Huldar and Freyja are back and I couldn’t be happier!
Yrsa Sigurdardottir is undoubtedly a fantastic mystery/ crime/horror teller!

This book had it all. Creepiness, this constant feeling of being haunted, that cold shiver you feel when there is something eery in the air!
So atmospheric and so perfectly executed!

It may feel slow paced but I feel it was just the perfect pace for the story telling and I love how the author ingeniously can intertwine what feels “intertwinable”.

I did felt this book was slightly scarier and, being a massive scaredy cat, let’s just say the night stand lamp was kept on for a couple of days and thank god I have no dolls at home!

I am a huge fan of previous books so loved (and can’t wait to read more about) Hulda and Freyja!

I would like to thank Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for a digital advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and to the publishers for allowing me to review the authors book The Doll, Yrrsa Sigurdardottir (thank goodness I don't have to pronounce her name) is a well known Icelandic writer of Crime and children's fiction; with two well known series all based in Iceland (The Doll being a Freyja and Huldar, Book 5 ) . This one to be published in July 2021, , the intended book cover for the hardback version certainly gives you the reader an idea of the the central item in the story - a plastic doll with one eye and one hand, no hair, covered in barnacles and crusted over worm casts - not one you would want to cuddle at night.
The story is very intricate, involved with a twisty tale involving two dead brits found at sea, a murdered drug dealer junky, missing and runaway dead teenager who was the finder of the creepy doll ('demonic' and killer of her mother and father!), drug dealing and sexual abuse claims all feature of in The Doll; how these all this fit together is something out of Midsummers Murders crossed with Death in Paradise and a smidge of Cluedo. Its complicated and no way could I work this one one out, lots of descriptions but nothing horrific, just the DOLL in the background waiting for the final page twist to give you nightmares.

Having read the previous books in this series was really excited about release of this new one. I certainly wasn’t disappointed although some of the words are hard to pronounce, not really surprising as set in Iceland and originally written in Icelandic, it takes nothing away from the story line. It starts with different cases which merge into one, but unlike some books that also does this it closes all stories off as well as the main story. The characters all have their own personalities which follows through from the previous books in the series without spending too much time on them and not the story. Can’t wait for the next one in the series

I think that those disappointed at not finding this a true horror story do it a great disservice, and they may not have read to the end. This is a detective story pure and simple, and a really excellent, complex and engrossing detective story at that. Yes, it centres around a revolting doll fished out the sea, but the doll simply becomes another character in the story. It was good to meet the Detective Huldar, and child Psychologist Freya again - they feel like old friends now, both absolutely determined to do their best to solve the mysterious murders the plot throws up. As always with this Icelandic author’s books, the translation is outstanding. Yes, this is a complicated story but that simply serves to keep readers on their toes - a really absorbing and brilliant book.

Just wow! Another brilliant story in The Children's House series.

The book has so many parts and smaller stories, that I couldn't believe it's possible to put them together... yet Yrsa, who is a master of plotting, did it! It was incredible.

The amount of dead bodies is probably the highest of all of Yrsa's books which I've read. The story starts with a creepy doll being caught in the fishing net. The girl who was on a boat wants to keep the doll and her mother agrees. The next day the mother is found dead, the doll disappears and no one believes Rósa that her mother was murdered.

Years later a boy comes to the police station saying that he's been abused in a care home. Rósa is his only witness. Only, she disappears. Freyja gets involved in the case because the minors need to give their statements about the care home employee, and Huldar joins the team because he had quiet time in the homicide division. They try to find more witnesses to the abuse.

The plot is really complex, it's like a web of small stories and I couldn't stop thinking how can they be joined... even a tiny tiny tiny detail about something in the interrogation room was relevant at the end! The stories come together nicely... only to get a big twist in the last chapter, something that I don't think anyone would see coming!

I loved how Freyja's and Huldar's relationship evolved and that they're not only talking with each other, but they start to like each other again. And seeing Freyja's work situation at the end of the book, I can't wait to see how it'll look like in the next instalment.

If you read the previous book, you'll know that Freyja moved into a new apartment which had an exotic and strictly illegal pet - a snake. She needs to feed him and hope he won't crawl out of his room to kill her. Even though I don't agree with keeping snakes as pets and especially with feeding them with alive animals, I found the lines around the snake quite funny.

I'd definitely recommend the book to everyone. It's brilliant to see how the characters develop over the series and I think that this book can also be read as a standalone.

Amazing! Strong 5 stars!!!

*****

Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an early copy in exchange of an honest review.

Not the horror story I had expected but instead a rather complex detective story. I found it a little slow to start and felt the end, with its long explanation of how the events tied together, rather unbelievable.

The premise for the story sounded so interesting to me.

I love me a good horror story, especially about scary haunted dolls.

Unfortunatel, the story felt like a slow start and I prefer my stories fast paced and the ones that get straight to the point.

In a word...terrible. I expected so much from Yrsa Sigurdardottir having read and enjoyed The Legacy and, in so doing, meeting good characters (with the ability to grow as the series progressed) namely Detective Huldar and child psychologist Freyja. For reasons best known only to the author she introduces a horror element; a bedraggled doll and it would appear that anyone who encounters the doll will meet a rather violent death. The discovery of bones at sea, sexual abuse at the care home, the murder of a homeless man did little to rescue a dismal attempt at horror, and a poorly constructed deeply confusing crime story The last part of the novel (I use the term lightly) includes a long and rambling expose, unveiling of the perpetrators and thankfully, and it could not come sooner….the end. Thank you to netgalley for a gratis copy in exchange for an honest review…..and that is what I will always deliver.

This started off quite well but to be honest half way through i was just confused ,felt it dragged on too long .Not for me im afraid .

The author explains that the cover of the book was a picture she found and that this gave her the inspiration for the novel. What a novel. Dolls can be creepy at the best of times but the way they find this one, the descriptions of the creatures in the sea attached to it,,,brrr this author is good.
If you ever find a doll like in the book, best not to keep it, as the mother and daughter in the novel who find it, well, let's just say life isn't good.

Years later, the police are investigating cases involving child abuse and drug addicts and then this doll case comes back to haunt them...

Unique and utterly compelling even if I have now put an old Barbie in the bin...well you never know.

A mother and daughter fishing trip turns deadly when the duo net a doll from the depths. It’s in poor condition, but the daughter wants to keep the doll, so mom reluctantly agrees. The next day the mother is dead and the doll is gone after she posts a picture of the doll on social media. A few years later, the redoutable Detective Huldar is on the water looking for human remains. The crew brings up skeletal remains, but their origin remains a mystery. Huldar brings psychologist Frejya on board to try to help uncover the identify the remains. As they both investigate, they also deal with two other cases, one involving child abuse, the other, the death of a drug addict. It turns out that all three cases are linked through the child who wanted to keep the waterlogged doll years ago. Sigurdadottir consistently provides fresh and intricate mysteries