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A Ghost Story
For Líf, Garðar, and Katrín a week in Hesteyri fixing up their newly purchased house was supposed to be an adventure. It was Líf’s husband’s idea. A hiking trip to the area proved to be inconvenienced by a serious lack of accommodations. He’d suggested that they buy a house—the only empty one in the small seasonal village—and fix it up for guests. But then Einar died. Líf, Garðar, and Katrín decide to push forward with the idea, part in honor of Einar and part in hopes that their investment will pay off. As soon as they arrive, however, they realize there’s something amiss with the house they’ve purchased. Strange sounds haunt them throughout the night and morning reveals shells, seawater, and sand strewn about the rooms. Plus, in spite of it being off-season and the town completely abandoned, all three of them have seen a child running around the otherwise empty village.
At the same time, in nearby Ísafjörður the police have asked a local psychologist to consult on the vandalization of a school. Freyr isn’t at all certain what kind of help he might be able to offer, but a chance encounter with an elderly patient leads him to believe this isn’t the first crime of its kind. The problem is that the previous case is over fifty years old. As he digs further, Freyr finds more strange connections, this time between the recent disappearance of his son and another child who’d gone missing decades earlier.
The stark setting and Sigurdardóttir’s particular style blend perfectly to create a chilling (literally and figuratively) ghost story. There’s a sinister feel from the very outset of the book: three friends left for a week in an abandoned town, cut off from all outside contact, and the parallel story of a doctor whose son has been missing without a trace for three years. As the connections between the two storylines are slowly revealed, the tension increases dramatically.
I Remember You does have a slower build than some readers may like. I found that the pacing not only allows time for character development (which can be neglected in horror for sure) but gives the reader multiple instances of false security—a calm before the storm so to speak in between instances of intense creepiness.
Sigurdardóttir is best known for her Thora Gudmundsdottir thrillers. I Remember You is a stand alone.
I Remember You won the Icelandic Crime Fiction Award and also was nominated for The Glass Key Award.
4/14 Becky Lejeune
I REMEMBER YOU by Yrsa Sigurdardóttir. Minotaur Books (March 25, 2014). ISBN 978-1250045621. 384p.
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