Marilyn's Mystery Reads

Agnes Glin’s life has been dominated by two men, her father and her grandfather.  Now she’s going to Iceland, where both men were born, to find the truth of the secret that has ruled all three lives ever since she can remember.

Agnes was very close to her grandfather Einar, closer than she was to her father, visiting him every Sunday until his death a year earlier.  All she knows about the men’s lives in the small village of Bifröst is what led them to come to California, a tragedy known as the Frozen Madonna case.  It’s something her father, Magnús, would never talk about, nor would Einar.  Einar’s last words to Agnes on the subject were, “There is no before.  My life began when you were born,” but Agnes knows that cannot be true.

Now a true crime podcast is being developed by Nora Clark, an American who has gone to Bifröst to try to discover the story of the deaths of Marie Hvass, her paternal grandmother, and Marie’s infant daughter Agnes.  It’s forty years after the horrific event, and not everyone who was alive at the time is still alive and living in the village, and not everyone wants to remember the story.

Marie was a beautiful Danish young woman who married Einar and moved to the small village of Bifröst.  They had two children, Magnùs and Agnes, the latter for whom Agnes Glin is named.  No one knows what really happened to the mother and her daughter, but everyone thinks they know.  Their bodies were found in the snow by their six-year-old neighbor Ingvar.  Marie’s throat was slashed, the infant Agnes was drowned.

The villagers believed that Einar had murdered his wife and child, although it was never proven.  Then, when Einar and Magnús left for America, selling their land to a relative who had adjoining property, never returning to Iceland, the unofficial verdict against them was solidified.  Einar was guilty.

It’s a year after Agnes’ own life-changing event occurred, a fall that resulted in a badly injured left leg, leaving her with constant pain and a limp.  Perhaps it is that event that made her decide to accept the invitation to go on Nora’s podcast and hopefully learn the truth about the Frozen Madonna Murder.

When she arrives, another village-wide search is in progress.  A young woman, Ása Gunnarsdóttir, has gone missing, and everyone is looking for her.  Nora tells Agnes, “She was reported missing yesterday, and I have reason to believe it’s connected to your grandmother’s case.”

Although she’s fighting jet lag and the experience of being in a place where she doesn’t speak or understand the language, Agnes doesn’t want to be constrained by Nora’s interviews.  She meets Ingvar, the boy who discovered the two bodies; his mother, now suffering from dementia; Thor Thorsen, a relative of Einar’s;  and his father, Thor Senior, who is now  in a nursing home and blames his son for putting him there.

Melissa Larsen has written a compelling novel about secrets that lie buried for generations and what happens when they’re uncovered.  The relentless snow and ice that cover Biförst can’t hide the truth forever.

You can read more about the author at this website.