Very good plot, keeps you interested. I liked the mannerism the book has been written in. Approachable language and style. Well defined characters. Strong 5 stars.

Once again this author doesn't disappoint. The Nordic noir has always interested me, and the translation was done very well. Well-written and gripping until the end. Recommended.

Nordic queen Yrsa Sigurdardottir takes readers deliciously into the darkness in THE ABSOLUTION, translated by Victoria Cribb. A seemingly popular teen is abducted from the cinema where she works part-time, her trauma caught for all her Snapchat contacts to see as an increasingly disturbing series of videos are broadcast over social media. Detective Huldar calls in child psychologist Freyja to help interview the victim’s friends, and the pair soon discover that the teen may not have been as angelic as some claim. Then another teenager goes missing, and more video clips are sent. A body is found marked with the number 2. How many victims will there be?

Huldar and Freyja are faced with a dangerous killer and complex case entwined with the disturbing sides of social media. Sigurdardottir addresses confronting themes faced by teenagers and adults in a chilling tale with plenty of tangled character relationships and an exquisite slow-burn build that suits the wintry atmosphere.

I usually enjoy Yrsa Sigurdardottir's books, but I'm afraid this one's not working for me, so I'm giving it up at around the 20% mark. It's not really the book's fault, though - it's just that I don't find the subject matter, bullying of children, either entertaining or particularly original. In general, I'm fed up with crime fiction being used as a vehicle for novelists to address social issues. Crime fiction used to be about mystery, whodunit, suspense, tension, thrills. Now very often it's simply depressing. And that's what I'm finding with this one. However, it's well written and certainly the bullying, while at the extreme end, feels credible, so I'm sure this will work better for readers who enjoy this type of story..

I realised after I requested an ARC of this book that I'm actually pretty fed up of Scandi crime for now, so when I started this I have to say I did so with a heavy heart. It was fine - everything you expect from a dark crime novel. Troubled main characters, nasty things going on with shady people, secrets exposed, a race to find the truth.... I'm sure that for fans of this stuff Yrsa Sigurdardottir is a great writer, but for me, in a mood of over-exposure to the genre, I found it nothing more than bog standard. Familiarity breeds, well, disinterest in this case. Just not for me, I'm afraid, and I will be keeping my distance from this genre for a long while I think.

The story opens with the build-up to a girl's chilling final moments from her perspective. How everyone finds out about her brutal experience is through the popular social media app, Snapchat, with the gruesome images sent to all her contacts. I liked this modern angle because frankly, this is how most teenaged folk spread the news of just about anything. So why not murder too? A great start.

Then comes the detective work from characters I now know are part of a series. One is a child psychologist and another is a police detective and between them, with the rest of the police team, they try to discover why the girl was bludgeoned to death.

And this is where the slog comes in.

Somehow it seems just as hard for the reader to troll through the school and parent interviews as it does for the police. We see the dreary, sad lives of the main protagonists in too much monotony. The pace is slow...until another boy goes missing. The police do not know at this stage that he is dead and so go through the slog of boring parental interviews. The intrigue concerns numbers under the bodies and the occasional murder's point of view.

​The overriding theme of this book is bullying, with a bullying specialist called in and lots of examples of twenty-first century tactics used to intimidate school children. Thank goodness Facebook didn't exist when I was at school. Some of the responses to this from the child psychologist seem a little naive at this stage, perhaps. The bullying also affects the adults, as expected, and is alive and well in the workplace.

The 'whodunnit' is complex and therefore I didn't predict it, which is a bonus. This book has gore, horror and terror in small doses and deals with a topic all of us have witnessed at some point.

#NetGalley #TheAbsolution

Reading "The Absolution" made me sad at times a really mad. Bullying is something really dangerous, destroying not only the victim but entire families. It's hard not to feel angry with the murdered teenagers, knowing their background and what happened up tp the killings. "The Absolution" is a book I will recommend to all my friends, because I need someone to talk to about the story. Highly recommended!
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton!

A teenage girl is attacked at her place and then abducted. Video of the incident were sent to her contacts via Snapchat. The police can find no motive for what’s happened. Freya, a child psychologist, is called in to assist the police with interviewing the victim’s friends and it soon comes to light that Stella wasn’t the perfect teenager everybody thought she was. Then a boy is abducted from his home and again there are aspects to his life that didn’t endear him to everyone. Great read from start to finish - the plot kept me guessing right up to the reveal.

Thanks to Netgalley, Hodder & Stoughton and Yrsa Siguroardottir for the ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

There’s a reason Yrsa Sigurðardóttir is the Queen of Icelandic Noir. She loves to go dark and her books always feel contemporary amidst the Icelandic gloom . The Absolution is the third in her Children’s House series, though this book, like the others, can easily be read as a stand-alone.

Our protagonists, Freyja, a child psychologist and Huldur , a policeman, are still doing an uneasy dance around each other, following the less than perfect end to their one night stand some time ago.

This time, Freyja is called in by Huldur after a teenager is abducted in a terrifying manner from the cinema in which she works part time. We know this because all of her friends have received Snapchat videos of the attack and each is more disturbing than the last. What’s worse is that it is soon clear that Stella is not the only child who will be brutally attacked by this killer.

Huldar and Erla, his boss, are still at daggers drawn and so when Huldar is assigned the case he brings in child psychiatrist Freyja to help interview the teenagers.

Sigurðardóttir beautifully sets the dark and chilling scene as self-absorbed Stella goes from popular teen to murdered child. In a nicely complex and beautifully layered plot, she considers the use of social media as a weapon to isolate and intimidate.

Some of this is especially horrible, and gives us a glimpse into what contemporary bullying must feel like to a child. This is a harrowing and difficult subject and Sigurðardóttir plays it just right to elicit our growing unease and eventual horror as we find out the true extent of what has been happening.

The theme of bullying continues into the Police team. With Huldar out of favour with Erla, he’s getting the crap jobs and his poor partner, Gudlaugar is left to make what he can of their assignments. Even the Police are not immune from poor social behaviour, it seems.

As the team investigates, Freya also does some digging of her own and soon there are more potential suspects than you can shake a stick at. Sigurðardóttir cleverly plays with the reader’s expectations and it is some time before we understand the real motivation behind these murders. Just as we do so, she pulls the rug out from under us to create a heart-stopping finale.

Verdict: With her trademark skills of building a dark and creepy tension filled adrenalin ride, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir has written another truly immersive and engrossing read.

Yrsa Sigurdardottir, the queen of Icelandic crime, is back with a spectacular bang in the third thriller in the superb Children's House series. This palpably tense page-turner can be read as a standalone as the plot of each instalment is self-contained, however, after picking up this one there's a good chance you'll feel the irresistible pull of the preceding books. Sigurdardottir knows how to craft a well written, chilling and suspenseful novel with a cast of beautifully drawn, intriguing characters. As in her other stories the characters are not merely black or white, good or evil, there are some with a mixture of traits and who could be described as morally grey.

It's difficult not to resort to spoilers, but I prefer not to lessen the suspense potential readers are bound to feel if they decide to read it. What I can say is that it is based around a teenager's harrowing experience of bullying, a burning and ubiquitous social issue. The storyline provides much food for thought, although I did think that, at times, it came across as a little sanctimonious. There are a few twists in the tale and as always the beautiful, isolated setting becomes a character in its own right. As a huge fan of techno-thrillers, I found the use of Snapchat in the plot a work of genius adding further to the oppressive atmosphere. Many thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for an ARC.

The Absolution by Yrsa Sigurdadottir
I read this not realizing that this was the third in a series featuring the characters of Freya and Huldar. Although some references were made to past events there was enough information for this to work well as a stand-alone. I do however think that I may go back and read books 1 and 2.
The plot of the novel all revolves around bullying and the damage which social media can wreak in teenage lives and as such is very timely. There are many tangled relationships and the teenage girl who is murdered at the start of the book is revealed as having carried out a very unpleasant campaign against some of her peers. The use of Snapchat to release video footage of the actual murder is also chilling.
I found the book very well plotted and the writing very strong. I had read a number of other books by this author and have always found her stories gripping and thought provoking. Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for sending me a digital copy of this book.

Losing a child is quite possibly every parent's worst nightmare, but that is exactly what is facing Stella's parents after the teenager disappears from the cinema where she works part time. Worse than that, all of Stella's friends have been sent a series of increasingly disturbing Snapchat videos, the level of Stella's fear growing with each new Snap that is received. Coupled with a very sinister recording that is retrieved from the Cinema's security video, it is clear that Stella's days are numbered - well, less days, more minutes. 

