The Prey

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PETRONA AWARD 2024

'Mesmerising and atmospheric, with entrancing descriptions of landscape' A SUNDAY TIMES CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR

THE FIRST PHONE CALL SHOCKS A FAMILY

A box of photo albums is found in the attic of a house in Hofn, a small fishing village on the south coast of Iceland. The new owners return it to the man who sold them the house, along with a muddied child's shoe with a name written on the sole: Salvor. The man is baffled; they never knew anyone called that. Shortly after the phone rings - it's the nursing home where his mother, an Alzheimer's patient, lives. She's suffered a heart attack and the doctors don't expect her to live much longer. The nurse asks him to let his sister, Salvor, know as well. Their mother has been asking for her.

THE SECOND TRACKS TWO MISSING COUPLES

Johanna is a member of a search and rescue team in Hofn and she's searching for two couples from Reykjavik. Their phones' last location has been pinpointed as the road leading up into the highlands. It's far from clear why these people would have made such a risky trip in the middle of the harsh winter, and they soon find the first dead body. More troubling, Johanna senses her team is being tracked out in the snow.

A THIRD FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE?

Hjorvar works at the Stokksnes Radar Station in the highlands. He is alone when the phone connected to the gate rings. It's the first time it's done so since he began working there five months ago. He picks up the phone but can hear only interference and what sounds like a child's voice asking for her mother.

How are these events connected? And what may be searching for its prey out on the ice?

'A nail-biting, ice-cold tale of horror. Twisty, twisted and scary as hell' C.J. TUDOR

'Sigurdardottir is a skilled hand and ties all her threads and twists together neatly, but it's her thrilling tale of a struggle to survive in freezing temperatures, under a sky that never seems to lighten, that provides the real chill factor here' OBSERVER

'Atmospheric, twisty' HEAT

'An extraordinarily creepy mystery. Sigurdardottir can make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up whether describing the weird and wintry terrain of southern Iceland or the odd behaviour of a cat called Puss. The outer darkness reflects that within the characters. One of the doomed hikers asks herself: "Was there no end to the wretchedness and cruelty of the world?" The answer she receives will make your blood run cold' THE TIMES

'Dark, creepy, and gripping from beginning to end' STUART MACBRIDE

'Yrsa gets better with ea

Praise for Yrsa Sigurdardottir - :
The undisputed Queen of Icelandic Noir -- Simon Kernick
Nail-biting . . . Iceland's long dark nights are at their most minatory in Sigurdardottir's atmospheric thrillers Financial Times
One of the best books I've read for a long time: dark, creepy, and gripping from beginning to end -- Stuart MacBride
Sigurdardottir is as confident a writer as ever The Sunday Times
Praise for The Prey - :
Sigurdardottir's novels are always suffused with a sense of unease and her characters struggle with mental turmoil as well as hostile conditions. Lyrical landscape descriptions combine with intimations of terrible events in the past in this haunting story Sunday Times CULTURE
If you like your chilling thrillers ice-cold and with an epic plot twist, then look no further . . . another atmospheric, twisty thrill-fest from Sigurdardottir Heat
Sigurdardottir is a skilled hand and ties all her threads and twists together neatly, but it's her thrilling tale of a struggle to survive in freezing temperatures, under a sky that never seems to lighten, that provides the real chill factor here Observer
This Icelandic writer is the real horror deal Peterborough Telegraph
A supernatural Icelandic thriller that'll chill you to the bone Buzz Magazine
The Prey is an extraordinarily creepy mystery. Sigurdardottir can make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up whether describing the weird and wintry terrain of southern Iceland or the odd behaviour of a cat called Puss. The outer darkness reflects that within the characters. One of the doomed hikers asks herself: "Was there no end to the wretchedness and cruelty of the world?" The answer she receives will make your blood run cold The Times
Mesmerising and atmospheric, with entrancing descriptions of landscape The Sunday Times (Culture)

Author of the bestselling Thora Gudmundsdottir crime series and several stand-alone thrillers, Yrsa Sigurdardottir was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1963 and works as a civil engineer. She made her crime fiction debut in 2005 with LAST RITUALS, the first instalment in the Thora Gudmundsdottir series, and has been translated into more than 30 languages. Her work stands 'comparison with the finest contemporary crime writing anywhere in the world' according to the Times Literary Supplement. The second instalment in the Thora Gudmundsdottir series, MY SOUL TO TAKE, was shortlisted for the 2010 Shamus Award. In 2011 her stand-alone horror novel I REMEMBER YOU was awarded the Icelandic Crime Fiction Award and was nominated for The Glass Key, and has been made intoa film starring Johannes Haukur by ZikZak Filmworks. In 2015 THE SILENCE OF THE SEA won the Petrona Award for the year's best Scandinavian crime novel, and THE LEGACY, the first novel in the Freyja and Huldar series, was nominated for The Glass Key and won the Icelandic Crime Fiction Award. All of her books have been European bestsellers.

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