The Undesired
On sale
22nd October 2015
Price: £9.99
A chilling modern horror novel from the author of THE SILENCE OF THE SEA, winner of the 2015 Petrona Award – perfect for fans of Let the Right One In.
The light spilling in from the corridor would have to do. Though weak, it was sufficient to show Aldís a boy sitting in the gloom at the furthest table. He had his back to her, so she couldn’t see who it was, but could tell that he was one of the youngest. A chill ran down her spine when he spoke again, without turning, as if he had eyes in the back of his head. ‘Go away. Leave me alone.’
‘Come on. You shouldn’t be here.’ Aldís spoke gently, fairly sure now that the boy must be delirious. Confused, rather than dangerous.
He turned, slowly and deliberately, and she glimpsed black eyes in a pale face. ‘I wasn’t talking to you.’
Aldis is working in a juvenile detention centre in rural Iceland. She witnesses something deeply disturbing in the middle of the night; soon afterwards, two of the boys at the centre are dead.
Decades later, single father Odinn is looking into alleged abuse at the centre following the unexplained death of the colleague who was previously running the investigation. The more he finds out, though, the more it seems the odd events of the 1970s are linked to the accident that killed his ex-wife. Was her death something more sinister?
Yrsa Sigurdardottir is a huge European bestseller both with her crime and horror novels. You might want to sleep with the light on after reading THE UNDESIRED . . .
The light spilling in from the corridor would have to do. Though weak, it was sufficient to show Aldís a boy sitting in the gloom at the furthest table. He had his back to her, so she couldn’t see who it was, but could tell that he was one of the youngest. A chill ran down her spine when he spoke again, without turning, as if he had eyes in the back of his head. ‘Go away. Leave me alone.’
‘Come on. You shouldn’t be here.’ Aldís spoke gently, fairly sure now that the boy must be delirious. Confused, rather than dangerous.
He turned, slowly and deliberately, and she glimpsed black eyes in a pale face. ‘I wasn’t talking to you.’
Aldis is working in a juvenile detention centre in rural Iceland. She witnesses something deeply disturbing in the middle of the night; soon afterwards, two of the boys at the centre are dead.
Decades later, single father Odinn is looking into alleged abuse at the centre following the unexplained death of the colleague who was previously running the investigation. The more he finds out, though, the more it seems the odd events of the 1970s are linked to the accident that killed his ex-wife. Was her death something more sinister?
Yrsa Sigurdardottir is a huge European bestseller both with her crime and horror novels. You might want to sleep with the light on after reading THE UNDESIRED . . .
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Reviews
. . . A chiller-thriller of immense scariness . . . Not to be read alone after dark.
..a grisly chiller set in the depths of winter... It's an accomplished debut.
A chilling read, enhanced by Sigurdardottir's taut plotting, realistic characters, and dry humour
A chilling read, perfect for a dark night.
Expertly woven together, with plenty of cliffhangers and perfect control of the macabre mood: intriguing, entertaining, and very spooky indeed.
Genuinely bone-chilling, and proves that as well as being the queen of Icelandic crime fiction, Sigurdardottir is a supreme generator of fear . . . (she) is clearly relishing the business of scaring our pants off.
Sigurdardottir intertwines these plotlines brilliantly and the two creepy strands gradually tighten together to really give the reader the heebie-jeebies. The author comes from a crime and thriller background and you can tell: there are cliff-hangers at the end of almost every chapter and she expertly ramps up the feeling of dread as the plot accelerates and all in the book find themselves in mortal danger.
The Icelandic queen of Nordic Noir, Yrsa Sigurdardottir's writing manages to be both spare but sinister. Expect goosebumps to sprout while reading this tale of murder, abuse and other worldly shenanigans in rural Iceland.
The stories share an underlying menace that is at once disturbing and compelling.
Yrsa Sigurdardottir's chillers get better and better. I REMEMBER YOU is a truly creepy combination of haunted house story and modern detection in Iceland.