As always, many thanks to Orenda Books for including me on the blog tour for Eva Björg Ægisdóttir's "Home Before Dark".
Born in Akranes, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir's debut novel, "The Creak on the Stairs", was published in Iceland in 2018, becoming a bestseller and going on to win the Blackbird Award and the Storytel Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year. It was published in English by Orenda Books in 2020, winning the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger. In 2024, Eva won Iceland’s prestigious Crime Fiction Award, the Blood Drop, for "Home before Dark" and was shortlisted for the coveted Glass Key.
"Home Before Dark" was translated to English by Victoria Cribb, a freelance translator of Icelandic literature. Her translations of Icelandic authors published in English include crime novels by Arnaldur Indriðason, The Blue Fox and From the Mouth of the Whale by Sjón, and Stone Tree by Gyrðir Elíasson.
"Home Before Dark" is a slowly simmering build that leads to a sensational and very unexpected denouement. Ægisdóttir enhances this by the way she structures the book, which alternates chapters set in 1966 (the past) and 1977 (the present). Each timeline is respectively told from the point of view of two sisters from a small town in Hvítársíða, Iceland. The first chapter begins in 1977; all of these chapters are narrated by Marsí, the younger sister of Kristin (Stína). One night in 1966, Stína vanished on the way home from a friend's house and was never seen again. After a long search, a bloody anorak on the side of the road was the only item anyone found. Marsí has come from Reykjavik to visit her parents on the tenth anniversary of Stína's disappearance. She has no idea of what awaits her.
The 1966 chapters are told from Stína's point-of-view. Her life is filled with friends, parties, art school, and boys. Stína seems like a perfectly normal teenager, but there are hints of unsettling nightly occurrences at home involving her mother. She's loves Marsí, but admits her little sister can be "strange". Since Stína shows artistic talent, she is taking art classes at night, taught by Ívar. The classes are held in a former WWII workhouse for what were called "situation girls", accused of having illicit relationships with American soldiers.
One day after class, Ívar gives Stína a shoebox that he found under the floorboards. It's filled with letters, a photo, and a brooch. He thinks it might have belonged to one of the situation girls, and believes Stína will find it interesting. This sets her off on a mission to find out who the box belonged to so she can return it to its owner. What she discovers has serious implications for her entire family. Could it be the reason for her mysterious disappearance?
Told in flashback by Marsí, we learn that in 1966 she was jealous of Stína's popularity and looks. Feeling lonely, she responded to a news article about pen pals and is matched with a boy named Bergur. Marsí wrote him letters pretending to be her older sister, so Bergur had no idea who Marsí really was. After a year of exchanging letters, Bergur suggested that they meet in person. Marsí was at her wit's end; what will he do when he discovers she is only 13 and nothing at all like her sister? Nevertheless, she resolved to sneak out of the house to meet him.
On the same night, Stína is at her friend Málfríður's house, watching a movie. The mood is tense because she's just broken up with one of Málfríður's brothers and he's there as well. She makes an excuse, leaves to walk home and is never seen again.
Marsí is usually a bad sleeper, but that night she slept so deeply that she only wakes in the morning, having missed the meeting with Bergur. Stína is now missing and Marsí never hears from Bergur again. She is tormented by the thought that her deception as a pen pal played a role in her sister's disappearance, and wonders whether Bergur could be involved.
Ten years later during her visit home in 1977, Marsí receives a mysterious letter purporting to be from Bergur. The letter is not sent through the mail, but pushed through the door slot with her full name, MARSIBIL KARVELSDÓTTIR, in block letters. The letter re-awakens her fears and suspicions about Stína's disappearance.
Bergur used the same phrase, "Yours in hope" in the letters from 1966. Why is Bergur, if it really is him, contacting her after ten years? How did he discover that it was Marsí who wrote the pen pal letters? And why is he "still here, still just a few words away"? This seemingly friendly letter is terrifying to Marsí and she lies awake every night, racking her brain for answers. Without sleep, her nerves are on edge, and her old habit of tearing out her hair is coming back.
Her chronic insomnia increases her stress to the point where she's hearing voices and other strange sounds. Marsí experiences "waking dreams" that blur the line between imagination and reality. There are hints that she has been sleepwalking, but she remembers nothing. Marsí's mother was also a sleepwalker and frightened the young girls many times, waking up to find her in their rooms. Marsí thinks it's happening again.
Despite her nerve-wracked state, Marsí resolves to investigate Stína's fate. She has questions for her parents, but strangely, they do everything they can to put her off her quest, even urging her to return to Reykjavik. Her conversations with Stína's friends and her own circle raise more questions than answers. As Marsí digs further into the past, her life spirals out of control. She gets drunk, blacks out, and is lucky an old friend comes to her aid. She can hardly distinguish between waking life and her terrifying dreams. But she's got to pull herself together to solve the mystery that's tortured her for ten years: what happened to Stína?
I read mysteries that I'm reviewing twice; the first time for the plot, characters and events, and the second time for "clues". That is, how did the author lead me to the ending? There are subtle hints and suggestions in both sister's stories. Knowing how the story comes out changed my perception of Stína's and Marsí's chapters and how they fit together.
Ægisdóttir's use of alternating chapters also increases the tone of foreboding throughout the book. Since each sister speaks in the first-person, we only know what they know, and there is a lot that's hidden from, or misunderstood, by them. As we follow them across time, the secret of Stína's disappearance and Marsí's increasingly shattered psyche bring the tension to an intense level. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. Then, at the very end, Ægisdóttir throws a wrench into everything I had suspected. And that is how you bring a great mystery to a close.
FYI for NordicNoir/mystery fans: Eva Björg Ægisdóttir has also written a series called "Forbidden Iceland". There are five books in the series and I recommend reading them in order. Check them out here.
Please buy/order "Home Before Dark" from your local independent bookstore, or go to bookshop.org and order there. They now offer ebooks as well.
For audiobooks, go to libro.fm.
