Snowblind

Starred review from October 17, 2016
The 2008 financial crash provides the backdrop for Jónasson’s sterling debut, a tale of past and present revenge, which combines the power of extreme climate and geography with penetrating psychological analysis. Ari Thór Arason, a 24-year-old rookie policeman and former theology student, leaves his medical-student lover, Kristín, in Reykjavík for his first assignment in Siglufjördur, an isolated village on the north coast of Iceland. As the long, dark winter settles in, Ari Thór becomes embroiled in old hurts that roil beneath the surface of Siglufjördur, where secrets spread swiftly. The fatal fall of a drunken actor down a flight of stairs in the local theater appears to be an accident—or is it? As in the medieval Icelandic sagas, small physical details produce striking characterizations (“He peered at her and his lip twisted oddly, as if he was trying to smile, but at the same time hold it back”). Jónasson skillfully alternates points of view and shifts of time that set in relief Ari Thór’s efforts to find a purpose to his lonely life. The action builds to a shattering climax. Agent: David Headley, DHH Literary Agency (U.K.).

November 15, 2016
In the isolated Icelandic fishing village of Siglufjorour, a rookie cop newly transplanted from Reykjavik has his mettle tested by the claustrophobic conditions--and a murder.The cop, 24-year-old Ari Thor Arason, impulsively left behind his medical school girlfriend and theological studies to join the police force in the small rural community. When aged author Hrolfur Kristjansson is found dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs, reeking of alcohol, everyone assumes it was "just an accident." But Hrolfur, chairman of the Dramatic Society, had clashed with the director of its latest production the day before its scheduled opening. And the celebrated author's death isn't the only shocking news in a town where Ari is told nothing happens. A partially unclad young woman is found unconscious in her snowy garden, the victim of a brutal attack. As the 24-hour darkness presses down on relentlessly snowed-on Siglufjorour, and then an avalanche closes off the town even more, the dual investigations take on a surreal quality. The first of Jonasson's Dark Iceland novels to be translated into English gets off to a clunky start. But the author settles into a page-turning groove, emulating his hero, Agatha Christie (14 of whose novels he's translated into Icelandic), by skillfully switching points of view and casting about for murder motives. While there's nothing fresh about the plot, the increasingly gloomy setting--a reflection of the tragic losses nearly all the characters, including Ari, have experienced--provides its own distinctive edge. A bestseller in England making its U.S. debut, Jonasson's whodunit puts a lively, sophisticated spin on the Agatha Christie model, taking it down intriguing dark alleys.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 15, 2016
With the 2008 recession limiting job possibilities in Reykjavik, police-college student Ari Thor Arason accepts a post in isolated northern Siglufjordur, even though it means leaving his live-in girlfriend, Kristen. The village, cut off from the rest of Iceland when snow blocks nearby mountain tunnels, is a former center of herring fishing where nothing ever happens, according to the police chief. But then things happen. First, Siglufjordur's most illustrious citizen, Hrolfur Kristjansson, whose one novel was an international best-seller decades earlier, dies in a fall at the local Dramatic Society; then the common-law wife of the lead actor is found stabbed and near death in the snow. Ari Thor pursues the Hrolfur case as a possible murder against orders, all the while feeling claustrophobic in the unrelenting snow and struggling with his relationship with Kristen and attraction to a local woman. In the first of his Dead Iceland series, Jnasson spins an involving tale of small-town police work that vividly captures the snowy setting that so affects the rookie cop. Icelandic noir at its moodiest.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)