I love the way that, with each book, Yrsa Sugurdardottir manages to completely captivate me and draw me into her dark and deadly world. You can feel the tension building from the very first page and that ominous feeling lodges itself in the pit of your stomach, staying out until you turn the last page. The Absolution is no different and I could tell as Stella primped and preened herself at the end of her shift, that she was not going to make it far beyond the opening chapter. I have to be honest, despite knowing that something was going to happen, I wasn't quite expecting that.

None of the books in this series have shied away from tackling very weighty subjects, and the murders have been quite dark and often disturbing. Now the manner of dispatch of the victims in this book may be more straightforward than its predecessors, the circumstances are no less harrowing. Seeing your child or friend murdered practically live on social media is the kind of thing which will leave an indelible mark upon all who witness it, and the seemingly simple method of murder makes the story all the more believable and disturbing as a result. I actually could imagine someone acting in the way the murderer did, and that made my skin crawl and added to the tension within the story.

As well as incredible tension, Yrsa Sigurdardottir creates some truly brilliant characters. Huldar has been a firm favourite of mine since book one, and the chemistry between him and Freyja is undeniable but, so far, unexplored. They play off each other brilliantly but whilst Huldar would happily engage in something more, Freyja is determined never to let it happen for a whole host of reasons. Alongside the pair you have a whole cast of characters, police officers and suspects, who are so well drawn you can imagine each and every one. There is Huldar's boss, Erla, who continues to make his life hell, reluctant to even engage with Huldar unless she has a dog of a job to dole out. Then there is his partner Gudlaugar, who continues to suffer as a result of being associated with Huldar, the office pariah. 

This time the central theme of the book s bullying, but who is being bullied and by whom? Needless to say that the teens in this book are all hiding something, in the way that only teens can, and nothing is quite as straight forward as it seems. And with the victims coming from different schools, with no apparent link between them, the ulterior motive of the killer takes a while to come to light. As the investigation progresses there are no end of suspects, and no matter where you look someone seems to be harbouring a secret, even Huldar's colleagues. So while you will know the why quite early on, the who will take a lot to work out.

We are faced with a lot less of Freyja in this story than in previous books, but when she does appear she makes an impact, her own history playing into the central theme perfectly. Each scene is skilfully set to create tension and mystery, keeping me on edge and leaving me wondering - what next? Another cracking story in a brilliant series. I can't wait for the next one.

This is the third book in the series. A story of physical, psychological and cyber bullying. Surely this would never lead to murder? This book is a slow burner but I am glad I stuck with it. Saying that in places it was a bit long winded and the story seems to have lost its way. As I said before this is the third in the series and in my personal opinion does not live upto the others.
I would like to thank the author, Hodder and Stoughton and Netgalley for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

I didn't realise this was part of a series but it can easily be read as a standalone. The story grips from the first chapter and as the story goes on it draws you in further and further. I thought it was really well written and there wasn't one moment where I felt the story dragged.

An excellent fast-paced suspense story. Plenty of plot twists. I couldn't put it down. The novel deals with the darkside of bullying and it's consequences. This is the third book in the series but the first one I have read, although I have read Sigurdardottir's other detective series and loved it. This novel is just as good as the other series and I shall be reading the earlier two books as soon as possible.
Highly recommended.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advance copy of The Absolution, the third novel to feature Icelandic detective Huldar and child psychologist Freyja.

When a video appears of teenager Stella being assaulted and abducted Huldar recruits Freyja to help interview her teenage friends. Initially there is no reason for the attack as Stella is portrayed as a lovely young woman but gradually a darker picture emerges. When a second teenager goes missing the team starts to feel the pressure.

I must admit that I found The Absolution a bit of a slog. There is no doubt that the plot is quite clever and contains several twists but the journey to the resolution is hard going. The first three quarters of the novel are slow and bogged down in unnecessary detail, so only the last quarter is fast moving and compelling. I like the idea of using Snapchat as a plot device as it suits the teenage environment and its disappearing messages make the investigation more complicated. On the other hand the theme of bullying is rather rammed down the reader’s throat. I fully understand that it is an important social issue and difficult to curb but it’s not a subject that holds my attention, being so far removed from where I am in my life. Thank goodness I’m no longer a teenager, the descriptions of bullying in this novel are harrowing but I have no trouble in believing they are based in fact. The trouble is there are so many they obscure the hunt for the killer.

