The Mist

A Thriller
by Ragnar Jónasson

Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb

Minotaur Books, 2020

Another in the Hulda Hermansdóttir series, this book takes place at various locations in Iceland in the late 1980s. There are three parallel stories going on here: Hulda and her relationship to her daughter and husband, a double missing persons case and a horrific crime scene on a remote farm in the east of Iceland. Ragnar has a laconic writing style, suitable for this kind of story.

This is an Iceland of the pre-boom years and Ragnar does a good job of portraying just how grim Iceland was in those days. It is also a very dark story—don’t expect any uplift at the end.

A good choice for fans of Ragnar, it might not appeal to the general reader, it gets an automatic thumbs-up from me because it references Halldór Laxness’ Salka Valka!

Mondays in Iceland - #114

The Girl Who Died

A Novel
By Ragnar Jónasson
Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb
Minotaur Books, 2021

Reading Ragnar’s Icelandic crime novels has been a bit of a roller-coaster for me. They are all competent, if sometimes less than inspired. This book, the latest title to be translated from this prolific author, is more on the uninspired end of the spectrum. Ragnar’s prose has always been a bit terse, never more so than here. This is the story of Una, a 30-year-old Icelandic woman who answers an ad for a teacher in remote Skálar, a fishing village as far away from Rekjavík as you can get. The 10 inhabitants who live there are polite but distant to the newcomer. Una gets lodging with Salka and her eight-year-old daughter Edda, who is one of the two students in Una’s care.

A parallel story in the book concerns the presumed murder and disappearance of two young men, allegedly by two punks and a girlfriend of one of the missing men. That narrative was loosely based on a real-life Icelandic miscarriage of justice. The two stories become intertwined with the addition of a town secret and an apparition that plagues Una. As the book reaches its climax Ragnar veers into Shirley Jackson territory, forgoing his usual Agatha Christie ending.

Is The Girl Who Died worth reading? If you want something not too challenging, perhaps something to read on the couch with a glass of wine as you get over your second Covid vaccine shot, this might fill the bill. If you want a true thriller with a lot of action and vivid characters, stay away.

Black-out

An Ari Thór Thriller
By Ragnar Jonasson
Translated by Quentin Bates

This book, written in 2011, was published in English in 2018. It was the only one of Ragnar’s ‘Dark Iceland’ mysteries to have escaped my purview. Set in during the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull in 2010, the post-crash economy of Iceland is just starting to pick up when a laborer is found murdered at a remote farmhouse which was undergoing renovations. Ari Thór and his sidekick Tómas investigate the case while Ísrún, a news journalist from Reykjavík, drives up to Akureyri to cover the situation for televison.

This is one of Ragnar’s better efforts, the plot is complex, but not to the point of confusion. Many of the characters have flashbacks as the scope of the underlying cause of the crime becomes revealed. There is a bang-up ending, perhaps a little too neat, but satisfactory. It does take place in the summer, however, so the weather is actually nice in the North, in contrast to the volcanic ash and pollution from Eyjafjallajokull. At less than 250 pages it is a good vacation read.

The translation by Bates is odd: lifeless, awkward phrasing, British usage, and even a few typos. This isn’t fine literature, but a decent translation could have made it better.

Marginal recommendation.

Duality

Reykjavík
A crime story
By Ragnar Jónasson and Katrín Jakobsdóttir
Translated by Victoria Cribb
Minotaur, 2023

Prolific mystery writer Ragnar Jónasson co-authors this novel with Katrín Jakobsdóttir, the prime minister of Iceland. This novel opens in 1956 when a teen-age girl disappears from a small farm on the island of Viðey (located in the bay adjoining the city.) After nothing turns up about the girl the story fades from public consciousness until 1986 when Valur, a struggling journalist, reopens the case in a bid to sell more newspapers (and keep his job.)

About midway through the book a sharp turn of events derails the story. I would be committing a crime to divulge any more of the plot but what I will mention, however, is the rich back-story of Reykjavík’s development, both private and public, that went on in that boom time. I first went to Reykjavík in the year 2000 where traces of the old city described in this book were plentiful. Much of the central city has since been redeveloped in the last 23 years and this novel is a vivid look back. That it also occurs in the time of the Reagan-Gorbachev summit adds further complications to the proceedings.

The writing is straightforward and there is a list of characters to keep things straight. Victoria Cribb’s translation is unfussy and focused. More FITK reviews of Ragnar’s books.

Recommended.

Summer Reading

It’s been a while (five years!) since I’ve done one of these “Summer Reading” posts; a recent spate of new titles has given me the fuel to stoke my literary fires.

Kalmann
An Icelandic Mystery
By Joachim B. Schmidt
Translated from the German by Jamie Lee Searle


The biggest surprise in this batch was Joachim B. Schmidt’s Kalmann, an elegant and original mystery set in the northernmost Iceland town of Raufarhöfn. Kalmann is an intellectually challenged shark fisherman who is tolerated by the townspeople even though he has had some behaviorial issues in the past. After Kalmann discovers a pool of blood near a monument he sets out, in his own peculiar way, to solve the mystery. This is a wonderfully well-written book, it captured my attention from the start and the plots meanders to a satisfying conclusion. It is very funny at times, Kalmann is an exasperating yet endearing character; he has been described as an Icelandic Forrest Gump.

Highly recommended.

The Volunteer
A Novel
By Salvatore Scibona

Dense and complex, The Volunteer is a completely different sort of book, although it too could be classed as a mystery. Vollie Frade, the main character, is a farm boy who joins the U.S. Marines and does several tours of duty, one of which is a black ops affair that finds him stripped of his identity. The story shifts focus from Vollie to a sort-of adopted son who abandoned a child in an airport and leapfrogs to various parts of the United States, Asia and Europe from the 1950s to 2039. It is generally well-written, and covers a lot of serious issues but, ultimately, is a shaggy-dog story—an extremely dark Forrest Gump.

A marginal recommendation.

Karitas Untitled
A Novel
By Kristín Marja Baldursdóttir
Translated from the Icelandic by Philip Roughton

Karitas Untitled was written in 2004 but has just been translated and published by Amazon Crossing. This is sort of an Icelandic Little Women: “Spanning decades and set against a breathtaking historical canvas.” I actually bought the book based upon a recommendation but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t buy into its premise. Karitas is one of a brood of sisters living in the Icelandic country in the early 1900s. She has a gift for drawing, the story tells of her trials in coming to grips with her education and the larger world. It has won a ton of awards but I found the writing to be so prosaic and formulaic (think YA) that I couldn’t finish it.

No recommendation.

The Locked Room
A Ruth Galloway Mystery
By Elly Griffiths

I am big fan of the Ruth Galloway series (when will the BBC have this on Masterpiece?) so I have been eagerly awaiting The Locked Room, the latest entry in the series. I had read that Ruth has to deal with Covid crisis so my curiosity was doubly piqued. All the “gang” is here, the biggest strength of this series is the interaction between the regular characters, regular people who have to deal with regular problems in addition to the mysteries and mayhem that besets them. The Covid material is deftly integrated into the plot—it brought me back to the early days of the pandemic (too soon?) As with the other Galloway titles, this book should really be read in published order, the characters age and and their relationships grow in a realistic fashion.

Recommended for fans of the series (which should be read in order.)

Outside
A Mystery
By Ragnar Jónasson
Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb

Reading Ragnar Jónasson has been a bit frustrating for me; his Icelandic mysteries are generally competent but often uninspired. Ragnar has been heavily influenced by Agatha Christie and his latest effort, Outside, is no exception. In this stand-alone mystery, a small group of friends go on a weekend ptarmigan hunting trip in the Icelandic highlands in late November—what could possibly go wrong? An unexpected blizzard and a surprising discovery in a shelter hut upsets their plans. This is a tight tale, told in short episodic chapters that alternate the POVs of the four main characters. It would make a good movie, perhaps not worthy of a major cinematic release, but definitely worth streaming—Agatha would be proud.

