Ari Thor Arason – Grab This Book

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

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November 16

Whiteout – Ragnar Jonasson – Audiobook

Two days before Christmas, a young woman is found dead beneath the cliffs of the deserted village of Kálfshamarvík. Did she jump, or did something more sinister take place beneath the lighthouse and the abandoned old house on the remote rocky outcrop? With winter closing in and the snow falling relentlessly, Ari Thór Arason discovers that the victim’s mother and young sister also lost their lives in this same spot, twenty-five years earlier. As the dark history and its secrets of the village are unveiled, and the death toll begins to rise, the Siglufjordur detectives must race against the clock to find the killer, before another tragedy takes place.

Huge thanks to Karen at Orenda for the opportunity to listen to this audio book.

Whiteout was sublime listening. A tale of Iceland at Christmas time and the audiobook wonderfully conveyed a feeling of chilled darkness.

In a very remote settlement a young woman has been found dead at the foot of a steep cliff. Ari Thor Arason is drafted in to help his former boss investigate the circumstances surrounding her death. Suicide seems likely but when it is discovered that the woman’s mother and sister both died in the same spot it merits a little more investigation.

If the potential suicide is actually a murder then there are very few suspects – three residents in the house she had been visiting (all three older than the dead woman) and in the neighbouring house resides a couple who were roughly of ages with the deceased. None appear to have any possible motive for wishing her dead, she has not been in their company for over 20 years so why can murder not be ruled out?

Unpicking the mystery of this unusual death will be a challenge but it makes for excellent reading. Masterful teasing out of clues, slow reveals and clever, clever plotting by Ragnar Jonasson kept me hooked. I have always been a fan of the Dark Iceland series but Whiteout is easily my favourite thus far, it was quite brilliant.

The audiobook was narrated by Leighton Pugh and he does a terrific job. Character voices were easily identifiable and perfectly fitted how the players had been described in the text. The story flowed around me as I listened and I felt transported to the craggy cliff edges, the stone lighthouse and the old houses where the five suspects tucked away their secrets.

Whiteout is set at Christmas and I discovered so many wonderful Icelandic traditions whilst listening to the book. Hearing about the Christmas Messages, the gifting of books and other heartwarming memories contrasted sharply with the investigation into a death – my sadness accentuated at the timing of a life lost.

Whiteout 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/Whiteout-Dark-Iceland-Ragnar-J%C3%B3nasson-ebook/dp/B06Y6HWP9Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1510871147&sr=1-1&dpID=51j8pDxoAML&preST=_SY445_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

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January 8

Nightblind – Ragnar Jonasson

Siglufjörður: an idyllically quiet fishing village on the northernmost tip of Iceland, accessible only via a small mountain tunnel. Ari Thór Arason: a local policeman, whose tumultuous past and uneasy relationships with the villagers continue to haunt him. The peace of this close-knit community is shattered by the murder of a policeman – shot at point-blank range in the dead of night in a deserted house.

With a killer on the loose and the dark arctic winter closing in, it falls to Ari Thór to piece together a puzzle that involves tangled local politics, a compromised new mayor, and a psychiatric ward in Reykjavik, where someone is being held against their will.

Then a mysterious young woman moves to the area, on the run from something she dare not reveal, and it becomes all too clear that tragic events from the past are weaving a sinister spell that may threaten them all.

Thanks to Karen at Orenda for my review copy and also the opportunity to join the blog tour.

Last year we met Ari Thór Arason in Snowblind and followed his move to Siglufjörður. He struggled to adapt to being the new cop (and a stranger) in a small town while also dealing with the added distraction of conducting a murder investigation. Snowblind was one of the reading highlights of 2015 and you can read my review here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=854

Nightblind picks up with Ari Thór some five years after the events of Snowblind. The book opens with an explanatory note for the reader outlining the significant events in Ari Thór’s life and explains that his colleague Tomás has moved to Reykjavík. Ari Thór now has a new boss, Herjólfur, but the two do not appear to have bonded – perhaps as Ari Thór applied for promotion but was unsuccessful.

Trouble is not far away for Ari Thór: the murder of his colleague brings tragedy too close to home. He knows not why his colleague visited a deserted house in the middle of the night, why he may have been targeted or even if the killer has remained in town. Ari Thór’s investigations will become political as the local mayor joins the suspect pool and small town grapevine speculation threatens to spill into scandal. A local drug dealer may hold some vital information but their co-operation may come at too high a price for Ari Thór.

Jonasson builds a brilliant narrative as Ari Thór’s investigation progresses. We have a small circle of characters who will play an important part in the story, red herrings, side plots and subtle clues – all the hallmarks we have already come to expect from Ragnar Jonasson. The frequent comparisons of a writing style that is similar to Dame Agatha’s are well merited.

Nightblind is a murder story so to reveal too much about the actual story would require massive spoilers – nothing should be allowed to spoil your enjoyment of Nightblind, it’s magnificent. I felt it pitched slightly darker than Snowblind with one plot thread (not to the detriment of the story) but it was a book I didn’t want to end. I could read about life in Siglufjörður for days, Jonasson makes the town come to life around me as I curl up with his books.

Ragnar Jonasson (courtesy of the beautiful translation by Quentin Bates) has delivered another literary delight – I cannot heap enough praise upon Nightblind.

Nightblind is published by Orenda Books and is available now in digital format and in paperback from 15th January 2016.

The blog tour continues and I urge you to check out as many of the hosts as you can – the full schedule is included below.

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