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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
I sincerely hope that this isn't the end of a fantastic series of novels centred around Ari Thor, who has now been promoted to Inspector at Siglufjordur. Had my pulse racing. Phenomenal. Can't decide if this or Blackout is the best so far...
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Winter is the season for snowy thrillers, and lovely bit of Nordic noir from the pen of Ragnar Jonasson always fits the bill nicely. Winterkill is the last book in the fabulously successful Dark Iceland series and, dear reader, it does not disappoint.
Welcome back to the quiet little town of Siglufjörður, in northern Iceland, where Ari Thór Arason has risen to the dizzy heights of police inspector, in charge of maintaining law and order with the help of a less than impressive staff of one inexperienced junior officer.
Ari Thór is looking forward to a quiet Easter weekend, and some quality time with his ex-partner and three year old son, who are visiting from Sweden for the holiday. He is not expecting much excitement on the horizon, except in the form of the snow storm that is forecast to hit sometime in the next few days, but his peace is shattered when the body of a young woman is found on the main street, the victim of a fall from a building, and he is called upon to investigate the circumstances behind the apparent tragic accident.
As Ari Thór begins to look closer at the life of the young victim, he has a nagging suspicion that something is not quite right here and not everyone is telling the truth about what they know. Why was this young woman in a strange house in the middle of the night? Did she fall or was she pushed? And why has an old man in a local nursing home scrawled a message about murder on the wall of his room? So much for Ari Thór's quiet weekend...
The suspense builds as the investigation proceeds and the impending blizzard approaches, reaching an explosive climax when the disturbing truth is finally uncovered, at the same time as the storm breaks and creates havoc in the little town. It's so beautifully done, especially since this is a translation - well done David Warriner.
Ragnar Jonasson always has the ability to create the most delicious of claustrophobic atmospheres in his books and Winterkill is no exception. Right from the first page, you can feel the chill from the desolate landscape seeping into your bones and this colours your view of the residents of Siglufjörður. Bizarrely, at no point does this come across as a bustling little town despite the fact that this is a small community on the way up, and one which is full of tourists for the holiday weekend. Everything is so tense and vivid between the main players, with the focus is so completely on them and their movements, that even though you know the town is full of people they almost seem to be walking around against a backdrop of ghostly figures that blend into the frozen background and take no part in the story. It's creepy.
This makes a really interesting end to the Dark Iceland series, encompassing so much about the fierce beauty of the Icelandic landscape and the history of its people, alongside a cracking crime story. Don't worry if you have not read the previous books, because this works well as a standalone - in fact, I only know bits and pieces about the books before this one and I still found it unputdownable (I will however, be taking the time to absorb them in detail in the very near future). You really can't go wrong with a Ragnar Jonasson book!
Welcome back to the quiet little town of Siglufjörður, in northern Iceland, where Ari Thór Arason has risen to the dizzy heights of police inspector, in charge of maintaining law and order with the help of a less than impressive staff of one inexperienced junior officer.
Ari Thór is looking forward to a quiet Easter weekend, and some quality time with his ex-partner and three year old son, who are visiting from Sweden for the holiday. He is not expecting much excitement on the horizon, except in the form of the snow storm that is forecast to hit sometime in the next few days, but his peace is shattered when the body of a young woman is found on the main street, the victim of a fall from a building, and he is called upon to investigate the circumstances behind the apparent tragic accident.
As Ari Thór begins to look closer at the life of the young victim, he has a nagging suspicion that something is not quite right here and not everyone is telling the truth about what they know. Why was this young woman in a strange house in the middle of the night? Did she fall or was she pushed? And why has an old man in a local nursing home scrawled a message about murder on the wall of his room? So much for Ari Thór's quiet weekend...
The suspense builds as the investigation proceeds and the impending blizzard approaches, reaching an explosive climax when the disturbing truth is finally uncovered, at the same time as the storm breaks and creates havoc in the little town. It's so beautifully done, especially since this is a translation - well done David Warriner.
Ragnar Jonasson always has the ability to create the most delicious of claustrophobic atmospheres in his books and Winterkill is no exception. Right from the first page, you can feel the chill from the desolate landscape seeping into your bones and this colours your view of the residents of Siglufjörður. Bizarrely, at no point does this come across as a bustling little town despite the fact that this is a small community on the way up, and one which is full of tourists for the holiday weekend. Everything is so tense and vivid between the main players, with the focus is so completely on them and their movements, that even though you know the town is full of people they almost seem to be walking around against a backdrop of ghostly figures that blend into the frozen background and take no part in the story. It's creepy.
