Reykjavík, 2052. Europe is peaceful, prosperous and almost crime-free, governed by Ɐlfa, the artificial intelligence that manages infrastructure, safety and daily life.
Mekkín works at the Ministry, close to the core of the system that keeps society running. She lives with her partner, Sabína, an artist. When Sabína’s brother Birkir, a committed dissident who lives beyond the reach of Ɐlfa, is found brutally murdered, that fragile sense of order begins to fracture.
Violent crime has effectively been eliminated, and Birkir’s death is not just shocking, but inexplicable. What was he involved in, and who would dare to commit murder in a world designed to prevent it?
As the investigation unfolds, Sabína is drawn ever deeper into the case. Mekkín’s position at the Ministry brings scrutiny she cannot escape, their relationship begins to fracture, and their teenage son’s recent integration into the system places him uncomfortably close to the forces now circling the family.
As Sabína pieces together Birkir’s final days, the answers begin to point far closer to home than either of them ever expected, forcing her to decide what she is prepared to sacrifice to uncover the truth…
Icelandic crime-writer Lilja Sigurðardóttir was born in the town of Akranes in 1972 and raised in Mexico, Sweden, Spain and Iceland.
An award-winning playwright, Lilja has written eleven crime novels, including Snare, Trap and Cage, making up the Reykjavík Noir trilogy, and her standalone thriller Betrayal, all of which have hit bestseller lists worldwide.
Snare was longlisted for the CWA International Dagger, Cage won Best Icelandic Crime Novel of the Year and was a Guardian Book of the Year, and Betrayal was shortlisted for the prestigious Glass Key Award and won Icelandic Crime Novel of the Year.
The film rights for the Reykjavík Noir trilogy have been bought by Glassriver. Cold as Hell, the first book in the An Áróra Investigation series, was published in the UK in 2021 and was followed by Red as Blood, White as Snow, Dark as Night and Black as Death. TV rights to the series have been bought by a major studio.
Lilja lives in Reykjavík with her partner and a brood of chickens.
My thoughts: I’m very ambivalent about AI and this book doesn’t offer much reassurance. Alfa might be running Europe but it feels a lot like control and a loss of free will. At sixteen you’re chipped and then the system tells you what job you will do, not letting you decide. It monitors your health, tracks your movements. I can see why Birkir and others choose to live outside the system, we all have enough apps, bank cards and mobile phones tracking us as it is.
Birkir’s murder is shocking, in an AI controlled world there is little crime, but clearly a large police force is still needed. As with any system created by humans, it requires attention from its programmers to keep it running and feed it more data to “learn” from. When the truth about Alfa is revealed, people are angry, why should so few be allowed to make decisions for so many?
A prescient warning, as people increasingly rely on these AI systems and even their creators admit they cause harm. But also an interesting and enjoyable crime read. Ultimately human emotion is still the problem.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