I also found it difficult to feel for the characters as they don’t really stand out. Huldar has trouble at work, being frozen out by his boss but keeps investigating and lusting after Freyja. Freyja is examining her life to find happiness. She has gone part time at work to pursue a business studies course and is looking for love, anywhere but Huldar (but what’s the betting on that?), but comes to the conclusion that she has to change herself. A bit self evident for a psychologist.

The Absolution didn’t really appeal to me but it is a solid read.

A teenage girl, Stella, is missing probably murdered. Her friends are sent a snapchat video of her pleading and repeatedly saying sorry. As the investigation continues Detective Huldar discovers that she isn’t quite the saint everyone is saying she is but is this relevant? What is the link when another young man goes missing?

I am not a big fan of police proceedural books but I enjoyed this book. I hadn’t realised that it was part of a series and felt that it read perfectly well as a stand alone book.

This is a well written book with a clever and quite complex plot. It came together at the end with only a couple of very small queries left in my mind. On the whole it worked well for me.

I enjoyed the characters in this book. The police team have their usual dysfunctional lives and some excellent tensions between themselves. The relationship between Huldar and his female boss is particularly interesting as is her feeling that she must work harder as a woman than a man would in her shoes – I am sure many professional women can relate to that.

I enjoyed how modern and up to date this book is with a significant part of it being the snapchat videos. A lot of the book centres around the victim’s online presence.

This is a good, solid detective book. The characters are very good and the plot held together well. I would certainly be happy to read another in this series despite my general reluctance to read police prceedural books.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

Once again I am indebted to NetGalley for providing an early release Kindle copy for me to read and impartially review.
This is the third and apparently final book in the series so far, but don't let that put you off it reads perfectly as a standalone story, I had read none of the previous books and thoroughly enjoyed this gripping story Completely up to date and topical this book deals with teenage bullying and how it affects all parties concerned, and even more devastating with the added complications and ease that social media brings to the party. Well written and let's not forget the translators part in that, this a quality Police procedural, and highlights the pressure brought to bear on them from all quarters while investigating a serial murder case. Chilling engrossing grim, and tense with more than enough plot twists and turns as more and more characters are brought into play. Riveting with a chilling last paragraph conclusion.
Warning possible plot spoiler : for those readers of a certain age the plot bears some similarities with the classic Hitchcock film Strangers on a Train.

This book starts with a young member of staff at a cinema being bludgeoned to death at her place of work by Darth Vader. Despite seeming an innocent young woman it's soon revealed that she has a history of being a school bully, just as this subject resolves to be the theme of the thriller. It's almost to Yrsa's usual standards, but you can't help but feel a little let down that there's only the one criminal case to solve, and only the one theme – there are normally three or four strands to piece together. It's a rich subject that does also play out in the police incident room, and once again our hero's relationships with his superior and a child psychologist brought on board is still of interest to fans of the series. But even with the clever construction of the plot and the awkwardness the eager page-turner would have to work it all out, it does feel almost like a minor work. Three and a half stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher, Hodder & Stoughton, for the ARC.
This is a third book in a series, although I haven't read any of this author's work before, this read well as a standalone.
Teenager Stella receives a weird snap of herself in the kiosk of the cinema where she works, from someone called Just13. Ignoring it she continues checking the now-empty building's downstairs toilets before locking-up. Hearing footsteps she hides in a cubical and receives further snaps of the outside of the door - before it is battered-down by her murderer. Snaps of her last moments are sent to all her friends on Snapchat. A couple of days later her body is found in a deserted car park, but not before the police had been contacted by the recipients of the snaps the murderer took.
Erla and her team are tasked with the investigation. Detective Huldar calls in Freyja, a child psychologist, to assist in interviewing the many young people involved, and quickly determine that there could be some element of bullying involved, especially when a second teenager goes missing, leaving a trail of blood at his home.
This is a story of physical, psychological and cyber-bullying, but the question was whether this would ever lead to murder. Gradually the teenagers and parents give up their secrets.
For a crime thriller I was disappointed with the investigating team. Although Erla was the boss you knew very little about her except there was some harassment investigation involving her and Det.Huldar. The whole team appeared just as dysfunctional as the youngsters they were investigating.
I found the passages of individual characters' musings over their past or deliberations about the case, laborious and repetitive, and really only continued to finish the book for the sake of reaching the conclusion.
Having said that, it was a clever and well-thought-out plot, just no characters I could warm to, nor look forward to reading about again. Sorry.