This makes a really interesting end to the Dark Iceland series, encompassing so much about the fierce beauty of the Icelandic landscape and the history of its people, alongside a cracking crime story. Don't worry if you have not read the previous books, because this works well as a standalone - in fact, I only know bits and pieces about the books before this one and I still found it unputdownable (I will however, be taking the time to absorb them in detail in the very near future). You really can't go wrong with a Ragnar Jonasson book!
Skemmtileg og auðlesin bók. Hefði þó mátt vera meiri spenna, en hef haft mjög gaman af því að lesa bækurnar um Ara Þór og mun halda því áfram ef bækurnar verða fleiri.
Best for:
Fans of Icelandic crime fiction.
In a nutshell:
A young woman is found dead on a sidewalk, apparently having jumped from the balcony of a home. Or did she?
Worth quoting:
N/A. I just raced through the book.
Why I chose it:
Four years ago I picked up the first in the Dark Iceland series at the Iceland Airport. I immediately tracked down the rest of the books, and then read what I thought was the final (fifth) book. In a bookstore this weekend, I wandered over to the J section in Crime and saw there was a sixth!
Review:
I enjoy these books. They aren’t formulaic but they aren’t totally absurd either. Yes, there are often twists, and sometimes they are ones that I didn’t see coming, but also that are specific enough that it might be hard for anyone to see coming. That said, I always find them interesting.
Ari has gone from a new officer in the first book to the Inspector in charge of police in the town in the final one. We’ve followed his relationships and the birth of his son. He’s not the most complicated person, but he is interesting enough. The star of these books, however, is the way Jónasson writes about small town Iceland. Even in the spring, there’s a sense of claustrophobia, but not in a bad way. The people are mostly pretty typical, but they also all know each other, which makes keeping secrets a bit of challenge. Things are connected, and not always in the ways a reader might predict.
In this particular book, there are a couple of different storylines, which may or may not be related. Plus, Ari’s ex is visiting with his son, so there’s a slight romance angle as well. I believe this is now the final book in this series, as he Jónasson has moved on to create a new series (the first two books I’ve also recently procured). It’s a decent enough wrap-up to the books, and I’m glad I got another chance to see how Ari would handle a case.
Recommend to a Friend / Keep / Donate it / Toss it:
Donate it
Fans of Icelandic crime fiction.
In a nutshell:
A young woman is found dead on a sidewalk, apparently having jumped from the balcony of a home. Or did she?
Worth quoting:
N/A. I just raced through the book.
Why I chose it:
Four years ago I picked up the first in the Dark Iceland series at the Iceland Airport. I immediately tracked down the rest of the books, and then read what I thought was the final (fifth) book. In a bookstore this weekend, I wandered over to the J section in Crime and saw there was a sixth!
Review:
I enjoy these books. They aren’t formulaic but they aren’t totally absurd either. Yes, there are often twists, and sometimes they are ones that I didn’t see coming, but also that are specific enough that it might be hard for anyone to see coming. That said, I always find them interesting.
Ari has gone from a new officer in the first book to the Inspector in charge of police in the town in the final one. We’ve followed his relationships and the birth of his son. He’s not the most complicated person, but he is interesting enough. The star of these books, however, is the way Jónasson writes about small town Iceland. Even in the spring, there’s a sense of claustrophobia, but not in a bad way. The people are mostly pretty typical, but they also all know each other, which makes keeping secrets a bit of challenge. Things are connected, and not always in the ways a reader might predict.
In this particular book, there are a couple of different storylines, which may or may not be related. Plus, Ari’s ex is visiting with his son, so there’s a slight romance angle as well. I believe this is now the final book in this series, as he Jónasson has moved on to create a new series (the first two books I’ve also recently procured). It’s a decent enough wrap-up to the books, and I’m glad I got another chance to see how Ari would handle a case.
