Snare

Lilja Sigurðardóttir 

Orenda Books

Publication Date: April 1, 2018

Pages: 276

Synopsis from Publisher:

After a messy divorce, attractive young mother Sonia is struggling to provide for herself and keep custody of her son. With her back to the wall, she resorts to smuggling cocaine into Iceland, and finds herself caught up in a ruthless criminal world. As she desperately looks for a way out of trouble, she must pit her wits against her nemesis, Bragi, a customs officer, whose years of experience frustrate her new and evermore daring strategies. Things become even more complicated when Sonia embarks on a relationship with a woman, Agla. Once a high-level bank executive, Agla is currently being prosecuted in the aftermath of the Icelandic financial crash. Set in a Reykjavík still covered in the dust of the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption, and with a dark, fast-paced and chilling plot and intriguing characters, Snare is an outstandingly original and sexy Nordic crime thriller, from one of the most exciting new names in crime fiction.

2017 has been a year of discovery for me. I discovered I enjoy reading crime fiction books with sci-fi elements as well as action thrillers. I am so glad I stepped outside of my usual preferences and gave these sub-genres of crime fiction a chance. Snare further confirmed that I will be picking up more actions thrillers in the future. Snare is a thrilling, fast paced, tense story of a woman who is down but she should not be counted out.

Sonia has found herself in a terrifying and dangerous situation. After her divorce and the loss of custody of her son, Sonia has begun to smuggle drugs into Iceland. She is successful but she knows sooner or later her luck will run out. Her goal is to get enough money from smuggling to get full custody of her son and start a new life. This plan is going smoothly until Bragi, a customs officer, takes an interest in Sonia’s travels. So, begins a game of cat and mouse between Bragi and Sonia.

This story takes place in Iceland in 2010. This was a rough year for the country. Icelanders are in the middle of a financial crash and the air is covered in volcanic ash due to the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull. Sigurðardóttir captures the fear, and despair that envelopes the country and its people. You can feel how desperate Icelanders are for financial relief and fresh air. Sigurðardóttir describes people who are out of work and are willing to serve jail time for a price. This gave the story an anxious and tense tone. This also made some of the characters more relatable, some of their more dubious actions are understandable.

Although I enjoyed the main character Sonia, I was more intrigued by Agla, Sonia’s love interest. I do not want give away too much of the plot but Agla has just as many issues as Sonia. She is facing prosecution for her part in Iceland’s financial crash. She is also in denial about her feelings for Sonia. I

found Alga so interesting because while her and Sonia are both in dangerous situations their reactions and the way they are dealing with the situations is different. Sonia is constantly looking for ways to better her situation. If one way fails, she thinks of another way. In contrast, Agla has ideas to get herself out of her fix but seems OK if these ideas fall through. Agla’s background is also very interesting I would love to read more about her. Maybe read this story again but told from her perspective only.

 Although the subject matter and atmosphere are dark; I found Snare to be a fun read. It gave me a break from the books I have been reading with more death and gore but had all the aspects of Nordic Noir that I love. The story is fast paced, exciting, and thrilling. I hope that this book is part of a series. I would love to read more about Bragi, Alga, and Sonia.

**Thanks to Orenda Books for my review copy**

Murder and Moore Rating:

5 out of 5 Stars