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.
Author Bio:
Icelandic crime writer Ragnar Jónasson was born in Reykjavík, and currently works as a lawyer, while teacher 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.
Review
I find that I am somewhat bittersweet whilst writing this review since I know that this is the last book Ragnar is going to write in this series. I have loved Ari Thor and his life up on the northern most region of Iceland and the thought that there is no more evokes sadness. However, at the same time I am full of joy that I have got to spent some time within this world one last time. Bittersweet indeed.
‘Winterkill’ is truly a stunning conclusion to this tale, from a writer who is at his peak. It feels as if the prose is effortless yet is packed with so much emotion. We have seen Ari Thor develop from a young trainee policeman to one that is confident in his decisions, both professionally and personally. He has matured, loved and lost, become a father and has learned to love life in the remote north of Iceland. But we have also seen Iceland and Siglufjörður develop as well. From a town that used to be cut off for weeks at a time to a place which has seen the boom of the tourist dollar and become quite cosmopolitan as a result.
This time Ari Thor is looking forward to an Easter weekend of relaxation and fun as his son and ex girlfriend is coming from Sweden to visit. But before they arrive he is called to the death of a teenage girl in the middle of the night. It looks like suicide but Ari has an unsettled feeling that something isn’t right and it’s not just the imminent arrival of a blizzard. Then when a senile pensioner in the local care home writes ‘she was murdered’ all over his wall it’s clear that Ari has to look at this case a bit more closely.
The thing I appreciate with Ragnar’s beautiful writing is that he doesn’t rely on shock factors. It builds up slowly, creating layer upon layer of timings, characters, empathy, small actions that eclipse the ‘big moments’. For example, in this case it is one word written in the girls diary which makes Ari take stock and listen to the clues. Also Ragnar doesn’t make his lead character infallible, he has flaws but not the cliche male detective ones of alcoholism etc. It’s more I thought he should be more of a mentor to the new trainee in the station, especially when he has such a good relationship with his own mentor. He is quite individualist in his methods. He never really vocalises his thoughts and feelings. But I did love his personal resolution in ‘Winterkill’, it felt as if everything had come full circle.
I can’t say much more about the story without spoiling its beauty for the reader. It’s something that becomes personal in a way, reading the conclusion to something you have invested so much time and pleasure into. It’s a love letter to Siglufjörður and it’s people. ‘Winterkill’ is a celebration of all the great sections of this series amalgamated into this triumph of a book. A well deserved standing ovation is required.