Recommend to a Friend / Keep / Donate it / Toss it:
Donate it
Back by popular demand, Winterkill marks the culmination of the excellent Dark Iceland series. Ragnar Jonasson will not let us part ways with police inspector Ari Thór Arason without one last tricky case to test him with, as a blizzard threatens Siglufjörður, and Arason undergoes his own personal reckoning…
Jonasson has a wonderful knack of putting a dark, sordid crime at the heart of his books but never fails to leave you with a more overriding final impression of the essential goodness of his central character, police inspector Ari Thór Arason. Grappling with the repercussions of his relationship break up, the temptation of a revived dalliance, the seeming lack of respect afforded to him despite his promotion, and a case of suicide that leads to a nasty conclusion, Arason has more than enough on his plate. However, once again, through Jonasson’s meticulous characterisation of Arason, we traverse his own personal and professional highs and lows, wanting to give him a good shake at some points, or a reassuring hug at others. His parting from his former boss Tomas (now based in Reykjavik) provides moments of pure pathos, but somehow lessens the impetus of the book, as the way they worked together and bounced ideas arounds added a nice little frisson to their investigations. In matters of the heart, Arason remains largely floundering as usual, unsure as to whether his former relationship with the mother of his child has any chance of being resurrected, or whether to pursue an old flame, the flames of which had seemingly been doused near the beginning of the series. It is these ruminations on his future happiness that do rather slow the book down at times, but at least it sets our minds at rest that there is some hope of a new life and fresh beginnings for our earnest police officer.
Once again, the rugged and at time inhospitable landscape of Siglufjörður permeates the book, where even an upcoming religious festival cannot curtail the inclemency of the climate, and the particular difficulties it places on its inhabitants. Although Arason has one eye on a new posting in Reykjavik, he himself recognises the way that this remote little town has exerted its influence on him both in a real and metaphorical sense, ” By now, he felt a strong sense of connection to Siglufjörður. Something was keeping him here, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what. It was almost as if the place didn’t want him to leave… he had grown to love the isolation and tranquillity of the place.”
Although with this backdrop of Arason’s emotional back and forth, the central crime is a little linear in its progression, it is a sordid enough little mystery, for Jonasson to expose the darkness that lies behind the veneer of respectability. Having just discovered that Winterkill was written mainly because of popular demand for another book in the pretty much faultless Dark Iceland series, I did find it a little more slight compared to the others. However, it is still worth a look as the strength of his characterisation, and beautiful sense of place holds true throughout.
Jonasson has a wonderful knack of putting a dark, sordid crime at the heart of his books but never fails to leave you with a more overriding final impression of the essential goodness of his central character, police inspector Ari Thór Arason. Grappling with the repercussions of his relationship break up, the temptation of a revived dalliance, the seeming lack of respect afforded to him despite his promotion, and a case of suicide that leads to a nasty conclusion, Arason has more than enough on his plate. However, once again, through Jonasson’s meticulous characterisation of Arason, we traverse his own personal and professional highs and lows, wanting to give him a good shake at some points, or a reassuring hug at others. His parting from his former boss Tomas (now based in Reykjavik) provides moments of pure pathos, but somehow lessens the impetus of the book, as the way they worked together and bounced ideas arounds added a nice little frisson to their investigations. In matters of the heart, Arason remains largely floundering as usual, unsure as to whether his former relationship with the mother of his child has any chance of being resurrected, or whether to pursue an old flame, the flames of which had seemingly been doused near the beginning of the series. It is these ruminations on his future happiness that do rather slow the book down at times, but at least it sets our minds at rest that there is some hope of a new life and fresh beginnings for our earnest police officer.
Once again, the rugged and at time inhospitable landscape of Siglufjörður permeates the book, where even an upcoming religious festival cannot curtail the inclemency of the climate, and the particular difficulties it places on its inhabitants. Although Arason has one eye on a new posting in Reykjavik, he himself recognises the way that this remote little town has exerted its influence on him both in a real and metaphorical sense, ” By now, he felt a strong sense of connection to Siglufjörður. Something was keeping him here, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what. It was almost as if the place didn’t want him to leave… he had grown to love the isolation and tranquillity of the place.”
Although with this backdrop of Arason’s emotional back and forth, the central crime is a little linear in its progression, it is a sordid enough little mystery, for Jonasson to expose the darkness that lies behind the veneer of respectability. Having just discovered that Winterkill was written mainly because of popular demand for another book in the pretty much faultless Dark Iceland series, I did find it a little more slight compared to the others. However, it is still worth a look as the strength of his characterisation, and beautiful sense of place holds true throughout.
The final instalment in this series which ended satisfactorily. Ari Thor, the main protagonist throughout the series, is at the beginning of a new relationship and the reader hopes that this will work out for him. The plot was good but at 210 pages this really was novella with quite a lot of repetition describing events that occurred in the previous books. This was unnecessary padding even for those who haven't read the earlier novels. Well written, the Icelandic scenery and weather beautifully described as always.
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Reminded me of old mystery books I used to read in school. Not like page turning crazy at the end of every chapter, but I thought it was good. I enjoyed it.
I will say I really wished Ari would have covered the mother’s murder up because fuck that dude. But is what it is
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes