Hello and welcome to my stop of the Betrayal Random Things Tours blog tour! A huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me to be part of this blog tour. I loved my time with the Reykjavik Noir Trilogy, so of course there was no way I could resist a new stand-alone written by the same author. And it turned out to be another solid piece of nordic noir! Want to know why? Please join me while I share my thoughts…

Title: Betrayal
Author: Lilja Sigurðardóttir
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
First published: October 2018
Publisher: Orenda Books
Finished reading: October 4th 2020
Pages: 276
(Originally written in Icelandic: ‘Svik’)

“If only it was as easy to delete people in real life as it was on Facebook.”

*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***

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I loved my time with the Reykjavik Noir Trilogy last year, so of course I couldn’t wait to try more of Lilja Sigurðardóttir‘s writing. This time around we have a stand-alone to enjoy with Betrayal, and it is without doubt another solid piece of nordic noir. Get ready to transport yourself to Iceland and enjoy an intricate and multi-dimentional story! Fans of the genre will have a great time with this one.

The Icelandic setting really shines through, and I loved how the translation stayed true to the original Icelandic names. On that note, a round of applause to Quentin Bates for the flawless translation and for enabling us to read this piece of Icelandic fiction in the first place! Betrayal is essentially a multi-dimentional story with a multiple POV structure and various different storylines in play. We have our main character Ursula and the focus on her work as a minister, we have Gunnar as her driver and bodyguard, we have the cleaner Stella and the LGBT angle, we have Petur and the mysteries around the past as well as the present… Lots of different angles and different storylines to keep you busy along the way. And of course that all important question: who is ‘the devil’ and what did he do?

There are multiple heavy elements in play… We have Ursula’s background with her work for Doctors Without Borders; the ebola in Liberia and the bombings in Syria. We have the rape case where a police officer is accused of rape and the case doesn’t seem to be investigated properly. We have the politics element and possible corruption. We have the stalking case and all it entails. We have the mystery around the death of Ursula’s father and Petur’s character in general. We have the alcoholism and addiction element. We have the cheating… And more. This seems like a lot of different elements to try and squeeze into just one story, but somehow it worked in Betrayal and I liked how the different elements were incorporated into the plot. It’s true that I’m never a fan of the whole cheating angle in a story and Ursula’s character let me down a bit because of it, but that is just a personal pet peeve I guess.
It was interesting to see the different storylines and characters develop over time. As the threats on Ursula’s character seem to increase, so does the tension and suspense and it was interesting to see those secrets and lies slowly unravel. Betrayal definitely ends with a bang too, and I like how our main character isn’t afriad to hand out a punch. Betrayal raises important questions about politics, how rape cases are handled and about women in power positions in general… And how the media can destroy a person in the blink of an eye. It is fascinating to see those small betrayals and lies building up and escalate until the situation really gets out of control… Betrayal is an excellent piece of nordic noir and perfect for fans of the genre who like diverse and complex reads.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Icelandic crime-writer Lilja Sigurdardóttir was born in the town of Akranes in 1972 and raised in Mexico, Sweden, Spain and Iceland. An award-winning playwright, Lilja has written four crime novels, including Snare, Trap and Cage, making up the Reykjavik Noir trilogy, which have hit bestseller lists worldwide. The film rights have been bought by Palomar Pictures in California. She lives in Reykjavík with her partner.

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