Snare

February 12, 2018
Icelandic author Sigurdardóttir makes her English-language debut with this unpleasant crime novel, a series launch. Shortly after Iceland’s huge 2010 volcanic eruption and the financial crash that nearly bankrupted the nation, Sonja, a Reykjavík divorcée who has always gone with the flow but also likes to take risks, starts smuggling cocaine. She wants to establish a secure home for her nine-year-old son, Tómas, who’s currently in the custody of Adam, her powerful ex-husband. Adam and Tómas caught Sonja in flagrante with her lover, Agla, a bank executive who’s the target of a special prosecutor investigating a gigantic fraud scheme. Sonja must concoct increasingly complex ruses to escape detection by customs official Bragi, including poisoning two government sniffer dogs, while her relationship with Agla increasingly unhinges both women. Meanwhile, Bragi strives to extricate his ill wife from a poorly funded and understaffed nursing home, where she’s being abused. The main characters, sketchily developed, often act in contradictory ways, and the unnecessary, premeditated killing of the canines will outrage dog lovers.

March 1, 2018
In the maelstrom of Iceland's financial crisis, a single mother, a banking executive, and a customs agent become tangled in a devil's bargain. Nearly broken from a brutal custody battle with her wealthy ex-husband, Sonia is grateful for the offer of help from Johann, a successful attorney she met, ironically, through her ex. Sonia naively believes in Johann's altruism until he offers her an ultimatum: pay off her legal fees by trafficking cocaine into Iceland or test his promise to harm her son. Months into the trap, Sonia is using her newfound criminal cunning to plot her escape. Meanwhile, Agla, Sonia's girlfriend, spirals out of control as she becomes a target in Iceland's highly publicized bank-fraud investigation. Career customs agent Birgi is pursuing Sonia, staking his future on catching her in the act of smuggling. As Sonia sheds na�vet� for shrewdness, Birgi and Agla's stories gather intensity, hurtling toward a climax rife with emotional and physical violence. A taut, gritty, thoroughly absorbing journey into Reykjavik's underworld.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)