Marginal recommendation.

Salka Valka
By Halldór Laxness
Translated from the Icelandic by Philip Roughton

Finally, saving the best for last, is the new translation of Salka Valka, Halldór Laxness’ earliest masterpiece.

This is a tremendous book and Philip Roughton brings it into the modern world with a terse vitality that the older translation (from the Danish) lacked. Don’t take my word for it, the Laxness in Translation website has several reviews of the book in its first translation as well as links to reviews of the latest version.

Very highest recommendation.

The Darkness

A Thriller
By Ragnar Jónasson
Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb
Minotaur Books, 2018

Ragnar is one of the “new generation” of Icelandic mystery writers. I’ve read and reviewed a couple of his books before passing on his third book, which I tried to read but couldn’t finish. This book, his fourth, is part of a new series featuring Hulda Hermannsdóttir, a police investigator working out of Reykjavík. Hulga is nearing retirement and is given the opportunity to work on one more cold-case before she leaves the force. She picks up on the case of a Russian woman who was found dead on the southern coast of Iceland that had never been given a proper investigation. Initially ruled a suicide, Hulga quickly discovers irregularities in the case and begins to ruffle feathers as she proceeds in her inquiries.

This is a much better book than Ragnar’s previous ones. The coherent plot, lots of local color, good usage of foreshadowing and a doozy of an ending make this a novel worth seeking out. Victoria Cribb’s translation is also better than the previous ones by Quentin Bates, which might have also contributed to its readability.

Rupture

An Ari Thór thriller by Ragnar Jónasson

Minotaur Books 2019
Translated from the Icelandic by Quentin Bates

This title slipped past me last year. Ragnar had actually written it earlier (2012) than some of his previously published titles in English. He is on a roll these days, his serviceable mysteries (this is not a thriller in any sense of the definition) keep on coming with five titles in the Ari Thór series and three of the Hulda stories so far. I’ve reviewed most of them here.

This is a “family and friends” type of mystery, where relationships are not what they seem, even after sixty years. The three main plot threads concern a family history puzzle triggered by an old photograph, a revenge plot for an accidental killing, and the efforts of a television reporter trying to tie members of the current Icelandic parliament to murders related to the revenge. Ari Thór, nominally the protagonist, is stuck in Siglufjörður, a small town on the North coast of Iceland, due to a quarantine caused by the death of a tourist who brought hemorrhagic fever to the area. Ísrún, the reporter, contacts Ari for information on the epidemic and becomes intrigued by Ari’s story of an extended family in the mid-1950s who once lived on a remote farm where one of the women died from poison. Ísrún is also covering a stolen baby story which may be related to a hit-and-run death and a brutal killing three years previously.

The writing is good and the different plot lines don’t get confusing. There is a fair amount of Icelandic scenery, both in the north and in Reykjavík. Rupture just didn’t grab me; I think Ragnar’s later Hulda novels are better.

Jólabókaflóðið

Death at the Sanatorium

A Mystery by Ragnar Jónasson
Translated by Victoria Cribb
Minotaur Books 2024

When last I visited the work of this prolific author he was joined in his writing endeavors by the President of Iceland! No such stunts this time however; this book was actually written in 2018 and only translated into English in 2024.

The main character, Helgi Reykdal, a young policeman who had taken a sabbatical to study forensics in London, has returned to Reykjavík to finish his dissertation and ultimately re-join the police in the CID unit. It is 2012 and Helgi is studying a murder case that took place in Akureyri in 1983  that had never been properly closed. He is getting nowhere in interviewing the surviving people of interest in the old case (for his dissertation) when a startling development forces him to become an investigator for both cases..

There are flashbacks and changing of focus on different characters but is handled well and never becomes confusing. Ragnar is an avowed disciple of Agatha Christie and it shows. The plot-twist at the end is clever. Victoria Cribb is the best translator of Ragnar, the language is direct and never fussy. Recommended as a light read, it would be a perfect Jólabókaflóðið gift.

