When Logi finds a gun hidden on his
work site in the countryside he immediately sees it as an opportunity to make
some quick money. Unsure of exactly what to do with it though he hangs onto it
until an opportunity to cash in on it presents itself. Danni, his former
brother-in-law then asks him to do some under-the-table work for some
particularly shady characters and he sees yet another opportunity to make some
quick money that he won’t have to tell the taxman about. He makes use of his
Polish workmates from his other job to get the job done as quickly as possible
but after an unexpected visit from a disreputable and overly serious debt
collector he suddenly needs their assistance on an entirely different matter
altogether.
As the local Icelandic cops Gunna
and Helgi struggle to make sense of the strange and alarming shenanigans that quickly
ensue all over Reykjavík they are led from one disaster to the next in pursuit
of a motley band of criminally minded individuals. It is almost impossible for
them to tell who’s hiding what. All they know is that nearly everyone they deal
with has something to hide be it minor indiscretions or major crimes. Their job
for the rest of the story is trying to tell the difference between the two.
The shortened length of the crime
novella is not in my opinion a reason to avoid such works but rather one to
embrace them. They have all the plot points and punch of the longer form but
without the constraints of the procedural paradigm. This one in particular
moves along with the grace that one would expect of an experienced novelist but
contains a momentum that is unrelenting simply because it has to get where it’s
going a little sooner than might usually be expected.
Quentin’s characters are fun and
completely believable as his feel for Icelanders has been firmly honed by his
many years spent living here. This is a great read and while it is technically
just a stopgap in between novels I hope it’s not the last we’ve seen of the
novella length works from him as this one is really entertaining and you will
struggle to put it down once you’ve started it. ‘Summerchill’ will be released
on Thursday and is only available for kindle. It is already flying up the
charts from pre-sales alone.
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