Today I’m taking part in the blog tour for Home Before Dark. My review is written with thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me on the tour and to Orenda Books for my copy of the book.

Blurb:

November, 1967, Iceland. Fourteen-year-old Marsí has a secret penpal – a boy who lives on the other side of the country – but she has been writing to him in her older sister’s name. Now she is excited to meet him for the first time.

But when the date arrives, Marsí is prevented from going, and during the night her sister Stína goes missing – her bloodstained anorak later found at the place where Marsí and her penpal had agreed to meet.

November, 1977. Stína’s disappearance remains unsolved. Then an unexpected letter arrives for Marsí It’s from her penpal, and he’s still out there…

Desperate for news of her missing sister, but terrified that he might coming after her next, Marsí returns to her hometown and embarks on an investigation of her own.

But Marsí has always had trouble distinguishing her vivid dreams from reality, and as insomnia threatens her sanity, it seems she can’t even trust her own memories.

And her sister’s killer is still on the loose…

Review:

I’ve been shouting about Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir for a while now and Home Before Dark is definitely worth shouting about. It’s a standalone novel, set over two timelines in the 1960s and 1970s – two time periods that mean the lack of technology and slightly slower pace of life create a less fast paced read than I am used to from this author. However, it’s no less wonderfully written and the gradual build up of tension creates genuine intrigue that holds until the very last page.

The protagonist of Home Before Dark is Marsibil and I developed sympathy for her quite early on. It’s obvious that ten years later, Marsibil and her family are still deeply affected by Stina’s death and they are quite dysfunctional. They are all hiding things from each other and I was intrigued by how all these things fit together. I hoped that in finding some answers, she could find the peace she so desperately needed. I also found it interesting to discover more about Stina in the sections set in the 1960s and the events leading up to her death.

At the beginning of my review, I mentioned that Home Before Dark has a gradual build up of tension, but boy, when it starts to unravel, does it unravel! Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir has wound this story up so tightly and plotted so intricately that the reveals have an incredible impact. They come when I least expected them, and even when you think the surprises are all out, there are more to come. I loved seeing how all the clues fit together and how all the smaller details build up a much more complex picture.

As always, I can’t wait to see what this author does next!

Home Before Dark is available from Amazon.

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