The Prey: the gripping international bestseller and Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year 2023 (Paperback) - Yrsa Sigurdardottir

Do not read late into the night! A horror novel guaranteed to surprise and chill, for fans of Catriona Ward, CJ Tudor and Stephen King.

THE FIRST PHONE CALL SHOCKS A FAMILY

A box of photo albums is found in the attic of a house in Hoefn, 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, Salvoer, 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 Hoefn 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?

Hjoervar 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?

Praise for Yrsa Sigurdardottir's novels:
'Dark, creepy, and gripping from beginning to end' STUART MACBRIDE
'Yrsa gets better with each book' LIZ NUGENT
'The queen of Icelandic thriller writers' GUARDIAN
'Such engaging characters and a compelling, twisted and creepy mystery' SHARI LAPENA
'Atmospheric, mysterious and brilliantly plotted' MARI HANNAH
'Keeps us on the edge of our seats' INDEPENDENT
'Pacy dealing out of plot twists' SUNDAY TIMES CRIME CLUB

About the Author

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.