(Búrið, 2017)
In the final instalment of her Reykjavík Noir Trilogy, we find former bankster Agla behind bars, serving a sentence for her part in the financial shenanigans that lead to the collapse of the Icelandic banks. She has reached rock bottom. Her lover, Sonja, has abandoned her for good, leaving nothing behind but a hastily written text.
However, with her sentence coming to a close she discovers that her experience hiding money in offshore accounts may come in handy when she is approached for a new job. She is asked to trace the financial dealings of Ingimar, a seemingly mild-mannered investor who is actually the kingpin in a vast criminal conspiracy with links to an international drug syndicate and more. In the course of the investigation, Agla finds an unlikely ally in María, the young special investigator who previously sought out Agla’s conviction for market manipulation, now turned investigative reporter. However, unbeknownst to Ingimar himself, something is brewing under his own roof, in his own family, which is set to blow everything sky high. Meanwhile, a final confrontation between former lovers Sonja and Agla is in the offing.
Here, Lilja closes the trilogy that began with Snare, her first novel in English, about lovers Sonja and Agla and their various crimes and betrayals. However, Lilja’s thrillers, many of which are destined for an English translation, contain a world wherein characters roam freely from one book to another, so that readers may not have seen the last of the trilogy’s cast of characters.