On a cold day in Reykjavik, a baby goes missing from her pram. When the child's blanket washes up on the beach, and the mother is found dead, everyone's worst fears seem to have been realised.
Eleven years later, and detective Huldar and child psychologist Freyja are now working in the same police building, on the same team. Freyja believes that personal and professional relationships must remain separate, however hard that may be. But when a woman's dismembered body is found in a deserted car, her head missing, and Freyja and Huldar find themselves working on the same case, the secrecy around their affair threatens to crack. And when Freyja is accused of a serious breach of police protocol, will Huldar be able to help her? Meanwhile, their search to identify the body takes the case back into secrets of the past, and the unspoken crimes that bind three separate families.
Comment: This is the sixth (and apparently) final installment in the Children's House series by Yrsa Sigurdardottir. I've read the 4th book not knowing at the time it was the fourth, but since I liked, I've decided to keep the series from there, which is why I've read the 5th, and now this 6th story.
In this book the police, and children's psychologist Freya - who now has a small office at the police station - are investigating the case of a body which was found in a car. At first, the clues point to a possible victim, but there are elements that don't match and they have to keep investigating. In due curse, they learn that there is one person, whose young daughter recently died, might be the kink between a series of events. However, a sudden new clue about an old case comes to life and it changes the focus of the investigation again. What happened eleven years ago when a baby was stolen from its crib and then presumed dead?What happened to the murdered person? What connection can it possibly have with the deceased child now?
Again, reading this story was very engaging. I really think the author has a special talent to bring the pieces together in a simple bus effective way while still maintaining some secrecy. In this case, there was one secret which I think was kind of easy to understand, but there were other factors involved which kept me glued to the development of the plot and the final explanation is, as it happened with the other installments, quite rewarding, if not really spectacular.
The plot seems to encompass a lot of detail and many seemingly different situations. Of course, as things move along, we get to learn there is a connection between everything, especially the link between certain children. I have to say that there were parts of the plot that felt a little too unlikely, but at the same time the process of linking the elements makes perfect sense and little things turn out to be parts of a much bigger picture.
I suppose the main issue in this novel is the debate on what is correct or not and that actions have consequences. What seems logical or simple at one moment for one person, can be seen in a different way by someone else and what counts as something necessary for some, can be seen as devastating for others. I did like the personal reflections I got from reading this novel, but of course some situations only make sense after we learn what happened to each family who has links with the children.
It's true that some situations seem to be exaggerated for plot reasons, mainly how quick some things become easy to connect after a while, but considering that at the same time we follow the police investigation and the process of seeing the clues by the main characters, everything does seem to be thrilling because something new is added as the story develops. I think some surprises were very well placed and made me think of what had been said previously in a different manner.
A very good element in these books has been the contrast to the main characters' personal lives. Nothing is shared in ways I've seen in other books or by other authors, but I like this look into these people, into their way of thinking and, by extension, to how Icelandic people might be too. It's funny because there's this general idea, stereotypes, of how people in this place or that should be like, and with these novels giving us glimpses of domestic lives, some things are just too universal I guess, while others are interesting cultural fodder.
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