There is nothing to fear except fear itself – except for a family and their housekeeper in rural Iceland. In the middle of a harsh winter, the fear in their minds is nothing compared with the real horror that awaits them.
Yrsa Sigurdardottir’s latest thriller, Can’t Run, Can’t Hide cements her reputation as Iceland’s most chilling writer. Her novel The Prey last year was utterly terrifying and, while there may be less of a supernatural element at play here, Sigurdardottir revels in building suspense and tension so we don’t know if the unfolding horror is real or something more ethereal.
A wealthy family has moved back to rural Iceland from America, having sold their IT business for a multi-million sum and converted a remote farmhouse into a gleaming showcase of modernity. A young housekeeper finds herself in this remote location, the third to fill the role in a matter of months. When a neighbour grows concerned that he hasn’t seen the family for a while he treks through an Icelandic blizzard and makes a horrific discovery.
The pristine farmhouse hides a bloody secret, the family brutally slaughtered by an unknown assailant. With the father missing, is it a case of familicide, with some unknown trigger forcing him to kill his own family?
Sigurdardottir’s tale alternates chapters between the present and the past events leading up to the horrific discovery. It soon becomes apparent that the case isn’t as straightforward as it seems. Shadowy figures lurking in the winter storms, icy footprints appearing beside locked doors and warnings scrawled in blood onto the windows suggest more sinister forces at play.
It is beautifully paced and constructed, the shifting viewpoint between investigation and the events leading to the tragedy giving the reader an uncomfortable point of view, aware of the horrors to come but unable to alter the inevitable course.
It’s a claustrophobic, tense, and brutal structure that unravels the true horror slowly. There’s no sudden shock moment, instead a tightening net of horror as the trapped family edges closer to their doom. The title becomes prophetic; here’s a family trapped in the snow who literally can’t run and can’t hide.
However, as with Sigurdardottir’s previous works, there’s more than horror. Carefully woven into the dual timeline story arc is a thoughtfully observed look at some of the tensions within Icelandic society. The concept of being an outsider is a central theme, be that the outside facing Sóldis, the housekeeper finding herself trying to assimilate into a family who view any newcomer with suspicion or the police officers Týr and Karó themselves, facing dual challenges of being seen by local police as interlopers from Reykjavik as well as being seen as outsiders in their own country due to differing cultural backgrounds. It provides a sense of depth and connection that draws us deeper into the unfolding tale.
For regular Icelandic Noir readers, those local police officers will have a sense of familiarity, with Sigurdardottir using characters from Akranes police already established in fellow writer Eva Bjorg Ægisdóttir’s popular series. It’s a clever technique that lends a sense of authenticity to the work.
Týr himself undergoes his own journey, a visible scar from his childhood revealed to have darker origins than first thought. It adds a further layer that ramps up the tension for readers.
While the outcome is clear from the initial chapters, what makes this such a compelling tale is the way Sigurdardottir takes on that journey to the inevitable, and while we may know the outcome, the twists and turns taken to get there contain many moments of shock, horror and surprise, It is that ability to set out a stall early in the work but keep us hooked over the following 400 pages that makes Sigurdardottir such a compelling author.
There’s a hint of a sequel on the final pages and let’s hope that is forthcoming as Sigurdardottir’s new releases are proving to be a highlight of the reading year.
Can’t Run, Can’t Hide by Yrsa Sigurdardottir, translated by Victoria Cribb, is published by Hodder & Stoughton and available now.
