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jdurkan91's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
slow-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? It's complicated
3.0
Snowblind - Snjóblinda / Ragnar Jónasson
⭐️⭐️⭐️
~ Tension in the air could sometimes be palpable, but never as overwhelming as it was that Friday evening in the Siglufjörður theatre. But this time there was no production taking place and the auditorium was empty. What he and Tómas - both of them on duty that night - could not avoid was the body… ~
From Rekyjavík to Siglufjörður, we are back with a new Icelandic series by Jónasson. Our new hero is Ari Thór, a new policeman who moves from the capital to a rural area in his first assignment.
While enjoyable, this took a while to get into. When it got to the second half it picked up and enjoyed more. It was good to see it from the perspective of a naïve rookie who left everything to take this job.
The mystery that came was alright, after Hulda it seemed very slow in places, and the love triangle yeah it was there. But mostly this was Ari Thór’s story of fitting in. The landscape tells a lot of the story. Always night, always dark, snow defining the world.
From the ending I am dying to get into the next one. That epilogue was wild. Like most first books in a series, this is all introductions and world building. So I’m hoping for better things to come.
Audiobook Length: 8hrs, 50mins
Narrator: Thor Kristjansson
Translator: Quentin Bates
🎧 Listened to on Borrowbox 🎧
- Read: 23/01/25 - 26/01/25
- Release Date: 2010 (Icelandic)
cacicula's review against another edition
4.0
La novela es capaz de crear un clima de pueblo pequeño y rutina que se hace muy real si has vivido en un sitio. Hay cosas que no se entienden igual por la diferencia del carácter islandés pero no son importantes.
taylor_doose's review
1.25
I had been looking forward to this book for ages but it just didn't deliver what I was expecting. The characters were boring, the story was slow, the cold, snow and darkness didn't come through.
I'd recommend Into Thin Air for someone that would wants a cold, snowy thriller.
I'd recommend Into Thin Air for someone that would wants a cold, snowy thriller.
readbooks10's review against another edition
4.0
This is the first book in a mystery series set in Iceland. When Ari Thor is offered his first police officer job in a remote area of the country, he takes it without much deliberation - he doesn't even tell his girlfriend in Reykjavik before accepting. After arriving in the far north town of Siglufjordur, he's told that nothing ever happens there and people don't need to lock their doors, but Ari Thor soon learns that everyone in the small community knows each other's business. Ari Thor struggles to adapt to the remote landscape, the constant snow, the mountains that make him feel claustrophobic and loneliness of being separated from his girlfriend. Then a mysterious death occurs of a member of the town's dramatic club while staging a production later followed by another death. Ari Thor becomes absorbed in the cases, partly to take his mind off the weather, and eventually solves the mysteries. The book is written from multiple points of view and the reader learns a little bit about various characters, most of whom have experienced some type of loss. This well-written mystery builds slowly with the characteristic dark yet subtle style of many Nordic/Scandinavian crime novels.
savrola2025's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
girlkatski's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
adnar1m's review against another edition
3.0
Wel oké. Vervelend dat de namen van de mensen in het boek (voor mij) zoveel op elkaar lijken. Het idee van het verhaal is goed, maar soms wat vergezocht. Het nodigt me niet uit om verder te lezen in deel 2.
marisolea's review against another edition
4.0
Es lentito, pero no está nada mal. Y claustrofóbico, tanta nieve aquí parece inimaginable y ellos viven con ella con más o menos facilidad. La intriga está bien llevada y no deja cabos sueltos, no hay demasiada sangre ni hay vísceras, lo cual es de agradecer porque últimamente más que thrillers eran casquerías.
Y sin embargo, una cosa q me ponía un poquito de los nervios, es que constantemente llamen al protagonista Ari Thór, es como si se llamara aquí José Manuel, digamos que no pega un nombre así para un poli a la búsqueda de su primer asesino :-). Aunque al final te explican los traductores el por qué, yo habría puesto esa nota al principio.
Y sin embargo, una cosa q me ponía un poquito de los nervios, es que constantemente llamen al protagonista Ari Thór, es como si se llamara aquí José Manuel, digamos que no pega un nombre así para un poli a la búsqueda de su primer asesino :-). Aunque al final te explican los traductores el por qué, yo habría puesto esa nota al principio.
valparaiso's review against another edition
3.0
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.