Winterkill by Ragnar Jónasson

Release: December 10, 2020
Format: Ebook
Publisher: ORENDA BOOKS
Source: Random Things Tours
Find it at Goodreads, Amazon, B & N, Kobo.

Police find the body of a nineteen-year-old girl on the main street of a small fishing town in Iceland. Police Inspector Ari Thór battles a violent Icelandic storm in a dangerous hunt for her killer. The chilling finale to the international bestselling Dark Iceland series.

Easter weekend is approaching, and snow is gently falling in Siglufjörður. The northernmost town in Iceland. In light of this, crowds of tourists arrive to visit the majestic ski slopes.

Ari Thór Arason is now a police inspector but lives separately from his girlfriend. She lives in Sweden with their three-year-old son. They plan for a family reunion for a 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 a house’s balcony on the main street. A baffling entry in her diary suggests that this may not be an accident. Besides, an old man in a local nursing home writes, ‘She was murdered’ repeatedly on the wall of his room. Therefore there is every suggestion that something more sinister lies at the heart of her death.

Meanwhile, extreme weather closes in, cutting the power and access to the town. So Ari Thór must piece together the puzzle to reveal a horrible truth. This is one that will leave no one injured.

Chilling, fearful, and disturbing, Winterkill marks the startling conclusion to the bestselling Dark Iceland series. This also cements Ragnar Jónasson as one of the most exciting authors in crime fiction.

About the Author:

Ragnar Jonasson is the author of the award-winning and international bestselling Dark Iceland series.

In the Dark Iceland series, his debut Snowblind went to number one in the Amazon Kindle charts shortly after publication. The book was also a no. 1 Amazon Kindle bestseller in Australia. Snowblind has been a paperback bestseller in France.

Nightblind won the Dead Good Reader Award 2016 for Most Captivating Crime in Translation.

Snowblind was called a “classically crafted whodunit” by THE NEW YORK TIMES. The Independent selected it as one of the best crime novels of 2015 in the UK.

Ragnar was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he works as a writer and a lawyer. He also teaches copyright law at Reykjavik University. He has previously worked on radio and television, including a TV news reporter for the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service.

Ragnar is also the co-founder of the Reykjavik international crime writing festival Iceland Noir.

He has appeared on festival panels worldwide and lives in Reykjavik.

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Winterkill Review:

“Winterkill” is the last book in the “Dark Iceland” series and provides an intricate mystery.

I liked Ari as the lead character. I was also intrigued by how Ari handles the investigation. He is thorough in his search to learn more about the girl’s death. The mystery itself is a bit perplexing that makes you stumped at the way the person executes it. As Ari speaks to the family and other witnesses, the author keeps you guessing whether it was a murder or suicide.

The author also paints the environment in a beautiful yet chilling manner. I felt like I was with Ari as he traveled across rural Iceland in Siglufjörđur (and Siglunes). He has a unique sense of storytelling, in which he focuses on the town and its residents, rather than just concentrating on the mystery. This method sets the story apart from the generic, action paced, fast crime thrillers that we usually read in the genre.

However, it was a bit challenging at times, reading this as a standalone. As I have not read the previous books in the series, some of Ari’s conversations with the other characters from the earlier books confused me. Moreover (and this is based on the translation), the sentences felt over-descriptive and lagged in the storyline’s progress. But, despite that, I enjoyed how the author concluded the series with a sense of closure.

Overall, I liked reading “Winterkill” and thought the author compellingly executed the story.