The conclusion to Ragnar Jonasson’s Dark Iceland series, we review Winterkill.
Winterkill – the blurb
Easter weekend is approaching, and snow is gently falling in Siglufjörður, the northernmost town in Iceland, as crowds of tourists arrive to visit the majestic ski slopes.
Ari Thór Arason is now a police inspector, but he’s separated from his girlfriend, who lives in Sweden with their three-year-old son. A family reunion is planned for the holiday, but a violent blizzard is threatening and there is an unsettling chill in the air.
Three days before Easter, a nineteen-year-old local girl falls to her death from the balcony of a house on the main street. A perplexing entry in her diary suggests that this may not be an accident, and when an old man in a local nursing home writes ‘She was murdered’ again and again on the wall of his room, there is every suggestion that something more sinister lies at the heart of her death
As the extreme weather closes in, cutting the power and access to Siglufjörður, Ari Thór must piece together the puzzle to reveal a horrible truth one that will leave no one unscathed.
Hello Iceland I’ve missed you
It’s been a while since I’ve got stuck in to an Icelandic Noir. A couple of chapters in I realised just how much I had missed them. Winterkill has all the hallmarks of the genre – the sense of isolation, the weather, the darkness. Along side the Icelandic Noir tag you also have to take a moment to appreciate just how ‘Orenda Books‘ the book is. The drawing together of multiple plots, Iceland’s troubled past and its slow emergence all felt very Orenda and I loved it.
Last but not least
As I said at the beginning the book is the last in the Dark Iceland series and I will confess now I haven’t read the previous ones. I was attracted to it as my friend had raved about Snowblind (the first in the series) and had promptly read them all. (Just don’t confuse it with Jonasson’s Hidden Iceland series which sounds equally as good). Whilst I was able to easily get to grips with what was what, I got the sense that the book was almost a reunion in some ways and do recommend you read them in order if you get the chance.
Winterkill itself twists and turns to the point you’re not sure if you are even reading about a murder. Yet Jonasson ensures that everyone you meet could be a potential suspect. You just know that as the storm closes in you are in for a climatic ending. Which by the way doesn’t disappoint, both crime wise and romance wise. A fitting end for a well loved Inspector.
Thanks
My thanks go to Orenda Books via The Random Things Tours for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. If, like me, you haven’t read any Jonasson then grab his back catalogue now starting with Snowblind. If you’ve read everything by him and are now bereft may I suggest the very good Snare by Lilja Sigardardottir. It’s also Icelandic Noir and also Orenda!