The cover, blurb and beginning bad me routing for a spine tingling horror-thriller, but in fact I got a lengthy mediocre crime investigation. This was absolutely not what I expected of Yrsa Sigurdardottir, whom of I read a lot of books, and really and enjoyed. But on this occasion her storyline was below her usual standards.

Thank you NetGalley / Hodder & Stoughton for providing me with this arc in exzeptionellere a honest review.

I received this book from the publishers via Netgalley for a review. With the tagline I thought it would bea more supernatural element to this book although not a bad book by any means it was a bit slow, but will read this authors earlier works

There is too much of everything in this Icelandic saga. Too many complex themes, too many tangled plot lines, too many characters with similar names, too many settings, too many genres jockeying for attention, and it was too long, but I was grateful for the lengthy recap of the plot towards the end.
It was a bit like trying to digest a meal with too many courses.
A decent investigative detective story and exploration of family issues, but the accusations of sexual abuse of children, the drugs tragedy, excessive violence, and a touch of the grotesque gothic rather over-egged it for me.
I did enjoy the Icelandic landscape and descriptions of the weather and the sea. Extremes climate conditions lend themselves well to the tensions in the crime genres.
Thanks to #NetGalley and #Hodder & Stoughton for my pre-release download.

I loved this book and had to stay up late to finish it. I was worried after requesting it that it would be a horror story, so I was pleasantly surprised to read an excellent police procedural. The story is clever, the characters believable, and I appreciated the explanation at the end. I didn't realise that this book is number five in a series so I will definitely look out for the others. It was a pleasant change to read a crime novel set in Iceland, and I will definitely be recommending this book.

The description of this book sounds like it should be my kind of book but sadly it just wasn't for me and I couldn't get into it, I gave up halfway. Good luck with your book and I thank you for this advanced copy.

Unfortunately this book wasn’t for me. I found it a bit silly to be honest and struggled to keep up with what was going on.

This took a long time for me to get into and I thought about DNFing on more than one occasion

It took a while to get into the story and when we finally started getting somewhere something happened which seemed very nonsensical and just threw the story into a different direction

It was suitably creepy and I’ll still not love dolls as long as I live thanks to stories like this but one I sadly won’t be picking up again

I was very concerned about reading this novel as evil haunted dolls are firmly on my nope list, alongside creepy children, things in the walls, and odd unexplainable noises. Thankfully, I was perfectly all right after the first couple of chapters, when the doll becomes a tiny cog in a huge police investigation spanning various cases, all of which are tenuously linked.

There’s so much to take in here, and I think that’s why I enjoyed it so much. It feels like thousands of things are happening at once, all of them apparently related, and it’s a real joy to attempt to join the dots and work out what the hell’s going on. Some areas are predictable where others aren’t, but throughout the story Sigurðardóttir kept me engaged.

She has some really skillfully written parts, and I felt her pacing was well balanced. Her characters are mostly fleshed out and relatable, and although from their relationships I soon worked out I was reading a novel which was part of a series, the plot makes sense without having knowledge of the book’s predecessors. I did feel slightly disappointed with the ending - it felt rushed, and most of it was reported by word of mouth, so I felt left out and cheated at not being allowed to see things unfold for myself.

I do feel strongly that this has been poorly marketed as a horror - there’s nothing remotely akin to the horror genre here, and the whole thing has a far more crime thriller feel to it. Not that I was complaining - if that barnacled covered dolly was present in any more scenes than she was, or if she was described in any further detail than I’d already been given, I doubt I could have managed to finish the story unscathed.

I am struggling to find the right word in order to describe it... Mildly entertaining?
It was nowhere near great, it was slow paced and not thrilling at all..
It starts with 3 or 4 different stories (yes, I did lose the plot in the beginning jumping from one to another) and then suddenly all blends into one.
None of the characters really stood out, it didn't give you a feel of Iceland either. Hard to explain, but a lot of good novels really give you the feel of the place whether it's UK or Sweden, you just feel the difference. This one was very grey and nothing but character names made me think of Scandinavia.
The way all the stories joined into one was way too far fetched and unrealistic in my opinion. I also didn't enjoy it dragging and then everything falling into place within just a couple of pages.
Mediocre.

I really enjoyed this book. I was very intrigued by the blurb and the title and the story was different to what I thought it would be.
There are a lot of interweaving stories that you need to keep up with but they all start to come together and the last few chapters of this book were fabulous!!

This was not the horror story I expected from the cover of the book, but a fairly complicated story of an investigation into a series of crimes.
Little Rosa lands a hideous looking doll on a fishing trip with her mother. She is desperate to keep the doll, so it is taken home with them. Shortly afterwards Rosa's mum dies. We're unsure whether it's murder or an accident.
Moving forward to the present day, Huldar and Freyja, characters from earlier books, are investigating a child sex abuse allegation. They are also involved in investigations into the murder of a drug dealer, and the finding of some mysterious bones in the sea - at the same spot as the doll.
Rosa emerges as the link between all these crimes. Where does the creepy doll fit into this? No spoilers!
My lower rating for this book stems from the expectation of the scary doll horror aspect, rather than a standard crime novel. I'm a huge fan of Yrsa but on this occasion, it was a little below par, in my opinion.

