Reykjavik by Ragnar Jonasson and Katrin Jakobsdottir
What happened to Lara Marteinsdóttir?
Iceland, 1956. Fifteen-year-old Lára spends the summer working for a couple on the small island of Videy, just off the coast of Reykjavík.
In early August, the girl disappears without a trace.
The mystery becomes Iceland’s greatest unsolved case. What happened to the young girl? Is she still alive? Did she leave the island, or did something happen to her there?
Thirty years later in August, 1986, as the city of Reykjavík celebrates its 200th anniversary, journalist Valur Robertsson begins his own investigation into Lara’s case. But as he draws closer to discovering the secret, and with the eyes of Reykjavík upon him, it soon becomes clear that Lara’s disappearance is a mystery that someone will stop at nothing to keep unsolved . . .
It’s a really entertaining crime thriller with several big surprising twists. The crime and politics combination is well-covered by the two authors (as you would expect given their backgrounds) and the eighties setting for most of the book is convincingly painted. I especially liked this reference to contemporary TV crime drama (not at all ironic):
The journalists took it in turns to share their opinions of music, films, TV and books. Valur had offered to write about the TV schedule and was intending to lavish praise on Bergerac, the British series about the Jersey detective who was a weekly guest on their screens.
It’s a bit of a page-turner and well worth a read.
Once again it is the time for compiling the assessments of the very best books of the year and despite widespread lack of interest in my preferences it nevertheless seemed absolutely essential to review all of my highest rated reads of the last 12 months.
Of the 70 or so books I’ve read this year most were decent and some were really excellent (although again no 5 star ratings in the past 12 months). There were a few re-visits to old favourites and again more than a couple of Mick Herrons.
So here is the summary of the reviews…
The Best of the Best
Not as many outstanding reads as last year but there were two classic novels and two more recent works that I found hugely enjoyable:
A life without freedom to choose is not worth having.
Godwin Baxter’s scientific ambition to create the perfect companion is realized when he finds the drowned body of the beautiful Bella, who he brings back to life in a Frankenstein-esque feat. But his dream is thwarted by Dr. Archibald McCandless’s jealous love for his creation…
But what does Bella think?
This story of true love and scientific daring whirls the reader from the private operating-theatres of late-Victorian Glasgow through aristocratic casinos, low-life Alexandria and a Parisian bordello, reaching an interrupted climax in a Scottish church.
With an excellent-sounding film coming out soon I was keen to re-read this one before seeing it. I had forgotten quite how bonkers and brilliant it is. A truly impressive and entertaining tale which reminds you what a fantastically creative and imaginative writer (and illustrator) Alasdair Gray was. Much missed.
William has a lot on his mind. Firstly, there’s The Alaska Factory, the band he plays in. They’re no good, and they make his songs sound about as groovy as an unimpressed record. In fact they’re so bad he’s seriously thinking of leaving to join a group called The Unfortunates.
Secondly, there’s Madeline, his high-maintenance girlfriend whose idea of a night of passion is an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical followed by a doorstep peck on the cheek. Maybe they’re not soulmates after all?
Lastly, there’s the bizarre murder he’s just witnessed. The guiding force behind The Unfortunates lies bludgeoned to death at his feet and, unfortunately for William, there aren’t too many other suspects standing nearby. . .
I bought this years ago but never got round to reading it, despite having read everything else he has written. It’s not Coe’s finest work but as a dark comedy it plays out pretty well with some entertaining twists.
Thomas Hardy’s novel of swift passion and slow courtship is imbued with evocative descriptions of rural life, and with unflinching honesty about sexual relationships. Its heroine, Bathsheba Everdene, takes up her position as a farmer on a large estate, where her confident presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, the soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each, in contrasting ways, unsettles her decisions and complicates her life, and when tragedy ensues, the stability of the whole community is threatened.
I’d intended to read this quite a few years ago and indeed started it back in 2015 just as a new film was released. However, I gave up and went to the cinema instead. Returning to it and this time finishing the book I was really pleased I did. It really is a classic I think with a great deal to recommend it. Bathsheba is a terrific character and each of her three suitors is well-drawn too. The narrative is a strong one and makes for an excellent read.
A round up of an entertaining bunch of crime and spy thrillers from recent months:
Ascension by Oliver Harris
Three friends from a mission many years ago reconnect when one of them dies on Ascension Island. Rory Bannatyne had been tasked with tapping a new transatlantic data cable, but a day before he was due to return home he is found hanged. When Kathryn Taylor begs Kane to go over and investigate, he can’t say no, but it’s an uneasy reintroduction to the intelligence game.
