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francesmthompson's review
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Am really enjoying working my way through this series of books, and this one was my quickest read yet. If you like crime/mystery stories that develop fairly quickly and have multiple layers to them, AND you love Iceland, these books will tick a lot of boxes. I also really enjoyed the setting on the Westman Islands as I have visited this part of Iceland and written about it so knew the story of the 1973 Eldfell volcano eruption. I also liked that it was more modern history and a different type of story to previous two books that had "other worldly elements". My biggest criticism with this one was that I guessed 75% of the Whodunnit by about half-way through the story, which was satisfying until it was annoying because I was reading on for a long old time with no big reveal. Aaaand again I personally took some issue with there being some comments that felt misogynistic and fatphobic, and I also felt some elements of the rape culture which was touched on in various different ways could have been done with greater depth or exploration .
morgandhu's review
4.0
Another engrossing murder mystery from Yrsa Sigurdardottir. Again, the author links a modern crime both to events in Iceland's history and to secrets from the past. Nothing of the supernatural element that played a role in her two previous novels about Thora Gudmundsdottir, but lots of twists and surprises as the truth slowly surfaces under Gudmundsdottir's determined investigation.
etchlings's review
2.0
This was the most trite and foolish murder mystery I've ever read. The twist at the end was just absurd too. The characters all pretty unlikable.
carosbcher's review against another edition
4.0
1973 brach auf den Westmännerinseln in Island ein Vulkan aus - 2007 soll ein von Vulkanasche verschüttetes Haus wieder ausgegraben werden. 1973 starben 4 Männer - 2007 finden sich 3 Leichen und ein Kopf in dem Keller des verschütteten Hauses. 1973 war Markús ein verliebter Jugendlicher - 2007 versucht der älter gewordene Markús mit der Hilfe Dóras, einer Rechtsanwältin, die Ausgrabung zu verhindern...weil er etwas mit der Ermordung zu tun hat oder gibt es andere Gründe?
"Das glühende Grab" ist ein spannungsreicher Krimi, manchmal ein klein bisschen gruselig, aber nie so richtig brutal oder blutig. Ich habe die ganze Zeit mitgerätselt und auch wenn ein Teil der Auflösung für mich nicht überraschend kam, mit der letzten Wendung hätte ich nicht gerechnet! Dóra ist eine sehr sympatische Hauptfigur, aber auch ihre Assistentin Bella und die Einwohner der Insel wirkten authentisch und gut gezeichnet. Sehr schön fand ich, dass in dem Buch Bezug auf zwei wichtige Ereignisse der isländischen Geschichte genommen wurde (der Kabeljau-Krieg mit England und der Vulkanausbruch und die sich anschließende Stigmatisierung der umgesiedelten Bevölkerung) und dass Island als Kulisse allgegenwärtig und fühlbar, aber doch nicht aufgedrängt war.
Alles in allem ein spannender, gut erzählter Krimi mit tollem Island-Feeling. Und ich glaube, ich habe ein Faible für Anwalt-Krimis ;)
"Das glühende Grab" ist ein spannungsreicher Krimi, manchmal ein klein bisschen gruselig, aber nie so richtig brutal oder blutig. Ich habe die ganze Zeit mitgerätselt und auch wenn ein Teil der Auflösung für mich nicht überraschend kam, mit der letzten Wendung hätte ich nicht gerechnet! Dóra ist eine sehr sympatische Hauptfigur, aber auch ihre Assistentin Bella und die Einwohner der Insel wirkten authentisch und gut gezeichnet. Sehr schön fand ich, dass in dem Buch Bezug auf zwei wichtige Ereignisse der isländischen Geschichte genommen wurde (der Kabeljau-Krieg mit England und der Vulkanausbruch und die sich anschließende Stigmatisierung der umgesiedelten Bevölkerung) und dass Island als Kulisse allgegenwärtig und fühlbar, aber doch nicht aufgedrängt war.
Alles in allem ein spannender, gut erzählter Krimi mit tollem Island-Feeling. Und ich glaube, ich habe ein Faible für Anwalt-Krimis ;)
galinette's review
2.0
I will admit that I did not see the ending coming but I feel cheated by it - mainly because we get one sentence where Thóra says that Stefan was the one who knew who the bad guy was... but how? I'd have loved to have his POV on the matters.
Thóra's way of treating her children also got on my nerves. In what world can 17 year olds just demand that their mother rents accommodation for them at a festival, along with plane tickets, and also that she acts like a babysitter for their 1 year old?
Thóra's way of treating her children also got on my nerves. In what world can 17 year olds just demand that their mother rents accommodation for them at a festival, along with plane tickets, and also that she acts like a babysitter for their 1 year old?
judya's review
5.0
An Icelandic Scott Turow? The author is certainly all that, and more. Lawyer Thora lands a difficult client accused of at least one, if not possibly 5, murders. Like in Scandinnavian noir, the murders are gruesome, although the earliest are blunted by the passage of time. Recommended to those who like legal thrillers and those who like authors such as Jo Nesbo.
expendablemudge's review
3.0
Real Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: In 1973, a volcanic eruption buried an entire Icelandic village in lava and ash. Now this macabre tourist attraction proves deadly once again—when the discovery of fresh bodies casts a shadow of suspicion onto Markús Magnússon, a man accused of killing his childhood sweetheart. His attorney Þóra Guðmundsdóttir finds that her client has a most inventive story to tell. But the locals seem oddly reluctant to back him up...
My Review: This is a dark, dark, dark book. It's not for the depressive or the depressed. The congenitally chirpy should read it because they'll finally be brought down enough not to infuriate the rest of us.
