Last Rituals by Ysra Sigurdardottir

Continuing my love affair with Nordic Noir, I picked up this book, Last Rituals, by an author I hadn’t yet read, Ysra Sigurdardottir. Commencing with a suitably grisly discovery, when a young German student’s body is found on a university campus, sans eyes and with eerie markings inscribed on his body, the reader is introduced to Thora Gudmundsdottir, a lawyer who is hired by the family of the young man to investigate his death. While a suspect has been placed in custody, the family don’t believe he’s the culprit. Teaming up with a man sent from Germany to support her investigation, the blunt and seemingly humourless, Matthew Reich, Thora and her new partner uncover not only fascinating aspects of Iceland’s history, but the victim’s enthrallment with the occult. From ancient caves and supernatural and other traditions, burial rights, superstitions and precious documents worth a fortune and which could change history, Thora and Matthew become immersed in a deadly game of hide and seek, power, lies and deception, all tinged with witchcraft and dark magic. Can they break the spell hanging over this case or will they too fall victim to the forces arraigned against them?

What I really enjoy about Nordic Noir is the emphasis on character as much as plot and this book is no exception. As the investigation continues and clues and dead-ends are explored, the reader is invited to get to know single-mother, Thora, and her children and familial life better as well as the professional and slow-burning personal relationship she builds with Max.

History and the wild and majestic Icelandic landscape become as much characters in this book as the murder investigation, adding richness and depth to the sometimes staccato scene changes and otherwise excellent dialogue.

Slow but rewarding, I look forward to more in this series.

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Voices by Arnaldur Indridason

11283050The fifth book in the Inspector Erlendur series, Voices, is the second book featuring this rather glum but fascinating detective I’ve read and won’t be the last. The setting for this novel is an ostentatious Reykjavik hotel at Christmas time. Instead of being a joyous occasion, the planned festivities for the hotel guests, staff and children turn decidedly sour when the hotel’s Santa, Gulli, a rather simple but dedicated employee who was about to be sacked, is found naked and dead and in a very compromising position.

Enter Inspector Erlendur who, while investigating the murder, decides to book a cheerless room in the hotel rather than spend what remains of the season in his own house. What follows as peculiar guests are interviewed, Gulli’s colleagues, bosses and his dysfunctional family, is not for the feint of heart. So much for Christmas cheer. Ho bloody ho is what unfolds as the spirit of Christmas, juxtaposed as it is against the investigation and Erlendur’s attempts to improve his sorry personal life (which feature an ex-wife, drug-addicted daughter and son who all hate him), flails under the weight of what’s uncovered: a bizarre and creepy record collector, a cold, officious estranged family, corrupt hotel staff, and conflicting tales of just who and what Gulli was – and before he ever came to work and live in the hotel. Deception, brutality, searing malice and prejudice all rear their ugly heads and at a time of year when we so want to wish joy to the world. It’s a very clever setting of polar opposites, exposing and enhancing the awfulness of the crime and the facades families and people generally erect; how desperately we all want to at least appear happy. But when you can’t even do that at Christmas, what’s the point?

For those looking for a thoroughly gripping, page-turning read where the characters crackle and spit and the plot thickens, this is the book. But it’s not a fast read – everything simmers slowly, coming to boil towards the end when the twists come faster than Santa’s sleigh. Atmospheric and acerbic.

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Snowblind by Ragnar Jónasson

25067569Though I haven’t read the first book the Dark Iceland series, it wasn’t difficult to pick up the plot of characters in Snowblind, the second book. Set in a quiet fishing village in northern Iceland, the novel centres on the arrival of a new policeman, Ari, who is new in every sense of the word. A recent police academy graduate, this remote posting is also Ari’s very first. Leaving behind the big city and his girlfriend, Ari views the job in this sleepy outpost where no-one locks their doors and everyone knows your business, as a stepping stone to better job prospects in the future. Winter has arrived and with the village being plunged into darkness and snow bound for months, Ari is certain it’s just a matter of passing time and revaluating his life and relationship.

