Winterkill – Ragnar Jonasson
A blizzard is approaching Siglufjörður, and that can only mean one thing…
When the body of a nineteen-year-old girl is found on the main street of Siglufjörður, Police Inspector Ari Thór battles a violent Icelandic storm in an increasingly dangerous hunt for her killer … The chilling, claustrophobic finale to the international bestselling Dark Iceland series.
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…
As the extreme weather closes in, cutting the power and access to Siglufjörður, Ari Thór must piece together the puzzle to reveal a horrible truth … one that will leave no one unscathed.
I bought my copy of Winterkill. My thanks to Orenda Books and Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to host this leg of the blog tour.
Ari Thor Arason returns and Winterkill gives us a sixth wonderful reason to visit the Northern Iclandic town of Siglufjörður. I have been a huge fan of these clever crime stories, each has been a tightly plotted tale working wonders with a small cast. Ragnar Jonasson has indicated Winterkill will be the final trip to Siglufjörður and the last Ari Thor novel. One can but hope that in the future he listens to the pleas of the readers and gives Ari Thor as many farewell tours as The Rolling Stones have enjoyed.
Winterkill finds Ari Thor promoted to the role of chief investigator. He heads up the police department in Siglufjörður and has responsibility over a younger officer who he is trying to train in the way Ari Thor’s mentor trained him. We will see that the two men have a slightly strained relationship which Ari Thor finds a little unsettling. He has been pondering an offer to “have a word put in” in Reykjavik which would smooth over a move away from Siglufjörður for Ari Thor but he is taking each day as it comes for the moment.
Easter is approaching and Ari Thor has been looking forward to the visit of his girlfriend and their son who are now living in Sweden. A few days of enjoyable family time is put at risk when a teenage girl falls to her death on the main street in the early hours of the morning. Initially it seems to have been a suicide, yet, for those left to mourn, the question of “why” demands an answer.
The mother of the dead girl assures Ari Thor that her daughter had been a quiet girl and they had no secrets. The few friends she had commented on her studious nature and could not explain why she may have chosen to end her life. Yet something doesn’t quite sit right with Ari Thor – the reader is left sharing his thought that everyone he speaks with may be holding something back. Is it imagination or are there secrets to uncover?
A call from an old friend brings Ari Thor to a small nursing home in the town. One of the patients has scrawled “She was murdered” all over his wall…what did the old man see the night the girl fell to her death? Can Ari Thor elicit any useful information from an elderly witness who has trouble focusing on the person in the room?
As we have come to expect from a Ragnar Jonasson book there are clues and half-truths sprinkled through the story for sharp-eyed readers to look out for. The telling of Winterkill is exquisite and the pages simply fall away as you get wrapped up in the story. Jonasson can tell a story which feels deep and enriched and he does it without loading his story with padding. There is a ruthless efficiency in these books which will leave you entertained without feeling the writer is filling time – the long standing comparisons with the pacing and style of Agatha Christie’s books spring to my mind once again.
A Ragnar Jonasson book is always a rewarding experience – Winterkill reaffirmed this.
Winterkill is published by Orenda Books and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08BC4D58S/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0