#BookReview SNOWBLIND by RAGNAR JONASSON #20BooksOfSummer20

ABOUT THE BOOK

Siglufjörður: an idyllically quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland, where no one locks their doors – accessible only via a small mountain tunnel. Ari Thór Arason: a rookie policeman on his first posting, far from his girlfriend in Reykjavik – with a past that he’s unable to leave behind. When a young woman is found lying half-naked in the snow, bleeding and unconscious, and a highly esteemed, elderly writer falls to his death in the local theatre, Ari is dragged straight into the heart of a community where he can trust no one, and secrets and lies are a way of life. An avalanche and unremitting snowstorms close the mountain pass, and the 24-hour darkness threatens to push Ari over the edge, as curtains begin to twitch, and his investigation becomes increasingly complex, chilling and personal. Past plays tag with the present and the claustrophobic tension mounts, while Ari is thrust ever deeper into his own darkness – blinded by snow, and with a killer on the loose.

PUBLISHED BY ORENDA BOOKS

MY REVIEW

Book 11 of my 20 Books of Summer 2020.

I find myself reading this series out of order, and it doesn’t diminish my enjoyment one bit!! It is one of those series that I find myself drawn to at odd times, and I find the darkness and twists and turns so compelling each time I start a new adventure!

The story flits between the past and present so we get little glimpses from the victim and their perspective of ‘that night’, alongside the aftermath where Ari is set to work on trying to solve a crime with no witnesses in a community that are very close and reluctant to share anything with this newcomer.

Ari has moved to the area alone, leaving his girlfriend behind and wondering if he has made the right decision. He seems to live permanently in a state of not believing in himself and never seeing things through. But there’s something about this case that irks him and he seems more reluctant to persue the crime than others around him. Maybe as a newcomer he doesn’t have that link with the locals so he can see them all a little clearer than those who have lived there a long time, and he starts to notice oddities in this case.

It’s not only the setting that is chilling, but the way the story is written. Ari is a complex character who doesn’t really let you connect with him personally, but the way he works is meticulous and compelling!

★★★★

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#BookReview THE CREAK ON THE STAIRS by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir

ABOUT THE BOOK

When a body of a woman is discovered at a lighthouse in the Icelandic town of Akranes, it soon becomes clear that she’s no stranger to the area.

Chief Investigating Officer Elma, who has returned to Akranes following a failed relationship, and her collegues Sævar and Hörður, commence an uneasy investigation, which uncovers a shocking secret in the dead woman’s past that continues to reverberate in the present day …

But as Elma and her team make a series of discoveries, they bring to light a host of long-hidden crimes that shake the entire community. Sifting through the rubble of the townspeople’s shattered memories, they have to dodge increasingly serious threats, and find justice … before it’s too late.

PUBLISHED BY ORENDA BOOKS

PURCHASE LINKS

Amazon Kindle

Goldsboro Books – signed first edition

MY REVIEW

Wow! What a way to get a new crime series started off! I loved it so am already eagerly awaiting more from this series!

The mystery of the woman found dead by a ligthhouse – not the cheeriest subject to investigate, but for Elma who has recently moved back to the area after a split, it’s a case to sink her teeth into and she soon finds it is taking her to some very dark places and questioning motives and uncovering disturbing secrets about the past lives of the inhabitants of Akranes.

With the death of Elisabet throwing up more questions than answers, this book does a brilliant job of exploring the past of Elisbet, with flashbacks to 1989 when she was a small child growing up in the bleakest of households, whilst Elma is left to put the pieces together of the little information they do have on a woman who was very secretive, didn’t appear to have many friends and was always seen as odd and pitied because of her childhood.

I loved the character of Elma as she was obviously hurting from her previous relationship, so having to move home was the last thing she wanted to do, especially with certain memories that it brings back. And memories play a big part in this story as many of the characters with a link to Elisabet are often trying not to remember the past as it appears that things were not all as it seems behind closed doors.

The story of young Elisabet was heartbreaking and tragic. With the lookbacks to the past and what she faced as just a young child was harrowing, and the fact that there seemed to be nobody there to look out for her made it more shocking.

This was a quietly unsettling and dark story that had me totally engrossed from the start and I highly recommend it!!

★★★★★

Whiteout by Ragnar Jonasson #blogtour #bookreview

THE BLURB

Two days before Christmas, a young woman is found dead beneath the cliffs of the deserted village of Kálfshamarvík. Did she jump, or did something more sinister take place beneath the lighthouse and the abandoned old house on the remote rocky outcrop? With winter closing in and the snow falling relentlessly, Ari Thór Arason discovers that the victim’s mother and young sister also lost their lives in this same spot, twenty-five years earlier. As the dark history and its secrets of the village are unveiled, and the death toll begins to rise, the Siglufjordur detectives must race against the clock to find the killer, before another tragedy takes place.

 Dark, chilling and complex, Whiteout is a haunting, atmospheric and stunningly plotted thriller from one of Iceland’s bestselling crime writers.

Publisher – Orenda Books

Amazon UK

Hive.co.uk – buy online and support your local bookstore

Kobo

Book DepositoryGoldsboro Books – Signed Limited Edition

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ragnar Jonasson is author of the award winning and international bestselling Dark Iceland series.

His debut Snowblind, first in the Dark Iceland series, went to number one in the Amazon Kindle charts shortly after publication. The book was also a no. 1 Amazon Kindle bestseller in Australia. Snowblind has been a paperback bestseller in France.

Nightblind won the Dead Good Reader Award 2016 for Most Captivating Crime in Translation.

Snowblind was called a “classically crafted whodunit” by THE NEW YORK TIMES, and it was selected by The Independent as one of the best crime novels of 2015 in the UK.

Rights to the Dark Iceland series have been sold to UK, USA, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Australia, Poland, Turkey, South Korea, Japan, Morocco, Portugal, Croatia, Armenia and Iceland.

Ragnar was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he works as a writer and a lawyer. He also teaches copyright law at Reykjavik University and has previously worked on radio and television, including as a TV-news reporter for the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service.

He is also the co-founder of the Reykjavik international crime writing festival Iceland Noir.

From the age of 17, Ragnar translated 14 Agatha Christie novels into Icelandic.

Ragnar has also had short stories published internationally, including in the distinguished Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine in the US, the first stories by an Icelandic author in that magazine.

He has appeared on festival panels worldwide, and lives in Reykjavik.

Author on Twitter – @ragnarjo

MY REVIEW

This is the latest installment in the highly accomplished Dark Iceland series, and the quality of writing and storyline is just as high as it was back in the beginning. Once more we follow life through Ari Thor and the latest crime investigation he is involved in.  We also see his personal life brought to the fore again.

When a young woman is found at the bottom of the cliffs there are doubts as to whether it was an accident. But when her past is looked into and her mother and young sister also died at the same spot in 2 different incidents many years previous, then the sinister side of the story develops.  The story is then told in 3 parts and this really lets the plot play out in a really understated way that is extremely easy to read and never goes OTT which can be off-putting in the crime/noir genre.

The pace never lets up and there are secrets and lies galore which the police have to look into, all set amongst the seemingly idyllic setting of the icelandic coast.  There are many creepy characters featured which add to the chilling side of the story and you often get an unsettling feeling about the goings on at the house that overlooks the lighthouse.

I found this to be a thrilling read from start to finish and can highly recommend The Dark Iceland series to all those who’ve not yet discovered this riveting series.

 

My thanks to the author and publisher for the advanced copy which I received in return for a fair and honest review.