Ari Thór has had a little trouble
nailing down exactly what it is he wants to do with his life up until now. He
has dropped out of theological studies and trained to become a police officer
instead. When he’s offered a job as the new copper on the beat in Siglufjörður in
the lonely north of the country, a place once known for its vast herring stocks
but little else, he jumps at the opportunity without discussing it first with his
girlfriend Kristín even though he will be forced to leave her behind in
Reykjavík. She is none too pleased with his lack of consultation but has little
choice but to accept his decision.
Upon arriving in Siglufjörður Ari
Thór finds that he likes his new boss Tómas well enough but struggles to fit in
with the rest of the small isolated community and is worried that nothing of
any interest will ever happen in such a tiny place. Has he made the wrong
decision to leave Reykjavík behind and will it cost him his relationship with
Kristín? Only time will tell. To add to his confusion he meets Ugla, a pretty girl
from the west who also knows the difficulties of being an outsider in such a
close-knit town. The two of them quickly become close and his guilty conscious
plays havoc with his already confused mind.
When Ugla first moved to Siglufjörður
she befriended retired author Hrólfur Kristjánsson and when Hrólfur dies in
what appears to be a drunken accident at the local theatre Ari Thór finds that
there might just be more to this sleepy little hamlet than he thought. Add to
the mix a late night intruder at Ari Thór’s new house and a snow angel found in
a pool of her own blood and there could even be too much action for him to deal
with altogether.
Ragnar Jónasson has translated
fourteen Agatha Christie novels into Icelandic and is an obvious devotee of the
classic mystery structure. Snowblind’s twists and turns will keep the reader
captivated until the final reveal and the setting of his hometown of Siglufjörður
gives the story the feeling of a locked room mystery especially when an
avalanche blocks the only road in or out of town.
Ari Thór is a likeable guy with his
heart in the right place and with enough impulsive decisions in him to make him
thoroughly believable and Ragnar’s descriptions of the local weather and
wilderness are as beautiful and engaging as any Icelandic author I have come
across yet.
It is surely only a matter of time
before Snowblind (translated quite brilliantly by UK crime author Quentin
Bates) and the rest of Ragnar’s Dark Iceland series go on to take the Nordic
Noir genre by storm. The rest of the world has been patiently waiting for a new
author to emerge from Iceland and join the ranks of Indriðason and
Sigurðardóttir and it appears that he is now here.
Snowblind will be available in the
United Kingdom through Orenda Books from the 20th of April and as a
paperback from the 15th of June.
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