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…
December is coming and with it comes Ari Thor, involved in another chilly Icelandic mystery in the town of Siglufjörður and it really is perfect winter reading.
Ragnar Jonasson, as always, captures the beautiful yet often claustrophobic setting pitch perfectly and offers us another addictive mystery with superbly crafted characters and an unpredictable sense to it.
What I love about these is the real life stuff going on alongside the investigative story, this draws you into events in a unique way, I don’t think I’ve read another author who does that quite as well. Ari Thor is so relatable and his domestic life is as intriguing as his professional one.
Winterkill has a fascinating and relevant central theme and is brilliantly executed so the resolution is not easy to guess. Overall I thought it was truly excellent, I read it in one sitting. Highly recommended.
You can purchase Winterkill (Orenda) Here.
Happy reading!
