Publication Date: Available Now from Orenda Books (Translated by the brilliant Quentin Bates)
Source: Review Copy
1955. Two young couples move to the uninhabited, isolated fjord of Hedinsfjörður. Their stay ends abruptly when one of the women meets her death in mysterious circumstances. The case is never solved. Fifty years later an old photograph comes to light, and it becomes clear that the couples may not have been alone on the fjord after all…
In nearby Siglufjörður, young policeman Ari Thór tries to piece together what really happened that fateful night, in a town where no one wants to know, where secrets are a way of life. He’s assisted by Ísrún, a news reporter in Reykjavik, who is investigating an increasingly chilling case of her own. Things take a sinister turn when a child goes missing in broad daylight. With a stalker on the loose, and the town of Siglufjörður in quarantine, the past might just come back to haunt them.
So we are up to book 4 in the Dark Iceland series then and honestly I’m not sure what to say in this review that I haven’t said already – this is one of my favourite series in a quiet, contemplative kind of way and it speaks volumes really that I start reading them as soon as they arrive but take it slowly, the descriptive prose is to savour not to bang out in a sitting – at least for this reader
The characters have grown and developed so beautifully over the course of the novels but this one I think might be my favourite so far – I loved finding out more about Isrun and as for Ari well what is there left to say about him either? Gorgeous, insightful and brilliantly imagined, Ragnar Jonasson breathes life into his creations with every word.
In this instalment the tiny community of Siglufjorour is even more isolated due to a virus, Ari has a cold (in more sense than one) case to look into and as ever you are thrown into that claustrophobic yet utterly beautiful setting almost as if you are actually there – that is the sheer quality of the writing shining through.
One of the best things about this author is his ability to weave a web made of many strands yet at the end of the day bring them all together into a cohesive and wonderfully constructed whole – there are so many levels to the storytelling yet all are perfectly placed and utterly riveting. Rupture managed to both surprise and delight, engage and inform and there is nothing more really that you can ask for from a read.
Gorgeous. Icelandic Noir in a nutshell – that is Ragnar Jonasson and I really cannot recommend these highly enough.
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