Review of HOME BEFORE DARK by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir (New Release)

 4 Stars

I’ve read and loved all of the author’s five books in her Forbidden Iceland series, so I was anxious to read her latest standalone offering. I was not disappointed.

The narrative alternates between two timelines and two narrators.

In November 1977, Marsí goes to visit her parents on the tenth anniversary of her sister Stína’s disappearance. While there, Marsí decides to look into Stína’s life around the time she vanished. Marsí has always felt guilty because back in 1967, she corresponded with a penpal, a boy named Bergur, but used her older sister’s name. After a year’s correspondence, they arranged to meet; Marsí missed the meeting but, at the designated spot, Stína’s bloodied jacket was found. After not hearing from Bergur for over a decade, she hears from him once again, and it’s clear he knows her real name.

The other timeline is the year leading up to Stína’s disappearance in November of 1967. The sixteen-year-old describes her life: interests, activities with friends, concerns about her family, secrets, and desires. Her last chapter details her movements on the fateful day and night.

The use of two narrators is an interesting approach. At times the reader knows more than Marsí does about Stína because of the latter’s revelations in her chapters. Stína seems fairly reliable as a narrator, but Marsí is much less so. From the beginning she admits, “I’d always had trouble distinguishing dreams from reality; they had a tendency to blur into one another and become confused. Often, I had the feeling neither could be trusted.” Marsí’s mother tells her, “’You’ve always had a bad memory, Marsí. . . . You become immersed in other worlds, and confuse what really happened with what you wanted to happen.’” A therapist also tells her about the creation of artificial memories. In addition, there’s no doubt that Marsí is troubled; she drinks to excess and suffers from tichotillomania. So can Marsí’s version be trusted?

There’s more than one mystery. What happened to Stína? Was she killed? Her first words in the novel are “I want to disappear” so did she choose to do that? If someone killed her, could Bergur be the murderer? Little is known about Bergur, so who is he really? Could he be a local? Is Marsí now in danger? Then there are some mysterious photos: who is the baby boy in the family album and who is the woman in the 1943 photograph? All these questions certainly create interest and compel the reader to keep turning pages.

And there are any number of suspects who show a special interest in Stína. Could she have been harmed by a former boyfriend who “’when he loves something . . . doesn’t let it go’” or someone jealous that Stína “’always got more attention’” or a friend who “’wanted to own Stína’” or the father of a friend who makes “odd and creepy” comments or the art instructor who takes such a personal interest in her or the father of a classmate who looked at Stína with “hatred in his eyes” or a friend who feels rejected or . . . And why are both of Marsí’s parents so persistent in not wanting her to investigate further?

What also impressed me is the intricate plotting. In the end all the threads come together so well. As I read I would sometimes note things that seemed strange but by the end all those issues are fully explained. I guessed much of what really happened because the author plays fair and gives numerous clues. My thinking I had figured out what happened did not in any way affect my enjoyment of the book. I was even more anxious to keep reading to see if my suspicions were confirmed.

I thoroughly enjoyed the novel and can’t wait to see what Eva Björg Ægisdóttir will write next.