I really struggled with the storyline and gave up by chapter 10.
The first couple of chapters were interesting, there was a doll and there was a cliffhanger at the end of one of the chapters that made me want to read on but since then, the storyline went onto something else completely and I lost interest quickly.
You captured me at the beginning but not even halfway through I got bored and didn’t finish the book. Such a shame considering it was highly rated.
Sadly not for me.

A hideous barnacle covered doll is caught in a fishing net by young Rosa Thrastdottir and her mother Disa. Five years on bones are found on the sea bed in Faxafloi Bay and sex abuse allegations are made against children’s home manager Bergur Alvarsson. A random series of events - how do they connect? The investigations are led by Erla and Huldar.

The premise of the book is good and parts of the case are really interesting. The characterisation is good especially Hukdar and the Icelandic
setting adds an appropriate atmosphere to the storytelling. However, the style is plodding as the case and the writing take a very meandering and at times laborious path to get to the relevant information. The ‘horror’ element just isn’t and that side of the plot line never takes off. There are some fortuitous evidential finds and discoveries as we build to a rather convoluted end.

Overall, it’s not bad but nor is it that great either as you have to wait with patience for the nuggets of information to arrive. I’m disappointed as I’ve read this author before but this isn’t one of her best in my opinion.

With thanks to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the arc in return for an honest review.

Enjoyed the characters and settings and the story was interesting, however I was a little baffled that The Doll of the title did not feature more prominently in the story line. In addition I felt the book was overly long with lots of pages with nothing much happening, therefore could not be described as a page turner but a pleasant read.

I’ve read several of Yrsa’s Sigurdardottir’s novels in the past but have never reviewed one before, so my advice to all prospective readers of The Doll is to read the previous Huldar and Freya novels first and then progress to this one, just to get your bearings and to appreciate the dynamics between the characters and then you will be ready for The Doll - knowing what to expect and unable to resist reading this latest instalment. I solemnly promise that you will be totally hooked.

The Doll is not the supernatural horror I expected it to be, but it’s all the better (and ultimately somehow much creepier) for that in my opinion and, like all Ms Sigurdardottir’s crime novels, it is supremely well plotted, irresistibly readable, humorous and just bursting with Icelandic atmosphere from start to finish. In a year when I haven’t been able to travel to Iceland because of the pandemic, Yrsa’s books have been the perfect cure for my cabin fever (and I have developed a ‘book crush’ on Detective Huldar, but that is another story!).

Many thanks to Hodder & Stoughton, to Ms Sigurdardottir and to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this terrific novel.

I thought that I would be brave reading this book as I have always had a fear of dolls from being a little girl. Believe me, after reading this book, that fear feels very real now!

While out on a small fishing boat with her mother and the owner of the boat, a young girl manages to snare a very sea beaten doll and persuades her mother to let her keep it. That night the girl’s mum dies mysteriously, and the doll goes missing. The story takes on different directions as it follows a young couple working in Spain to camping in Iceland before disappearing. Again it shoots off to a case of child abuse. The stories have no relevant connections.

It is the fifth book in the Freyja and Huldar series, and I have to say here that it is my first one. I was amused at the relationship that these two had, as Huldar was more than a little skittish where Freyja was concerned. I got the feeling early on that she likes to wind this guy up whenever she could.

I did feel at times a little taken aback at how these individual stories come to an abrupt end without having any answers before moving on to a new group of people and a very different path. They all come together, and I am not sure if it was because they were left without an end or not, but I didn’t forget how each had concluded at the time. It is quite a wicked read that brought everything to a conclusion but left me a nervous wreck.

I wish to thank Net Galley and the publisher for an e-copy of this book which I have reviewed honestly.

A frustrating book. Starts off like it may be some horror inflected thriller, before becoming more conventional. The basic concept and the linked crimes are nicely set up and with the likeable lead characters of Detective Huldar and child psychologist Freyja we have some engagement with events. But the final third of the book felt like Yrsa Sigurdardottir was late for a prior engagement and couldn't be bothered letting the book play out naturally, so instead we suddenly get a lot of 'basil exposition' as we wrap up various plots strands which left me feeling a bit short changed. Two and half stars.

I love this series, especially the relationship between Freya and Huldar. All the police characters are well-written and clearly individual. The plot itself was quite tricky to follow, with so many people involved, and lots of overlap, but the writing explains that Iceland is like a small town, and everyone is connected so it does make sense, and is all explained in the end. I look forward to the next one!

When a mother and daughter go on a fishing trip, they had no idea of the ramifications that the doll caught in the fishing line would bring. Nothing but death and tragedy.
Years later, a boy reports abuse at a children’s home. The investigation into this leads them back to the story of the doll.
There are many sub plots in this book which eventually come together. A complex but intriguing storyline.
A first of the author for me, but one to keep an eye out for.

The discovery of a mysterious roll on a fishing trip leads to a sinister and creepy tale of murder and suspected abuse of children and young adults in the care of the state.