Monday 11 January 2016

Review: Nightblind Ragnar Jonasson



Siglufjörður: an idyllically quiet fishing village on the northernmost tip of Iceland, accessible only via a small mountain tunnel. Ari Thór Arason: a local policeman, whose tumultuous past and uneasy relationships with the villagers continue to haunt him. The peace of this close-knit community is shattered by the murder of a policeman – shot at point-blank range in the dead of night in a deserted house. With a killer on the loose and the dark arctic winter closing in, it falls to Ari Thór to piece together a puzzle that involves tangled local politics, a compromised new mayor, and a psychiatric ward in Reykjavik, where someone is being held against their will. Then a mysterious young woman moves to the area, on the run from something she dare not reveal, and it becomes all too clear that tragic events from the past are weaving a sinister spell that may threaten them all.


I have only just finished Snowblind recently and I was a huge fan of the book. I couldn't wait to start Nightblind, unfortunately I have to be very honest here, I much preferred Snowblind. Don't get me wrong this book is still a fantastic read, but I feel like the first one was much more complex and mysterious.

Nevertheless, I still enjoyed Nightblind. I loved being back in this beautiful place.  Some years have passed and Ari Thor is back with his girlfriend, who has now moved to live with him. Not only that but they now have a little son too. A lot has changed at his work place now too, his former boss has moved away, his former colleague is dead and Ari Thor has a new boss, with which he hasn't bonded yet at all.

Then the unthinkable happens, for the first time ever in Iceland a police officer gets shot, not any police man but his new boss. Ari Thor being the only officer left gets help from his former boss. Together they investigate the case. And  this is where the difference to the first book comes in, where there is everything was a mystery in Snowblinf, here we basically just follow their investigation. Taking away what was so unique before, not knowing what is going to happen in the first place. Maybe I just expected to much of the same?

However this book is still an absolute page turner. The place seems to have gotten even better, completely making me want to visit Iceland. There is lots of new intriguing characters. But what the author has once again achieved is that I have had no idea how this is going to end. Absolutely no clue.

It had me guessing all the way trough and the diary entries through out added some extra mystery, where at first it seems rather unrelated.

Thank you to Karen from Orenda Books for my copy of this book, in exchange for my honest opinion.

You can download Nightblind today and you can own the physical book from the 22nd January.

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