Quentin Bates

I can't remember when or where I picked this book up from but if I had to guess, I would say it must be a charity shop purchase as it's a bit beaten up. The fact that it is a Scandi/Nordic crime novel and set in Iceland must have been what appealed to me. What I was unaware of however, is the fact that this is the second book in a series and I have not read the first book. Despite this, when I selected the book from the jar I decided to give it a go and see how I got on with it.

The above synopsis sums the story up pretty well so there is little for me to add in this respect. The story hinges around the murder of Svana Geirs, a one-time minor celebrity who now runs a health club with connections to people with a bit of a shady past. The investigation involves an intricate web of dodgy deals and people from various different walks of life. All this is set against the backdrop of the financial crash and it's effect on Iceland as a society. This is a particularly interesting part to the story and something that really added a lot of depth to plot as a whole.

The writing is pretty good and I found that the book easy to read. I even managed to read the book in noisy environments which is something that I am often unable to do. The story is a bit plodding in places and there isn't a huge amount in the way of action. The lack of action isn't as issue to me as I find that the 'normal' detectives in these books often have super human recovery or strength at times of duress. The slow plot is a little frustrating in places, especially when it seems like Bates has gone off on a tangent to introduce a new character. This brings me on to the biggest issue with the book, the characters.

There are simply far too many characters in the book, several of which could have been dropped without detriment to the storyline in my opinion. I found myself a few times trying to work out who was being featured and this was further complicated by the Icelandic patronymic naming tradition. For example, the main character Gunna is actually called Gunnhildur Gisladottir and all the characters have two names which are interchanged throughout the book. This got a little confusing at times and had me flicking back at times until I had worked out what was going on. Whether reading the first book in the series would have eased this, I cannot say. It also felt like the ending came very abruptly, almost as if Bates had become bored.

Despite this, I enjoyed this book and I will keep an eye out of the first, and subsequent books in the series.… (meer)