A review by jmatkinson1
Gallows Rock by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

4.0

With the Reykjavik police force detailed to cover the important visit of Chinese officials, the last thing that was needed was a hanging corpse in eyesight. Lena and her team are forced to curt the man down before they can start investigating but they get even more of a shock when they find a young boy alone in the dead man's flat, a boy who has no idea where he lives or how he came to be there. As the investigation hones in on the man's friends and their tawdry entertainment, the race is on to find little Siggi's family as well.
This is a cracking piece of dark crime fiction with a solid and quite modern plot. what I particularly love is the setting and the way the author integrates modern Icelandic life. The culture is very different and, unlike may books of its type, this one feels incredibly authentic. Given that the series is built around the interaction between a police officer and a social worker, there is also the child protection aspect which is dealt with sensitively.