Kalmann

This was a beautifully written murder mystery set in a dying fishing village in the north of Iceland. The narrator, