There’s a sense of breathless energy from page one of Lilja Sigurðardóttir’s Dark As Night, the fourth (out of a planned five) Áróra investigation series, an energy that’s maintained right to the final page.

Following on from Cold As Hell, Red As Blood and White As Snow (and it does pay to read these three predecessors in order before tackling Dark As Night as, in effect, this is one large story arc), we’re soon immersed into the world of financial investigator Áróra who is still trying to piece together what happened to her missing sister Ísafold.

When a three-year-old girl claims to be the reincarnation of Ísafold and seems to know things only Áróra and her sister would have known, a new angle of investigation opens up. Is this a true case of a voice from beyond the grave or is the toddler being manipulated by her parents to promote their true crime podcast?

Áróra’s partner Daniel soon has troubles of his own, when shady government officials take an interest in his lodger, a split lip and busted nose for Daniel hint at a much darker fate awaiting him should these agents catch up with him or his lodger.

The scene is set for a cat-and-mouse chase across Europe as the pair rush to solve not one, but two mysteries. 

Sigurðardóttir’s skill lies in weaving the disparate worlds of reincarnation, drag artists, and international arms dealing into the already compelling multi-novel arc of Ísafold’s disappearance. These unconventional plot twists could, in lesser hands, seem contrived and far-fetched but here Sigurðardóttir crafts an utterly compelling and gripping plot that has us genuinely engaged.

Much of that engagement comes from carefully portrayed characters and a sense of community that has been built over proceeding books. While we’ve already learnt much about Daniel and Áróra in previous books, here we delve deeper into the world of Lady Gúgúlú, Daniel’s unconventional drag queen lodger. It’s a genuinely surprising plot twist but one that is handled with skill and ingenuity by Sigurðardóttir. Again, it is a testament to her skill as a writer that is given a complex, multi-layered, characterisation rather than what, so easily, could have become a caricature.

Dark As Night is fast-moving, short punchy chapters that keep the pace fast and the action flowing. That pace however doesn’t neglect the detail. We’re still painted a vivid picture of a highly believable world we’ve become emotionally invested in.

Lorenza Garcia’s translation keeps that pace flowing in a book that is a genuine page-turner.

There’s both a resolution here and a cliffhanger. Some of the threads of the previous books are resolved by the end – we now know the how but we’re yet to discover the who or the why. It sets us up for a thrilling conclusion for what is touted as the fifth and final book in the series. It will be a bittersweet but, eagerly anticipated to follow on from the gripping predecessors, but also sad to say goodbye to characters we’ve grown to know in previous work.

As it is, though, Dark As Night is a showcase for an author who knows how to not only maintain readers’ attention over a multi-book series but continues to throw new ideas and hooks into the mix that keeps us all guessing over the ‘what next’.

Dark As Night by Lilja Sigurðardóttir, translated by Lorenza Garcia, is published by Orenda Books in ebook on 26 September and in paperback on 10 October 2024.