This is the first of a series featuring Sgt. Gunnhildur Gisladottir. Gunna is a 40-ish cop in Hvalvik, a small town about an hour outside of Reykjavik. A widow with a grown son & 13 year old daughter, she'll never be mistaken for a super model but Gunna has both feet firmly on the ground & a deep sense of self.
She's also very good at her job. Among her colleagues, she still runs into some who dismiss female cops but in her case, they do so at their peril.
Hvalvik is a town where the biggest problems are drunks, petty theft & redirecting traffic to accommodate construction of a large smelter facility & hydroelectric power station. They're controversial projects & tension between big industry & environmentalists is heating up. In fact, it's about to turn deadly.
It all begins with a body. Gunna gets a call about a man found floating by a nearby dock. Murder is rare in Iceland but once she identifies him, there are a couple of things that grab her attention. There was no reason for this city boy to be in Hvalvik. Also, a close friend of his recently died in another "accident".
Meanwhile, Gunna has been saddled with a journalist from Reykjavik. Skuli Snaedal is a rookie reporter & his editor wants a series of articles detailing the activities of rural cops. Instead, he'll soon find himself on the ground floor of a major investigation with national repercussions. Murder, industrial espionage, banking irregularities & corporate fraud are just the tip of the iceberg as this case presages the 2008 collapse of Iceland's financial institutions.
This is what I would describe as a gentle detective story. I normally prefer police procedurals that are a little grittier but enjoyed it for 2 reasons. First, a smart & intricate plot. Second, an interesting & original protagonist. My only quibble are the endless references to/comments by other characters about Gunna's looks & dress size. Maybe it was supposed to come across as a running gag but soon became tiresome & unnecessary to the plot. So she's not a beauteous babe. We get it.
Instead, she's something much more interesting & relatable...an average looking woman who's a great mom & dedicated cop. Her gruff manner masks a big heart. And it's her sharp intellect that makes the connections between various characters & their personal agendas.
There are many peripheral characters including police, journalists, activists & politicians that flesh out the plot. Having been to this beautiful country, I was hoping for a more atmospheric read with a specific sense of place but to be fair there's a lot going on here with a large cast so the story is more character driven.
All in all, a well paced & "clean" (no swearing, sex, etc.) detective novel with a compelling lead that should appeal to fans of the cozier form of this genre.

A slow start. Took me a long time to get into the story and characters. But by the end I am looking forward to the next in the series.

Fun, if a bit predictable.

Icelanders adore murder mysteries, which is a little funny given that there are often years with zero murders in real life in Iceland. I haven't been impressed with a single Icelandic murder mystery I've read so far, I have to admit. (Though to be fair, this is written by an Englishman who spent time in Iceland.) I read this on the plane to and from Iceland, and it was probably the most boring part of my trip. The mystery itself was totally unintriguing, and unfortunately, most of the characters were pretty interchangeable. The protagonist was the best of the bunch, but she couldn't salvage the dullness. I did, however, enjoy the book more on the return flight since I had then seen a lot of the places mentioned for myself; for example, on our last night, we camped in Hafnarfjörður, where several events in the book take place.