Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

Someone To Watch Over Me

Lawyer: Thora Gudmundsdottir

Setting:  Reyjkavik, Iceland

Time:     2010

Genre:   Scandi Noir  

This is the fifth of Sigurdardottir's stories with lawyer Thora Gudmundsdottir as the investigating character. As with many Icelandic novels, the consequences of the 2010 recession seep into the plot.

She is asked by a serial killer in a secure hospital to investigate the case against a fellow inmate, Jakob,  who has Down's Syndrome and who has possibly been wrongly placed in the unit  following a fire at the residential home where he lived and which killed five people.

As she investigates, it becomes apparent that both the case pursued against Jakob was not as thorough as it might have been and that other people may well have had motive to raze the residential home, particularly following the discovery that someone had managed to get a comatose patient pregnant.

The plot is tightly controlled and moves to a logical but unpredictable climax.

And of course the serial killer has his own motive for promoting the investigation.

Rating A

Previously Read

Last Rituals

My Soul to Take

Ashes to Dust

The Day is dark

Web reference

Quentin Bates

Chilled to the Bone

Detective:  DS Gunnhildur Gisladottir
Time          Present
Setting       Reykjavik, Iceland
Genre        Scandi Noir

This is the third in the Gunna Gisladottir Series and is a well crafted novel. A victim of a scam run by a dominatrix dies gagged and tied to a bed. Other victims of the scam are discovered, all too embarrassed to have reported it to the police.  As Gunna and her team try to identify the dominatrix so does an ex-con just returned from prison in Lithuania although his ultimate client is somewhere hidden in the background.  At the same time a Civil Servant is under pressure to find a missing laptop. before compromising Government secrets leak out. To add to the complications a woman is mysteriously following the Civil Servant.

In the backplot, Gunna's son, who works away on the fishing fleet, advises hi mother that he has two women pregnant simultaneously.

Rating A+

Quentin Blake's Blog

Previously read novels in the series
Frozen Assests (1)
Cold Comfort (2)
Winterlude (4)

Quentin Bates

Winterlude

Detective:Detective Sergeant Gunhilder Gisladottir
Time            Present
Setting:      Iceland; Reykjavik
Genre:        Scandi Noir

This is the fourth of Bates' "Gunni" Gisladottir novels although much of the investigative work in this one is carried out by her assistant Helgi, following up leads in his home village. Interestingly in the first two books Gunni is based in a small town away from the capital and the gets transferred to th city. Hasaving done that ates' seems to feel the need to set his plot back in rural Iceland.

Essentially its a well crafted but simple plot. An ex-con, freed early from his sentence for killing a child in a road accident is found battered to death in a warehouse he owns in Reykavik. The most likely perpetrator, the child's father, has a cast iron alibi as he was at sea at the time of the murder. However he has three brothers living in Helgi's small home town. Did one of them do it and if so which?

Rating A-

Quentin Bates' Blog

Previously Read Novels in the Series
Frozen assets (1)
Cold Comfort (2)

Arni Thorarinsson

Season of the Witch

Investigative Journalist: Einar
Location:                     Akureyi, Iceland
Time :                         Present
Genre:                         Scandi-noir

The protaganist, Einar (no other name given) has been transferred from Reykjavik to the northern town of Akureyi as part of a bid to increase regional sales of his paper covering local issues. The early stages seem as much concerned with his settling in as the development of what will be the main plot.  The story doesn't seem to get going until at least a third of the way in.

It concerns the apparent accidental death of a local businessman's wife and the murder of a student. Eventually the cases converge. Set against the background of an imminent General Election and Iceland's economic problems, there is also underlying concern about the impact of immigrant labour.

This appears to be the only Thorarinson novel traslated into English so far.although there are oher novels translated into other European languages

Rating B