Flotsam and jetsam

© C A Lovegrove

The Silence of the Sea
by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir.
Brakið (2011) translated by Victoria Cribb.
Þóra Guðmundsdóttir series No 6.
Hodder & Stoughton, 2014.

‘I just don’t understand them. What kind of people are they?’
‘Deeply flawed. Each in their own way.’

A luxury yacht sailing from Portugal to Iceland crashes into the dock at Reykjavík. But when investigators arrive they discover nobody on board, neither the crew of three nor the family of four who were travelling with them.

Lawyer Thóra Gudmundsdóttir is asked to make enquiries concerning life insurance for the missing parents, but the more she seeks for answers the more new questions seem to present themselves. Bit by bit details emerge of what may be flotsam, or possibly even jetsam.

Meanwhile, as we follow the lives of those on the luxury yacht’s fateful voyage we realise that they are struggling with their own mysteries about the previous owners, why the ship isn’t functioning as it should, and how to react to each new revelation.

© C A Lovegrove

The Icelandic title Brakið could, I suppose, be translated as ‘wreckage’ or ‘breakage’ and, this novel being set soon after the economic crisis in the first decade of this century, Brakið could initially be taken as referring to the Lady K‘s repossession after its owner’s financial ruin. When the ship on autopilot crashes into the dock at Reykjavík we surmise this could be yet another wreckage. But then when all seven individuals on board seem to have disappeared without trace there are also all the shattered lives of those left behind to consider.

The first of the two timelines is set entirely in Reykjavík, mainly in the legal practice where Thóra works. The progress of her professional career and her home life follow on from the previous five instalments in the series but we are told enough of what has transpired in the previous half dozen years so new readers aren’t disadvantaged. Her daily concerns – anxieties about her family’s affairs, irritation with the firm’s secretary Bella’s waywardness, interactions with the police detectives – all provide a solid foundation to the thriller contrasting with goings on in the other timeline.

Here the matters of flotsam and jetsam raise their several heads, as seen through the eyes of Ægir, the man tasked by the repossessing bank’s resolution committee to supervise the departure of the yacht from Lisbon. When circumstances dictate that a replacement is needed for one of the three-man crew he enlists himself, with his wife Lára and their twin daughters as passengers. But then individuals start disappearing: are they flotsam after accidentally falling overboard or are they jetsam, ejected without a by-your-leave? Thóra and the police have their work cut out trying to decide.

This crime thriller certainly contains the bleakness expected from the Nordic Noir genre. It’s relentless in its slow and steady pace, requiring some commitment in reading until it becomes unputdownable about two-thirds of the way in. Who is responsible for the series of gruesome deaths and why? What has happened to Karítas, the estranged wife of the yacht’s bankrupt owner? Why do things keep disappearing from the impounded vessel? Is it in fact cursed?

Thóra is a personable protagonist, even if she isn’t your average fictional amateur detective, and it’s unsurprising the author has stuck with her for this six-volume series. More enigmatic is Ægir – a vacillating figure who seems to make all the wrong decisions on the voyage. It’s ironic he’s named after the Norse sea god, just as it’s incongruous that the selfish Karítas should bear an Icelandic name related to charity.

Pity poor Iceland, where callous murders appear to be committed by so many ruthless psychopaths. As one individual comments toward the end of the novel, ‘I didn’t know people like that existed.’ And, sad to relate, as you close the final page I fear you may never see the classic cartoon figures of Tom and Jerry in quite the same way again.

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#NordicFINDS

Read for Annabel’s #NordicFINDS and as No 9, the seashell, for Mayri‘s Picture Prompt Book Bingo 2024.

Bookforager’s Picture Prompt Book Bingo, 2024: https://wp.me/p7GrCV-1nN

Also third of Reading Around the World, after The Ragwitch (Australia) and Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Japan), and third in my #24tbr2024