When a prominent author is found dead and it’s assumed he fell in what was a tragic accident in the local theatre, and on the eve of a production, the regular police seem prepared to accept that verdict. When Ari and his colleagues start to interview those present, their stories, the relationships shared and denied as well as the alibis given, don’t always add up.

The more Ari plunges into the investigation, the more history and connections he uncovers. As snowstorms wreak havoc over the town, closing it off from the wider world and darkness reigns, Ari starts to feel trapped. This is a small place where not only are secrets and lies currency, but there’s a murderer on the loose as well.

Well written and featuring every thing I love about Nordic noir: atmosphere, remoteness, cold and a complex investigation, this book didn’t quite grab me the way other writers in this genre have. I found the plot a bit pedestrian and some “ah ha” moments too contrived. I also thought the characters were a little two-dimensional at times even the lead, Ari. I also think the author tried to do too much. Nonetheless, I am glad I read it and will likely track down the rest of the series.

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Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason

19553654Jar City is the second book in the Inspector Erlendur series (but the first with the inspector translated into English), that I’ve read as part of what’s swiftly turning into a Nordic noir/crime word-feast.

Set in Reykjavik, Iceland, the inspector is a 50-year-old, rather dour, no-nonsense person, divorced from his wife who cannot stand him and has done all in her power to ensure he has little to no relationship with his two now-adult children. In this book, his daughter, Eva Lind, a pregnant drug-addict, turns to her father for help but, in doing so, finds she receives as much as she gives. It’s in the scenes with his daughter that gentler but also contradictory aspects of the inspector’s personality (and past) are revealed.

Just as the personal life of the protagonist is exposed through hints, brief interior monologues and flashbacks (mainly through memory) of the past, likewise, the solution to the major crime being investigated, the murder of an old man in his apartment, seems to lie in actions taken decades earlier. Actions that while they held no consequences (at the time) for the criminal, resonated well beyond for the victims, affecting many lives, curtailing bright futures.

Bleak, like the last book in this series I read, the grey landscapes, constant rain and chill form a steady backdrop to the investigation. The pace is steady, unfurling almost reluctantly, but keeping the reader gripped at all times. Rape, genetic diseases, secrets, lies, bureaucracy, abuse of power, the ambiguous push and pull of family, terrible brutality and arrogance all feature in this book. The characters are all so well drawn, complex, flawed and yet relatable. Motivations are apparent, people’s guilt and desires clear.

Despite the fact barely anyone is willing to aid the investigation, preferring to keep knowledge to themselves, leave dark secrets buried, or choosing to be laconic when questioned, thwarting the inspector and his partner’s efforts, suspense builds until the perpetrator is revealed, past and present collide and dreadful inevitability rears its head.

A clever, well-written book that anyone who enjoys a good crime novel, with an intricate plot and characters that ring true will thoroughly appreciate.

 

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Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indridason

8171219Normally I try and avoid reading series, especially crime series, out of order. However, with Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indridason, which I is number four in the Inspector Erlendur series, it doesn’t seem to matter. Such is the pace and quality of the writing that you’re immediately flung into the world of the dour, melancholic Inspector with the fractured family and the cold-case murder he investigates.

When a skeleton is found beneath a construction site, the apparent murder also becomes an archaeological dig that forces the inspector and his team to look to the past for both questions and answers.

The book segues between events during WWII in Iceland when British and American forces held bases in parts of the country and the present, as the reader meets a brutalised young mother and her oppressed family between episodes of the inspector dealing with his own dysfunctional one.

Bleak, dark, and bitter like the weather that defines this part of the world, and yet with characters that enter your heart and won’t leave, this is a gripping book that I found impossible to tear myself away from. Events unfold slowly, languidly even, contradicting the terror some of the scenes evoke and the feelings of impotence and silent rage that too often accompany them.

Not a light read by anyone’s stretch of the imagination, but a fulfilling one it was. Looking forward to reading more by Indridason and learning about the brooding Inspector who can solve everyone else’s problems but his own.

 

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