The one thing that I found most interesting was actually in the acknowledgements: the book  had mostly been written in Kaffihús Vesturbæjar, located near my favorite swimming pool in Reykjavík. The Weaver and I might have actually been in there when he was writing it in 2018!

The Island

A thriller by
Ragnar Jónasson
Translated by Victoria Cribb
Minotaur, 2019

Although this is the second of Jónasson’s “Hulda” novels, it is set before the first one. In 1997, ten years after the death of Katla, a young woman who was found dead at her family’s summer cabin, a group of her friends gather at an isolated hunting lodge on one of the smaller Westman islands off the south coast of Iceland in memory of her. When one of them ends up dead Hulda is brought in and this new death is tied to the old one, including its botched handling by the police.

There is a fair amount of atmosphere (including a trip around Hvalfjarðavegur that I got a personal kick out of) and Ragnar never lets the reader forget where the story is taking place but it isn’t really a “thriller.” It is more of a police procedural. The writing (and translation) is good, but prosaic, this isn’t great literature. The set-up and finale are handled well, but the plot developments are workmanlike.

A good effort but I enjoyed The Darkness, his previous Hulda book, more.

Mondays in Iceland - #113

Iceland Writers Retreat - 2021

At long last the IWR happened, albeit virtually on Zoom.

Although the virtual format is almost the exact opposite of the “bodies in a room” experience that I signed up for (way back in 2019!) it was still something, and something about Iceland is usually better than nothing, right? My previous experiences with Zoom had been OK, if somewhat clumsy. This was on a different scale of magnitude, instead of a half-dozen former classmates I was one of a 150 or so fellow-seekers of literary enlightenment, interacting with numerous writers, poets and even an editor! Held over three seven-hour days, there were 27 presentations to peruse in real-time (and to review later at my leisure.)

So, how did it go?

Better than I had hoped.

The three Icelandic authors were the highlights of the retreat for me. Andri Snær Magnason (LoveStar) had a low-key, almost conversational presentation, as did Ragnar Helgi Ólafsson (in green box above). Hallgrimur Helgason (Hitman’s Guide to Housecleaning, Reyjkjavík 101) gave a wonderful history lesson on modern Icelandic writers, I could have listened to him speak for another ninety minutes. There were non-Icelandic notables as well, I was very impressed by Adam Gopnik’s talk on memoir and was pleasantly surprised by The New York Times Book Review editor Pamela Paul’s wide ranging discussion on how to write a book review. I saw the bulk of nine presentations and am looking forward to seeing most of the others when they are available on replay.

I did run across Emily Lethbridge who I “knew” from Laxness in Translation; we had an exchange of private messages. Other chat-room denizens were also entertaining and informative.

The technical side was handled very well except for a few participants whose equipment/connection wasn’t really up to snuff. I found that several participants hid in the shadows; a simple desk lamp would have turned their presence from distant to palpable.

The big question: would I do it again, in person, in Iceland, in 2022?

As Björk once sang: Possibly Maybe…

Two Icelandic Thrillers

Snowblind
A Thriller
By Ragnar Jónasson
Translated by Quentin Bates
New York: Minotaur Books 2017

Yet another Icelandic mystery series! I went into this one blind—I found it at the library under the catalog heading “Icelandic.” I ordered it with some other titles and when I got it I plowed through it in a day—a breezy read—it would be a perfect airport book. It is set during the Kreppa of 2008-2009 but almost all of the action takes place in Siglufjörður, a small town on the northern coast of Iceland. Ari Thór Arason, a rookie police officer, gets his first taste of solving crime in a close-knit community with its share of secrets. Almost every character gets a complete back-story. This made for a complicated story, almost fiddly at times, but it is all resolved at the end, although the author couldn't finish without a couple of “cheats.”