It’s a pretty compelling yarn – all the more suspenseful because of the exceptional location.
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Dead Man’s Folly by Agatha Christie
A charity murder game at a Devon house turns into the real thing…Sir George and Lady Stubbs, the hosts of a village fête, hit upon the novel idea of staging a mock murder mystery. In good faith, Ariadne Oliver, the well known crime writer, agrees to organise their murder hunt. Despite weeks of meticulous planning, at the last minute Ariadne calls her friend Hercule Poirot for his expert assistance. Instinctively, she senses that something sinister is about to happen…
What fun – Poirot and a made up murder hunt. Entirely predictably, bad things happen but you know who saves the day.
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Bloody January by Alan Parks
When a teenage boy shoots a young woman dead in the middle of a busy Glasgow street and then commits suicide, Detective Harry McCoy is sure of one thing. It wasn’t a random act of violence. With his new partner in tow, McCoy uses his underworld network to lead the investigation but soon runs up against a secret society led by Glasgow’s wealthiest family, the Dunlops.
It’s Laidlaw all over again. What’s not to like?
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
A Winter Grave by Peter May
A young meteorologist checking a mountain top weather station in Kinlochleven discovers the body of a missing man entombed in ice. Cameron Brodie, a Glasgow detective, sets out on a hazardous journey to the isolated and ice-bound village. He has his own reasons for wanting to investigate a murder case so far from his beat.
And he certainly has plenty of reasons. Set in the near future where climate change has had an impact and there are some technological advances, this is nevertheless a traditional crime thriller set in a very interesting location.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
Night Blind by Ragnar Jonasson
The peace of [a] 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.
Another tasty slice of Icelandic noir – more surprising goings on in a small and isolated and dark and wintry community.
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 2.5 out of 5.
The Stranger by Simon Conway
Things change quickly in the world of espionage and clandestine operations. Jude Lyon of MI6 remembers the captured terrorist bomb-maker. He watched him being flown off to Syria, back when Syria was ‘friendly’. No-one expected him to survive interrogation there. Yet the man is alive and someone has broken him out of jail. Bad news for the former foreign secretary who authorised his rendition. And Jude’s boss Queen Bee who knew he wasn’t a terrorist at all, but an innocent bystander. Now she calls Jude back from a dangerously enjoyable mission involving a Russian diplomat’s wife.
First part of a series of fast paced espionage thrillers with an entertainingly complicated plot.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
The Saboteur by Simon Conway
The Terrorist Guy Fowle, known as the Stranger, escapes from prison. A mysterious Russian hacker is murdered in London and his thumb cut off. At the heart of government, the Chancellor of the Exchequer is desperate to keep a secret. It’s a puzzle that Jude Lyon of MI6 must solve, and quickly. If he doesn’t the world will literally go up in flames.
Second outing for Jude Lyon sees him engage with another intriguing and complicated plot featuring an exceptionally challenging adversary.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
All good stuff then. I’m sure there will be plenty more in this vein next year.
On a rooftop in Elizabethan London two worlds collide. Shay is a messenger-girl and trainer of hawks who sees the future in the patterns of birds. Nonesuch is the dark star of the city’s fabled child theatre scene, as famous as royalty yet lowly as a beggar.
Together they create The Ghost Theatre: a troupe staging magical plays in London’s hidden corners. As their hallucinatory performances incite rebellion among the city’s outcasts, the pair’s relationship sparks and burns against a backdrop of the plague and a London in flames. Their growing fame sweeps them up into the black web of the Elizabethan court, where Shay and Nonesuch discover that if they fly too high, a fall is sure to come…
An entertaining take on the underworld (and overworld) of Elizabethan London with a great premise built around child theatre and its denizens. It’s a distinctive and unpredictable tale which manages to incorporate all the major notable historical events of the period. Strange and evocative and worth a read.
You wake up, your husband is dead and YOU are the prime suspect. Your children have been taken away, your life sent into freefall – and yet you can barely remember anything about the night you lost everything.
Ten years later you are released from prison. What do you do? Do you accept your fate, your conviction and leave your children to be raised by someone else?
Or do you stop at nothing to find out the truth about what really happened that night – and to get your family back?
It’s another gripping thriller from T M Logan who rather specialises in the fast-paced, hard-to-put-down page-turner with a big twist at the end. I’ve enjoyed all his previous ones and this for me is probably his best one yet.
One of the interesting angles in this tale is that the murderee is an MP and his wife, convicted as the murder, also worked for him in his constituency office (although must admit the erroneous reference to a general election in 2007 was surprising).
Anyway, it is a really good read and strongly recommended whether you have read any of its predecessors or not.
Prole Art Threat 