The Day is Dark

I was disappointed in this Sigurdardottir novel as I purchased it on the back of enjoying her other Thora stories.It had a great start - missing bodies, a strange video, a mix of unlikable characters stuck together. Add in unwelcoming Greenland villagers. Such promise - plus the added benefit of perhaps learning a little about Greenland. The whole Thora clothes packing debacle made no sense to me whatsoever and too soon I found myself flicking through pages just to get to the end and have the mystery solved (especially how the big hole got into the corpses' body).Too slow with long-winded discussions and arguments and explanations, too many unpleasant characters who stayed that way through the whole story, too much bickering.

Though Yrsa's previous Thora novels were set in Iceland, this novel is set almost entirely in Greenland. The plot concerns the investigation of mysterious disappearances at a new mining venture in eastern Greenland. Modern science intersects with the ancient folklore of the indigenous Greenlanders as the plot unfolds with unexpected and fascinated twists and turns. In the end, all the mysteries that emerge are neatly and plausibly explained. The fascinating culture and serious challenges of the Greenlanders are treated with sympathy and insight. I found this to be one of Yrsa's best novels.

In the beginning of the book, Thora receives a telephone call from her Matthew, her boyfriend. Matthew works for a bank/finance institution and they are having a problem with one of their clients, Berg Technology. The company is involved in a mining project in Greenland. All of the crew took a leave and is now refusing to return to the job. The two men who remained at the site are missing and presumed dead. Another work, a female, went missing a few months earlier. Thora agrees to join Matthew and a crew to investigate the situation and find an understandable reason why people are missing in order to entice the workers to return to their jobs.I leared a lot about Greenland and cultural traditions of the intuit people. However, I didn;t enjoy the book as much as I have enjoyed the other books in the series. Maybe a little too much culture :)

I've been a fan of the Icelandic writer Yrsa Sigurdardottir since coming across one of her books a few years ago. I could never find another of hers in the library or local stores, so I'm happy to see them being published in Kindle editions now. I enjoyed this one just as much as the first. Her stories are not action packed thrillers, but stories that develop over time as the heroine researchs the people and motives behind the events. (I think this is probably more true to life than many mystery novels!) The location in the mining settlement in Greenland is unusual, and the description of the weather, the members of the staff, and especially the reclusive villagers keeps a level of tension throughout the book. I find the main character, Thora, to be someone I can relate well to, and the comic relief provided by her secretary Bella is fun. I highly recommend this book!

Everything written here about the cultural destruction on the east coast of Greenland rings true. Just need to compare it with what is currently happening in the Eastern Arctic of Canada. Well written, interesting and dark with a twist in the end. Kind of a no one gets out undamaged type mystery although nothing much happens to the main character and her friends. The setting is phenomenal, probably the only shortcoming having worked a bit in the Eastern Arctic; is that the starkness and cold beauty of the landscape could have been better captured. Probably pretty true to life in that the off worlders, it really is a strnge and different world, spend most of their time indoors. But a good read nonetheless.

lot: I found it difficult to care what had happened to the missing employees. In some ways it seemed like the book was written more as a way to talk about how we treat the environment than to actually present Thora with a mystery to solve. It wasn't predictable though, which was a positive.Characters: Thora is definitely flawed, but I really like her as a character. I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get to see much of her kids in this book, because I think they're really entertaining characters.Overall: This was definitely my least favorite book in the series. I do hope book 5 is translated into English, as I really did enjoy the first 3 books, but this installment was a let down.

When a mining site in Greenland experiences a communications breakdown and its workers refuse to return, a small team is sent from Iceland to determine what happened and advise on what can be done to get the project back on track. A video has emerged suggesting that a murder took place at the site and several of the workers seem to have disappeared. The team arrives and slowly begins to try and unravel the mystery. The harsh unforgiving environment has had an impact both for the local people and those isolated together at the work site. The mystery slowly unravels but the suspense is held until the end with many twists and turns along the way.

This is the second book by this author that I have read and I am just as pleased as I was with the first. The pacing is fantastic, the plot is great and the weaving of native beliefs into plot is really wonderful. The end was a complete surprise. Read this book. You will not regret it. I look forward to her other books.