Alfred Hitchcock famously explored students covering up a murder in his 1948 epic Rope, and it’s a theme Yrsa Sigurðardóttir revisits in The Wake, the second novel in her Black Ice series.
Readers familiar with Sigurðardóttir’s previous works know she’s adept at spinning twisting tales with surprises waiting in each new chapter, and The Wake is a masterclass in plotting and tension. This isn’t, however, a straightforward murder mystery; for much of the book, we’re unsure whether a murder has even taken place – or who the victim actually is.
Five university friends reunite on a storm-tossed journey to the remote Westman Islands off Iceland’s southern coast to attend the funeral of a former university friend. Now in their thirties, the close bond they shared as students has faded, yet a dark secret binds them still, however strained that bond may be.
A note pinned to their car on the ferry journey – Go home, don’t stay here – left by a mysterious cloaked figure should have been warning enough, but as the group reaches the island, death seems always just around the corner.
As the body count rises – both historic and current – the friends are forced to confront a shared dark secret from their university past and the uncomfortable truth that one of them may be a killer. A drunken party near graduation appears to hold the key to the threat they now face, but how is it linked to their friend’s death?
As in the first instalment of the series, Sigurðardóttir makes clever use of a dual timeline – one following the friends’ arrival on the island and another tracing the police investigation into the chilling events they become embroiled in. What’s particularly effective is the overlap of these two arcs: this isn’t the usual decades-old flashback, but a clever play on how a few days’ difference can change entire lives. Fate looms large here, and by focusing on just a handful of days, Sigurðardóttir amplifies the tension and suspense.
The Wake may be billed as the second Black Ice novel, yet it contains only small details directly linking it to Can’t Run, Can’t Hide, the terrifying first book. We see more of Idunn, Iceland’s sole pathologist, and detectives Týr and Karó return – though in supporting roles. Readers of the first novel will gain deeper insight into familiar characters, but it’s by no means necessary to have read book one to enjoy The Wake.
At first glance, The Wake may seem less chilling than its predecessor – there’s less blood and gore – but that calm is deceptive. Sigurðardóttir and translator Victoria Cribb may have pared back the viscera, yet this tale’s darkness seeps through the everyday: a domino effect of simple actions driving relentlessly toward an inevitable, brutal end. Fractured friendships, fateful decisions, and unspoken secrets combine to create a slow-motion train wreck that feels both horrifying and inevitable.
Sigurðardóttir’s writing is effortless, her many twists and turns arriving as genuine surprises yet grounded in a narrative that feels utterly believable. The facts may be shocking, but that shock is heightened by the stark realism that underpins them. And of course, no Icelandic Noir would be complete without an eleventh-hour twist – Sigurðardóttir delivers a final gasp that nobody will see coming.
Book blurbs often veer into hyperbole, but The Wake once again justifies its claim that Sigurðardóttir is truly “the undisputed Queen of Icelandic Noir.”
The Wake by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, translated by Victoria Cribb, is published by Hodder & Stoughton.
