A Year of Orenda – Cage by Lilja Sigurðardóttir – trns Quentin Bates

Day four of the Jolabokafloð countdown and Mandie has a review of Cage by Lilja Sigurðardóttir, the final book in the Reykjavik Noir series. This one is very much Agla’s story and after two books in Sonja’s spotlight it is finally time to learn all about who she really is and how she came to be a part of Iceland’s most notorious banking scandal. You can find my review here, or read on for more about the book and Mandie’s take on the book.

About the Book

The prison doors slam shut behind Agla, when her sentence ends, but her lover Sonja is not there to meet her.

As a group of foreign businessmen tries to draw Agla into an ingenious fraud that stretches from Iceland around the world, Agla and her former nemesis, María find the stakes being raised at a terrifying speed.
Ruthless drug baron Ingimar will stop at nothing to protect his empire, but he has no idea about the powder keg he is sitting on in his own home.

At the same time, a deadly threat to Sonya and her family brings her from London back to Iceland, where she needs to settle scores with longstanding adversaries if she wants to stay alive…

Mandie’s Thoughts

I have decided sometimes there is definitely a benefit to turning up late to the party as you don’t have to wait for the next book in the series to be written/published and you can go straight from one book to the next. After having raced through Snare and Trap I was excited to get started on this the final book in the series.

This time Sonja is not the primary focus and the story revolves around Agla as she is dealing with serving the last of her sentence for her involvement in the banking crash. For the most part we have only ever seen the hard-nosed banker version of her personality but now we are getting to see a different side of her. As her time in prison draws to a close Agla is not sure what awaits her on the outside. What she does know is it won’t be Sonja. Despite her best intentions she ends up helping a fellow inmate who somehow manages to get under her skin. That’s not to say we don’t get to see the Agla of old as she is given an opportunity too good to miss that brings her back into contact with people from her past and it gives her the spark she needs to get her life back on track.

This is definitely different from the first two books in the series, not just due to the main character focus but also the pace and feel of it. There are still the moments where you wonder if people will get out of situations or if the truth will ever be known making it just as enjoyable as the Snare and Trap. As for Sonja we do get to find out what happened to her and how her life has changed and for Agla this revelation is not what she expected. What I love with this book is that every thread that has been woven over the three books come to a natural conclusion that does not feel rushed nor leave the reader feeling that maybe there should be more to come.

I have certainly enjoyed catching up with the entire series and a part of me will be sad knowing that the stories of Sonja and Agla have come to an end.

About the Author

Icelandic crime-writer Lilja Sigurdardóttir was born in the town of Akranes in 1972 and raised in Mexico, Sweden, Spain and Iceland. An award-winning playwright, Lilja has written four crime novels, including Snare and Trap, the first two books in the Reykjavik Noir trilogy, which have hit bestseller lists worldwide. The film rights have been bought by Palomar Pictures in California. She lives in Reykjavík with her partner.

Books by Lilja Siguardóttir