I love the Dark Iceland books! Jonas son is a fine writer who manages to create the Icelandic world in a way that is tantalising and yet informatic about the psychology of the people in the context of a perplexing and lonely environment. There is a strong tension in all of his books between the landscape and how the characters are shaped by it. I wrestle at times with understanding the way in which people interact. I want to shake them and make them speak to each other about their feelings as every situation seems compounded by their reticence to speak freely. Having visited Iceland I think I understand how the lands as, which is both beautiful and alien, could nurture a people who are incredibly self-possessed. I find that aspect in Winterkill fascinating.

Ragnar Jonasson is currently my very favourite crime writer. Every book he writes is action-packed and brilliant. So far I have read 9 of his novels and am very much looking forward to his new one out later this year.

Thank you to the publishers for this early review copy. I know this author has a fantastic reputation - but if you can keep a secret I will confess this is the first time I have read his books... Shh! Anyway, I suggest you learn from my mistake and simply buy the entire series now, top class thriller writing. Good characters, good plot, very atmospheric - certainly recommended.

Winterkill is the 6th (and final…) book in Ragnar Jónasson’s Dark Iceland series. I have enjoyed every one… As ever, the main character is Ari Thór Arason. Ari Thór has been promoted to police inspector in Siglufjörður, a small ex-fishing town in the north of Iceland. One of the delights of the series is seeing how Ari Thór has progressed in both his professional and personal life… his old boss, Tómas, has relocated down to Reykjavik and ArI Thór is now in charge in Siglufjörður police station. Kristín, his Reykjavik-based girl friend in the first book, now separated and living in Sweden with their son, has returned to the town for Easter – so that Ari Thór can spend some ‘family’ time with Stefnir. He does not, though, have a much time as he anticipated he would. In the middle of the night, the body of a local girl, is found on the street. She had either jumped, or been pushed, from a balcony three floors up. There are no witnesses. Her mother is distraught, and has no idea what may have happened. Why was she in that house in the first place, and had she been alone or with someone? The girl, Unnur was her name, had been very quiet and hard working at school. No evidence at all that she got in with ‘the wrong crowd’ or would have done anything foolish. Air Thór investigates, but struggles to find a motive…The investigation is difficult, but eventually comes to a very disturbing and frightening conclusion. Icelandic Noir at its best. The story progresses through an exceptionally cold weekend that ends up in a whiteout blizzard. Ragnar is an absolute master at building stories around harsh winter weather conditions in northern Iceland. You can feel the cold seeping off the pages. Something about this book particularly intrigues me (a mystery in its own right?). The English translation from the Icelandic is via the French edition of Winterkill. The translator is David Warriner, who is also the excellent translator into English of Roxanne Bouchard’s respected mystery series set on the Gaspé Peninsular in Canada. But why go from Icelandic to French to get to English? Not, I would have thought, an easy task… All in all, Winterkill is a great addition to the Dark Iceland series.

I’m ashamed to admit that I have never read a book by Ragnar Jonasson before, so I was coming in to the Dark Iceland series at the very end without knowing anything about any of the characters. This did not detract from my enjoyment of the novel one bit, in fact, it just made me want to go back and read the preceding novels in the series. The book is set in the small town of Siglufjörður in northern Iceland at the start of the Easter weekend. Ari Thor Arason is the police inspector, and is in sole charge of the town’s policing, except for a new, young assistant straight out of the police academy. So when a dead body is discovered lying in the main street of the quiet town in the middle of the night, this is the first serious investigation that Ari Thor has been in sole charge of, and the responsibility lays heavy on his shoulders. To compound his problems, the weekend marks the arrival of his estranged partner and young son for a long-awaited visit. There were a number of things I really loved about this novel. First was the small town Icelandic setting of the novel. I’ve read a number of books set in Reykavik, but this was my first exploring what life is like in a very remote and tiny town in this small country, and it was absolutely fascinating. The author really brings the setting to life, I could clearly see the town in my mind’s eye, and imagine what it must be like to live there. Coming from a tiny village, I could understand the conflict between the comfort and claustrophobia of small town life, compounded as it is here by remoteness and the harshness of the Icelandic winter. It was the perfect setting for a tense, suspenseful murder investigation, I felt quite in edge throughout most of the book. Secondly, I loved how human Ari Thor was throughout the book. There is a lot of focus on the balance between his home life and work life. As there is such a small police force, it is almost impossible for Ari Thor to be off duty, and we can see clearly throughout the book how closely his two worlds are intertwined, and how this has impacted, and continues to impact all of his relationships, particularly with his ex and young son. I also thought it was so interesting that the author displays Ari Thor as a man with many uncertainties and frailties in his life and character. He is unsure of his ability to manage such a serious case, unsure about what he wants to do with his future, constantly questioning his decisions, how other people feel about him, what he is capable of. Normally we see men who are hardened, confident, stoic in these roles, Ari Thor is not like that at all and I found it refreshing and honest. Finally, the actual crime itself and the way the story pans out was gripping. The book is very short, only 225 pages, but a lot of action is packed in to the pages. We start off with something that looks like a simple suicide, but over the course of the investigation so many secrets are uncovered that we end up in a very different place than where we started, but not at all in a predictable way. The plot is engaging, as is the way that Ari investigates it, and the whole book was a rewarding reading experience from start to finish. All in all, Winterkill is a short but satisfying read, with interesting and very human characters and an atmospheric setting that really drew me in and held me in thrall. A great start to my reading year, and an introduction to a new author that I can’t wait to read more of.