Today I’m delighted to be part of the blog tour for Winterkill. My review is written with thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me on the tour and to Orenda Books for my copy of the book.

Blurb:

A blizzard is approaching Siglufjörður, and that can only mean one thing…

When the body of a nineteen-year-old girl is found on the main street of Siglufjörður, Police Inspector Ari Thór battles a violent Icelandic storm in an increasingly dangerous hunt for her killer … The chilling, claustrophobic finale to the international bestselling Dark Iceland series.

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 is a startling addition to the multi-million-copy bestselling Dark Iceland series and cements Ragnar Jónasson as one of the most exciting and acclaimed authors in crime fiction.

Review:

I’ve not read all of the previous books in this series (and I know I must) but those I have read I have really enjoyed, so it was great to catch up with Ari Thór as he takes on new responsibility as the senior inspector in the area. Jonasson gets the balance between his professional and personal life perfect, so I find it really easy to connect with him and root for him as he tries to solve the investigation. I also sympathised with him as he tried to build a relationship with his son.

Winterkill is set in Iceland and the scenery is beautiful. Jonasson’s description is incredibly detailed and I was immediately transported to the locations in the novel. The locations provide a really chilling atmosphere, which make this novel a really fitting read for this time of year. The atmosphere also helps to build the tension.

The setting for Winterkill is a small town in which most of the residents know each other or have family connections. I know first hand how claustrophobic this can be, and it provides a brilliant backdrop for a crime novel as there are so many suspects and so many secrets to uncover. The plot is not particularly fast paced (although it is set over one weekend) but there is plenty of intrigue as I wanted to know the stories behind the investigation.

Winterkill is available from Amazon.

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