Yrsa Sigurdardóttir; trans. Bernard Scudder and Anna Yates
My Soul to Take by Yrsa Sigurdardóttir, translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder and Anna Yates, is a murder mystery set in Iceland. The novel opens in 1945 with the horrific murder of a little girl. We jump sixty years later to meet Thóra Gudmundsdóttir, a lawyer.
Thóra is invited to her client’s New Age Spa hotel to investigate the presence of ghosts ostensibly haunting the premises. The ghosts appear as little girls shrouded in fog and can be heard as babies crying. Thóra’s client wants to sue the previous owners for not being forthcoming about the ghosts. Although she doesn’t believe in ghosts, Thóra accepts his offer to spend a weekend at his resort mainly because she needs some rest and relaxation. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite turn out that way for her. When a mutilated body is discovered on the beach and her client comes under suspicion for the murder, Thóra decides to conduct her own investigation.
Thóra is joined in her exploits by her partner, Matthew. They question the guests and staff at the hotel, each of whom has a connection to the victim and each of whom appears to be hiding something. When a second murder takes place on a nearby property, the investigation acquires greater urgency. One by one, guests and staff come under increasing scrutiny and suspicion. Thóra explores nearby farmhouses, discovers old photographs of Nazi activity and paraphernalia, and gradually unravels long hidden secrets. Eventually, she and Matthew piece together the puzzle, connecting the recent murders to the murder of the little girl in the prologue.
A personal life fraught with challenges constantly intrudes on Thóra’s investigation. Her sixteen-year-old son is expecting his first baby with his fifteen-year-old girlfriend. Her contentious relationship with her ex-husband weighs on her. Her secretary treats her with disdain. And her feelings toward Matthew are somewhat ambivalent. One the one hand, she relies on him and welcomes his contribution; on the other, she expresses relief that his German origin and lack of knowledge of Iceland precludes him from wanting to move in with her permanently.
The constant stream of suspects, the slivers of clues, the unearthing of past secrets, and the intermittent intrusions of Thóra’s personal life contribute to a confusing atmosphere. It is challenging to keep track of the characters and their relationships to each other, especially since the murder investigation has Thóra delving into the past to learn about the two brothers who were previous owners of the farm. Their connection with the present-day murders is the clue that eventually solves the case.
Yrsa Sigurdardóttir is able to sustain reader interested and keep the reader guessing as to the murderer’s identity due to a complex and convoluted plot. But the novel would have benefited from a tighter construction, fewer distractions, fewer suspects, stronger character development, a more natural-sounding dialogue, and a protagonist who is an actual detective and not a want-to-be detective camouflaged as a lawyer. Since Thóra does very little lawyering in the novel, one wonders why Sigurdardóttir chose to make her a lawyer.
Recommended with some reservations.