2 BY RAGNAR JONASSON

A bit of Scandinavian crime with a couple from Iceland and Ragnar Jonasson.

I don't really read as much Scandinavian crime as I ought to, having a tendency to veer more towards North America, Australia and much closer to home, the UK. I would struggle to remember the last Scandi book I read.

Maybe Mr Jonasson will get me more interested. To date the only Icelandic author I have enjoyed is Arnaldur Indridason and that's been a while. The Draining Lake was one of my top reads in 2013. 

Jonasson has written five books in his Dark Iceland series and a couple in his Hidden Iceland series with the third coming next year.

Dark Iceland
1. Snowblind (2015)
2. Nightblind (2015)
3. Blackout (2016)
4. Rupture (2016)
5. Whiteout (2017)

Hidden Iceland
1. The Darkness (2018)
2. The Island (2019)
3. The Mist (2020)




Snowblind (2015)

Siglufjörður: an idyllically quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland, where no one locks their doors – accessible only via a small mountain tunnel.

Ari Thór Arason: a rookie policeman on his first posting, far from his girlfriend in Reykjavik – with a past that he’s unable to leave behind.

When a young woman is found lying half-naked in the snow, bleeding and unconscious, and a highly esteemed, elderly writer falls to his death in the local theatre, Ari is dragged straight into the heart of a community where he can trust no one, and secrets and lies are a way of life.

Taut and terrifying, Snowblind is a startling debut from an extraordinary new talent, taking Nordic Noir to soaring new heights.

‘His first novel to be translated into English has all the skilful plotting of an old-fashioned whodunnit although it feels bitingly contemporary in setting and tone’ Jake Kerridge, Sunday Express

Blackout (2016)

On the shores of a tranquil fjord in Northern Iceland, a man is brutally beaten to death on a bright summer's night. As the 24-hour light of the arctic summer is transformed into darkness by an ash cloud from a recent volcanic eruption, a young reporter leaves Reykajvik to investigate on her own, unaware that an innocent person's life hangs in the balance.Ari Thor Arason and his colleagues on the tiny police force in Siglufjordur struggle with an increasingly perplexing case, while their own serious personal problems push them to the limit. What secrets does the dead man harbour, and what is the young reporter hiding? As silent, unspoken horrors from the past threaten them all, and the darkness deepens, it's a race against time to find the killer before someone else dies...Dark, terrifying and complex, Blackout is an exceptional, atmospheric thriller from one of Iceland's finest crime writers.