Review: Winterkill, by Ragnar Jonasson

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.

Chilling, claustrophobic and disturbing, Winterkill marks the startling conclusion to the million-copy bestselling Dark Iceland series and cements Ragnar Jónasson as one of the most exciting authors in crime fiction.

My Review

Thanks to Anne Cater for organising the blog tour for Orenda and to the publisher for sending me a copy of the book.

The Rosie Synopsis

Ari Thor Arason has been in Siglo for 7 years, he’s now Inspector and very slowly become a part of the community. His former partner, Kirstin, has left him and taken their son to Sweden; the last inspector, and one of Ari Thor’s few friends, Tomas, has gone to Reykjavik to further his career. Life is quiet in Siglufjordur.

Until Easter weekend. In the early hours of Maundy Thursday, as Ari Thor is impatiently waiting for Kirstin and Stefnir to visit for the Easter weekend, a phone call comes through to the emergency number: a girl has been found dead in the street.

Ari Thor juggles an investigation into a seeming suicide while trying to maintain his relationship with his son, and a new/old love comes into his life.

The Good

I like Ragnar’s books. I read the first one in 2017, when his original English translator, Quentin Bates, visited my university to give a talk to the MA Creative Writing students. I collected copies of Quentin and Ragnar’s books. I enjoyed the way Ragnar brings Ari Thor full circle, seven years on from his first arrival in Siglo as an outsider who only planned to stay for as long as he had to, including a repeat of his relationship with Kirstin falling apart and a new relationship forming with Ugla. He realises that he’s now part of this remote community which is experiencing a new lease of life, that he’s probably going to be there for ever and that he actually doesn’t mind, although he misses his son immensely.

The plot is very much a traditional murder mystery, as you would expect from the man who translated Agatha Christie into Icelandic. Siglo is St Mary Mead in the cold. The major red herring takes up a fair bit of the story but furthers the personal aspects of the narrative, an unknown murder is uncovered and people are not who they seem. There’s a dodgy historian, a questionable artist, a doctor with secrets and plans, and Iceland’s cross-Atlantic history. The clues are there but Ari Thor doesn’t have all the information until the end.

The ending was quite unexpected, and very dramatic. Beware the respectable citizens! I found the characterization of Salvor, the grieving mother, who is convinced her daughter was a saint who would never kill herself, to be convincing. Her ex-husband Svavor, the former sea captain, is a bombastic presence who’s clearly feeling guilty for running off with another woman and moving to the US, leaving his daughter in danger, and takes it out on Ari Thor. Although his ‘little investigation’ does provide the clue Ari needs.

I liked the way the fading relationship between Ari Thor and Kirstin, and the budding relationship between Ari Thor and Ugla is handled. It’s very subtle and Ari Thor’s confusion and fears, lust and affection are described clearly.

The Not-So-Good

Nothing. Even the weather was appropriate.

The Verdict

Ragnar’s books are what I think of as a Sunday afternoon read, short (took me less than three hours to read) and satisfying. Like a Golden Age novel, or a Joan Hickman (or Julia McKenzie or Geraldine McEwan) Miss Marple episode. A great finish for a fabulous series.

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THE AUTHOR

Icelandic crime writer Ragnar Jónasson was born in Reykjavík, and currently works as a lawyer, while teaching copyright law at the Reykjavík University Law School. In the past, he’s worked in TV and radio, including as a news reporter for the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service. Before embarking on a writing career, Ragnar translated fourteen Agatha Christie novels into Icelandic, and has had several short stories published in German, English and Icelandic literary magazines. Ragnar set up the first overseas chapter of the CWA (Crime Writers’ Association) in Reykjavík, and is co-founder of the International crime-writing festival Iceland Noir.

Ragnar’s debut thriller, Snowblind became an almost instant bestseller when it was published in June 2015 with Nightblind (winner of the Dead Good Reads Most Captivating Crime in Translation Award) and then Blackout, Rupture and Whiteout following soon after. To date, Ragnar Jónasson has written five novels in the Dark Iceland series, which has been optioned for TV by On the Corner. He lives in Reykjavík with his wife and two daughters.