When I read the authors bio I wasn’t surprised to learn that the author had translated fourteen Agatha Christie novels into Icelandic! If you are a fan of Agatha, you might get a kick out of this. If you aren’t, this might be a little stodgy; it really is old-fashioned. The writing, while competent, is stiff. The translator is an English writer of Icelandic mysteries as well; the work I've read of his wasn’t exactly great literature either.

The Undesired
A Thriller
By Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
Translated by Victoria Cribb
New York: Minotaur Books 2015

I've reviewed Yrsa before, those books had the lawyer/investigator Þóra Guðmundsdóttir as the protagonist. This book is a stand-alone, the plot is driven by the actions of one Oðin Hafsteinsson, a mid-level bureaucrat at the Icelandic State Supervisory Agency. He had recently started this new job as a way to deal with the death of his ex-wife; he has assumed custody of his 11 year old daughter and needs a more regular schedule. His work  is boring until the death of a co-worker thrusts him into case concerning the activities of a  group home/reform school that had closed forty years earlier.

As “thrillers” go, this one is pretty tepid, and it takes its own sweet time to develop as the story shifts between the past and present.  While it is set in Iceland, at first there is little other than the character names to give it a Nordic atmosphere. Toward the end of the book, however, it does reveal a certain “Icelandic-ness” as it picks up speed and expertly comes to its disturbing conclusion. This is the best book of Yrsa’s that I’ve read but, as I mentioned, you have to make a real effort to stick with it to the end. The translation is pretty British, almost to the point of being a distraction at times, but serviceable.

Friday Fiction Review

Winterkill
A Dark Iceland Series novel by
Ragnar Jónasson
Orenda Books, 2020

Another Inspector Ari Thór Arason mystery, set in the far northern Icelandic town of Siglufjörður. At the start of the Easter weekend a young woman’s apparent suicide throws a wrench into Ari’s holiday plans when he senses that there is more than meets the eye in her demise. It is written in the style of the other books in the series, differing from a lot of other modern crime fiction in that the plot actually makes sense! If you enjoy Jónasson’s other work you should find this satisfactory as well.

This book slipped my attention, perhaps because it was actually translated into French first and then into English by a ‘minor’ publisher. I have read that Icelandic fiction is hot in France right now and I know that there is a definite shortage of Icelandic–English translators which might explain the book’s odd provenance. The writing may have lost a few nuances along the way because of that. It is an easy read, short (224 pages), a perfect airplane book (does anyone fly anymore?) or just the thing to while away a snowy winter evening. It is not ‘great’ literature by any means.

Qualified recommendation.

Links to other FITK reviews of Jónasson’s books and other Icelandic authors here.

Icelandic Book Reviews

Links to FITK reviews of books by Icelandic authors:

Alda Sigmundsdóttir

Arnaldur Indriðasson

Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir

Bergsveinn Birgisson

Bragí Ólofsson

Guðrún Mínervudóttir

Hallgrímur Helgasson

Halldór Laxness

Hildur Knútsdóttir

Jón Gnarr

Jón Kalman Stefánsson

Kristín Eiríksdóttir

Kristín Omarsdóttir

Maria Alva Roff

Oddný Eir

Olaf Olafsson

Ragnar Jónasson

Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir

Sjón

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

Þórbergur Þórðarson

Nightblind

A Thriller
By Ragnar Jónasson
Translated by Quentin Bates
Minotaur Books, 2016

This is a follow-up to Jónasson’s Snowblind, which introduced the reluctant policeman Arí Thor, who now finds himself involved involved in an investigation of an ambush-style shooting of one of his fellow officers in the remote Northern Icelandic city of Siglufjörður.  Like the earlier book, I found its noir-ish affectations to be a little creaky; it may have suffered in translation.

This is “Icelandic light” crime fiction; all the tropes are there (dark family secrets, visits with pensioners, cold and darkness) but while it was competent, I didn’t find it engrossing. Arí Thor isn’t the most compelling detective, and Tómas, his old partner who returns from Reykjavík to aid in the investigation, isn’t any livelier. There is at least one more book in this series forthcoming, Blackout, but I think I’ll probably pass on that one.