Thora (I can't do the ASCII again, it hurts my hands), the sleuth in the series (of which this is installment 3, though the first I've read), is very matter-of-fact, very unflappable. She's not unemotional, not really, as her actions indicate. But she is one of those folks in life who create a sense of calm for those around them by being solid and confident. And usually right.
The story is propelled, and I use that term advisedly, by the short chapters headed with the date and day of the week. It's an additional source of tension-building, and honestly it's not crucial because believe you me there is oodles of tension in the plot already.
I admire the Icelanders. They put the banksters who crashed the economy in jail, threw the gummint out, and they protect their people in so many ways, unlike the austerity addicts in the rest of Europe who are effin' over the people to please those same profiteering banksters. Oops, political rant, sorry. I meant to segue into, "But considering how much murder there seems to be in that country of a half-million or so, I won't be visiting any time soon." Heh. My bad. Arnaldur Indridason's novels, these by Yrsa Sigurdardottir, they paint a grim picture of the beautiful island of Iceland. Surely it's a happier place than this!
I remember watching with thrilled terror as Heimay erupted on the TV in 1973. It was so exciting to see it in color, and in almost real time! (They were simpler times, younguns, stop smirking.) The author's choice of setting is guaranteed to make me sit up and take notice. But the plot she sets in motion is what relentlessly pulled me along.
So why three and a half stars, when surely that sounds like a full four are merited? Because for me, the place and personal names are a bugger for me to keep in my head. The text uses all the proper diacritical marks though thankfully not the thorn and eth letters that would ordinarily feature in the names. I blush to admit this, it's so very annoying a trait in me, but the Nordic languages are damn close to impenetrable to me for these reasons...the letters and the weirdass placement of accents that don't mean accenting and umlauts that don't do what I expect them to. I can't speak along in my head as I can with French or Spanish or Portuguese. It all turns into a Prairie Home Companion joke-Norwegian-accented muddle.
Yes yes, it's my problem not the text's fault, but it's my review so features my response. I assign my rating accordingly. Condemnatory tuttings are not welcome, or invited, nor will they be met with saintly silence.
This book was a LibraryThing Early Reviewers win.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The Publisher Says: In 1973, a volcanic eruption buried an entire Icelandic village in lava and ash. Now this macabre tourist attraction proves deadly once again—when the discovery of fresh bodies casts a shadow of suspicion onto Markús Magnússon, a man accused of killing his childhood sweetheart. His attorney Þóra Guðmundsdóttir finds that her client has a most inventive story to tell. But the locals seem oddly reluctant to back him up...
My Review: This is a dark, dark, dark book. It's not for the depressive or the depressed. The congenitally chirpy should read it because they'll finally be brought down enough not to infuriate the rest of us.
Thora (I can't do the ASCII again, it hurts my hands), the sleuth in the series (of which this is installment 3, though the first I've read), is very matter-of-fact, very unflappable. She's not unemotional, not really, as her actions indicate. But she is one of those folks in life who create a sense of calm for those around them by being solid and confident. And usually right.
The story is propelled, and I use that term advisedly, by the short chapters headed with the date and day of the week. It's an additional source of tension-building, and honestly it's not crucial because believe you me there is oodles of tension in the plot already.
I admire the Icelanders. They put the banksters who crashed the economy in jail, threw the gummint out, and they protect their people in so many ways, unlike the austerity addicts in the rest of Europe who are effin' over the people to please those same profiteering banksters. Oops, political rant, sorry. I meant to segue into, "But considering how much murder there seems to be in that country of a half-million or so, I won't be visiting any time soon." Heh. My bad. Arnaldur Indridason's novels, these by Yrsa Sigurdardottir, they paint a grim picture of the beautiful island of Iceland. Surely it's a happier place than this!
I remember watching with thrilled terror as Heimay erupted on the TV in 1973. It was so exciting to see it in color, and in almost real time! (They were simpler times, younguns, stop smirking.) The author's choice of setting is guaranteed to make me sit up and take notice. But the plot she sets in motion is what relentlessly pulled me along.
So why three and a half stars, when surely that sounds like a full four are merited? Because for me, the place and personal names are a bugger for me to keep in my head. The text uses all the proper diacritical marks though thankfully not the thorn and eth letters that would ordinarily feature in the names. I blush to admit this, it's so very annoying a trait in me, but the Nordic languages are damn close to impenetrable to me for these reasons...the letters and the weirdass placement of accents that don't mean accenting and umlauts that don't do what I expect them to. I can't speak along in my head as I can with French or Spanish or Portuguese. It all turns into a Prairie Home Companion joke-Norwegian-accented muddle.
Yes yes, it's my problem not the text's fault, but it's my review so features my response. I assign my rating accordingly. Condemnatory tuttings are not welcome, or invited, nor will they be met with saintly silence.
This book was a LibraryThing Early Reviewers win.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
avid_d's review
3.0
Possibly a 2.5. I loved her first book, but I have so far found the subsequent ones I have read to be something of a mixed bag. In this book, one of the key elements - the Alda and Adolf story - was incredibly predictable (to the reader, if not to Thora), though maybe that was what the author intended.
scknitter's review
3.0
Yrsa Sigurdardottir is considered the queen of Icelandic crime fiction and she certainly earns the title with Ashes to Dust. The plot was clever and intriguing with several surprises along the way. The book also gave a captivating look at Iceland and some of its inhabitants. I am looking forward to more legal thrillers with Thora Gudmundsdottir leading the way.
A great new Scandanavian author who will hook you from the beginning in this legal crime thriller.