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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
a lovely mystery that comes together nicely. I can see why folks compare this to Agatha Christie’s work. I wish we got deeper into some of the characters and their relationships (and perhaps gotten into a darker series of crimes but alas). it was a great small town mystery with the stakes of exactly that
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Interesting to those, like me, have visited the locale. Otherwise a fairly standard police detective procedural. May give book 2 a try to see if character development hooks me
Such a sloooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwww book. I skipped from page 165 to the last two chapters and didn't really miss anything.
För en tid sedan hittade boken Snöblind hem till mig. Det händer inte så ofta nuförtiden. Tack till @modernistared som gläder mig med #bokpost nu och då. Jag har inte riktigt fastnat för Ragnar Jónassons tidigare böcker men läste många bra omdömen om den här så jag ville ge den en chans. Och det var som att kliva in i en Isländsk tv-serie. Piskande snöstormar, litet isolerat samhälle, två suspekta dödsfall. Vad mer behövs? Jag ser händelserna framför mig. Kan känna den nybakade polisen Aris ångest. Hör hur snön viner kring knutarna. Och det är nog det som gör att jag gillar boken. Själva mordhistorien/utredningen är inte orsaken till att jag fastnar, det är miljön, mörkret och mentaliteten. Får samma känsla som när jag tittar på Isländska serier. Och gillar. Kommer nog att läsa nästa del. Nu är jag ändå glad över att vårsolen lyser och snön smälter och ta mig an nästa bok i högen.
Ari Thór Arason is a new police recruit who has just got his first position within the police in a village called Siglufjördur in Northern Iceland. He moves there, leaving behind his girlfriend Kristín. He feels lonely, both parents are dead and he misses his girlfriend. He isn't sure if their relationship will survive him being away from Reykjavik.
He accepts the nickname of the Reverend in good faith when he realises it is public knowledge that he studied theology before going into the police force. But despite the affectionate term he feels very much an outsider especially when the two cases that they have to investigate have taken place in a village where everybody knows each other and everybody insists that there are no secrets. But Ari refuses to accept what he is told and continues to dig into the past.
It's very claustrophobic. I can't really imagine how I would feel to be trapped in a town by bad weather. Where the only way in and out is through a tunnel and an avalanche has made inaccessible. A feeling that must be so much worse when you don't know anybody and don't know who to trust.
I loved the way Ari would think of something or ask a question and you didn't find out straight away what he discovered. Just a little enticement to read a little bit more. And I loved to read about the Icelandic tradition regarding books at Christmas. It sounds wonderful. It is beautifully written (and translated by Quentin Bates) and I'm looking forward to reading the second book Night Blind very soon.
My copy is a limited edition signed hardback (no 134). It will be treasured.
He accepts the nickname of the Reverend in good faith when he realises it is public knowledge that he studied theology before going into the police force. But despite the affectionate term he feels very much an outsider especially when the two cases that they have to investigate have taken place in a village where everybody knows each other and everybody insists that there are no secrets. But Ari refuses to accept what he is told and continues to dig into the past.
It's very claustrophobic. I can't really imagine how I would feel to be trapped in a town by bad weather. Where the only way in and out is through a tunnel and an avalanche has made inaccessible. A feeling that must be so much worse when you don't know anybody and don't know who to trust.
I loved the way Ari would think of something or ask a question and you didn't find out straight away what he discovered. Just a little enticement to read a little bit more. And I loved to read about the Icelandic tradition regarding books at Christmas. It sounds wonderful. It is beautifully written (and translated by Quentin Bates) and I'm looking forward to reading the second book Night Blind very soon.
My copy is a limited edition signed hardback (no 134). It will be treasured.
I have to start by saying a massive thank you to Kate at Bibliophile Book Club for raving on about this authors books and making me take a chance on it.
Even though I have heard quite a lot of good things about this novel I was very dubious to try it for myself as I have to admit to not being a fan of novels that have been translated as find they don't always tend to flow very well. I had nothing to worry about though with this book as it flowed wonderfully.
The story itself is wonderfully atmospheric and beautifully written. The description of the small Icelandic village that Ari Thor ends up finding himself was very much brought to life by the author.
The whole storyline felt a bit like something out of Midsummer Murders apart from it being set in a small idyllic village in Iceland. It didn't have the feel of the gritty crime novels that I am used to reading but do you know what, I didn't mind. If anything it makes Snowblind very much stand out from other books in the same genre.
Ari Thor is fairly new to being a policeman and even though he is very much still 'wet behind the ears' I actually thought he did a pretty good job in his new role and out of all the the police officers in the village if anything was ever to happen to me it would certainly be Ari Thor I would want to be send to investigate.
Snowblind wasn't my normal fast paced crime read but that made me appreciate the beauty of this novel even more. Will certainly be adding Nightblind to my reading list as can't wait to see what is in store for Ari Thor.
