Ari Thór, a rookie cop moves to a remote fishing village in northern Iceland, it’s suppose to be easy and a temporary posting. Nothing ever happens in the small village where nobody locks their doors at night. 
Wrong. 
We get a bloodied woman left in a frozen garden and an old guy is found dead. 
SUSPENSE. 
DRAMA. 
WHODUNNIT. 

Much like a barren ice land, of well, Iceland, this book had a whole lot of nothing for a good long while. 

I’m not a newbie for  Scandinavian lit, so I know the drill. Plain language. No metaphors. Straight to the point. No frills. All of this contributes to Nordic Noir books feeling more realistic than say their counterparts in North American thrillers and mysteries. For newbies of Nordic Noir in can be a bit jarring getting used to the pacing and the oversimplified language and style writing. 

I was excited to pick up my first Icelandic Scandi Noir Lit as the genre is typically dominated by Swedish authors so it was nice to pick up something different. More herring less meatballs. 

This story is slow as frozen molasses. We don’t get a dead body until Chapter 20….now that’s not the say there isn’t some tension build up, but truly, nobody died for like 100 pages. It’s a murder mystery…. We can’t really demistify our mystery until we get our murder. 

Jónasson does ramp up the drama and suspense but all the good bits are in the last few chapters. The man had the audacity to end on a semi cliff hanger that makes me want to read book two because now we have some DRAAAAMMMAAA. 

If you can stick with it, it’s a fine read. 
But I wouldn’t blame you if you bail before you even find out who died. Like I said. It’s really slow.