer wer ist und besonders bei den isländischen Namen ist es hilfreich.
"Verlogen" ist ein Island Krimi, der durch psychologische Finesse heraus sticht und besonders für die kalten und dunklen Tage geeignet ist.
Ich freue mich definitiv auf den nächsten Band und kann es kaum erwarten wieder mit Elma und Sævar zu ermitteln.