Even though I have heard quite a lot of good things about this novel I was very dubious to try it for myself as I have to admit to not being a fan of novels that have been translated as find they don't always tend to flow very well. I had nothing to worry about though with this book as it flowed wonderfully.
The story itself is wonderfully atmospheric and beautifully written. The description of the small Icelandic village that Ari Thor ends up finding himself was very much brought to life by the author.
The whole storyline felt a bit like something out of Midsummer Murders apart from it being set in a small idyllic village in Iceland. It didn't have the feel of the gritty crime novels that I am used to reading but do you know what, I didn't mind. If anything it makes Snowblind very much stand out from other books in the same genre.
Ari Thor is fairly new to being a policeman and even though he is very much still 'wet behind the ears' I actually thought he did a pretty good job in his new role and out of all the the police officers in the village if anything was ever to happen to me it would certainly be Ari Thor I would want to be send to investigate.
Snowblind wasn't my normal fast paced crime read but that made me appreciate the beauty of this novel even more. Will certainly be adding Nightblind to my reading list as can't wait to see what is in store for Ari Thor.
This is a classic detective with mysterious murders happening in a small town although I expected more from it. The author has beautiful writing especially when he describes panic attacks of the main character Ari Thor but the plot turns out to be too small. For me, the book also paid too much attention to the personal life of Ari Thor, those pages could be spent on describing interesting details about the investigation. Although I haven't guessed who was guilty (the author did a good job in this) it still felt like the plot lacked some scale. I looked for something more like Jo Nesbo's 'Snowman' but 'Snowblind' does not provide that level of tension and mystery like Nesbo's books do. It's more focused on relations and family histories of people in a small town. It's still not bad as a detective but I expected more.
kinda dragged but i miss iceland so i'll prob read the rest of the series anyways
Murder mystery set in a very small and snowy town in northern Iceland. The story starts off very slow as our protagonist Ari Thor leaves the city and his girlfriend in it, to start his new job as a police officer in the north. It took me a lot of time to get into the story, but I somehow enjoyed it. I thought there were too many characters and no time for them to really develop. I didn’t really care for the two cases either. The solution was not groundbreaking or shocking, but it was alright.
I’m reluctant to be too critical about most books I read because I have a sincere appreciation for the amount of work that goes into writing a novel.
Snowblind, a thriller set in a remote northern coastal village of Iceland, had so much promise. But ultimately it fell flat for me because of the stilted and dumb-it-down writing style of the author, Ragnar Jonasson. I will give him a bit of a pass because this is his first book. But he did not give his readers credit for their intelligence and ends up describing in painfully bland play-by-play terms what is happening in the story—as if we can’t figure it out on our own. This is surprising because he is the English to Icelandic translator of 16 Agatha Christie’s books.
On a redeeming note, I enjoy stories where the place becomes a character in its own right, which is certainly the case here. I’m fond of Iceland and have spent time there in the winter so the foreboding, brooding nature of its weather was familiar to me and something I appreciated.
A rookie cop from Reykjavík comes to town and is mentored by the grizzled veteran. He leaves a girlfriend in the capital city and dallies with a local girl. There’s nothing to do in winter time and nothing ever happens here. Until it does. There were flashbacks to a murder from 20+ years earlier in another country that just didn’t seem to fit with the story. The relationships and back stories of the characters felt stilted and flat. The twist at the end felt more like a slight turn, a let down.
The book was worth finishing—as thrillers often are—but not energetically, which puts this at three stars for me. I found myself plodding through scenes that should have been keeping pace with their potential. There was just too much dead space and time in the book for the thriller it was trying to be.
Snowblind, a thriller set in a remote northern coastal village of Iceland, had so much promise. But ultimately it fell flat for me because of the stilted and dumb-it-down writing style of the author, Ragnar Jonasson. I will give him a bit of a pass because this is his first book. But he did not give his readers credit for their intelligence and ends up describing in painfully bland play-by-play terms what is happening in the story—as if we can’t figure it out on our own. This is surprising because he is the English to Icelandic translator of 16 Agatha Christie’s books.
On a redeeming note, I enjoy stories where the place becomes a character in its own right, which is certainly the case here. I’m fond of Iceland and have spent time there in the winter so the foreboding, brooding nature of its weather was familiar to me and something I appreciated.
A rookie cop from Reykjavík comes to town and is mentored by the grizzled veteran. He leaves a girlfriend in the capital city and dallies with a local girl. There’s nothing to do in winter time and nothing ever happens here. Until it does. There were flashbacks to a murder from 20+ years earlier in another country that just didn’t seem to fit with the story. The relationships and back stories of the characters felt stilted and flat. The twist at the end felt more like a slight turn, a let down.
The book was worth finishing—as thrillers often are—but not energetically, which puts this at three stars for me. I found myself plodding through scenes that should have been keeping pace with their potential. There was just too much dead space and time in the book for the thriller it was trying to be.