Written by Lilja Sigurdardottir, converted by Quentin Bates — Following her daring employs in Snare, Sonja Gunnarsdottir is disguising out in an separated California trailer park with her 10 -year-old son, Tomas, far away from her native Iceland. She has escaped life as a drugs mule, hoping ex-husband Adam won’t find them. Adam, a corporate financier and drug trafficker, casts some killers who eventually find her and wrest away the boy. If she wants to see Tomas again, Sonja must now return to Iceland alone and do Adam’s bidding.

Still in her time short-changes, Sonja is rescued at the airport in Reykjavik by her ex-lover Agla Margeirsdottir. It’s a complex set-up because as well as Sonja’s squeeze Agla was one of Adam’s monetary partners when the crisis hit in 2008, and they both have questions to answer. With a huge overseas piggy bank, she is laying low-pitched as she faces sentencing in court for market manipulation. Agla eventually hopes for a fortunate family life with Sonja and Tomas, but Sonja’s knowledge is only focused on getting her son back.

Back in the stimulant smuggling competition, Sonja is resigned at her plight one minute, but determined to free herself the next. The writer appoints an unnerving and frantic environment that never lets up as she accepts a series of increasingly tense anguishes. She agrees to one arrangement after the other, always levitating at the edge of entrapment. First she faces Mexican dose sovereign Carlos, who penalizes disloyalty by feeding parts of his casualty to his domesticated beast, and then his wife Naty, who is not much better, but who does get Sonja one gradation closer to Tomas.

Now working for Naty and laden with cocaine, Sonja recruits the assistance provided by custom-mades polouse Bragi, who agrees to one last planned so he can retire to spend time with his ailing wife. After a nail-biting close call at international airports, Sonja gives access to Tomas but also receives a coarse clobber by Adam’s henchman Rikki the Sponge. After an wearying number of coercive treats and duplicities, first with Adam and then with Naty, Sonja’s final gambit is to friend herself with Sebastian, Naty’s lieutenant.

Meanwhile, Agla, who is the key to a huge fraud and fund laundering instance, hopes to secure her future via a secret lot made with Ingemar, the daunting aluminium kingpin. They are orchestrating a complex debt intrigue, and it seems Adam and his organization are being left out. But will all of this get past Maria, a sleuth who is another strong female attribute determined to set her own terms in a male-dominated world? She has been investigating Agla ever since the financial crisis, and now she sees an opportunity thanks to the coming of some confidential strips of Agla’s conversations.

In Trap, Icelandic columnist Lilja Sigurdardottir weaves another complex network of tension. Can Sonja completely free herself and create a normal life with her son? Will Agla do term, and time who has been videotapeing her? Will powerful people destroy their plans, and what new constituent may develop to entangle them considerably? Her evocative, urgent prose labels the characters’ dilemmas in your thinker, often working the forces of nature as a mirror, a familiar invention in Nordic noir. Sonja is described as a fish caught in a net and Agla’s dream of an permit rapport with Sonja resembles two souls struggling together in a kayak on Iceland’s stormy, cold waters. All the key personas from her debut, Snare, return here in satisfying fashion.

Some unanswered questions and the novel’s short-lived portion wreaking this thoroughly committing read to a frustratingly abrupt tip, but nevertheless you’ll require more. Sigurdardottir affords a adroit compounding of Nordic noir, hardboiled fiscal thriller and high-octane narco theatre, fitted with affectionate people that you can’t help identifying with even as they smash the law.

For Icelandic crime fiction with a different ambiance, try the tales of Arnaldur Indridason.

Orenda Books Print/Kindle/iBook PS4. 31

CFL Rating: 4 Stars

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