Friday 15 January 2016

Nightblind - Ragnar Jonasson

"The peace of a close-knit Icelandic 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 waters closing in, it falls to Ari Thor 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..."




Given that I dragged Mr H off on a four day adventure to Iceland off the back of Ragnar's first novel, Snowblind, to say that I was excited to be invited to the launch of his second novel was a major understatement! I managed to save the reading of Nightblind until the Christmas holidays, so that I could fully immerse myself back in Sigulfjordur without interruption. 

If anything, Ragnar has outdone himself this time around - still set in the same beautiful setting, with more atmospheric and intriguing descriptions of the surrounding landscape, he creates an impression of an exciting and mysterious place to live. It was nice to revisit the characters from the first novel - set five years into the future from where Snowblind left off, Ari Thor is still living in Sigulfjordur and working as a policeman,  continuing his volatile relationship with Kristin. There is still an air of mystery surrounding Ari Thor with the disappearance of his father, and I'm looking forward to finding out more about that in later novels. 

The plot line is fast paced, despite the laid back, peaceful surroundings it is set in and I was reeled in from the first page. Although I guessed who was responsible for the murder of Ari Thor's colleague, hardly any clues are given to lead towards the killer and those that are planted are very, very subtle indeed. This is once again an intriguing, Christie-esque mystery that hooks the reader immediately, drawing them in with the beautiful landscapes and addictive characters - a style that Ragnar seems to have already made his trademark. 

Nightblind is out now and you can get it here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk

**My thanks to Karen Sullivan at Orenda Books for my ARC**

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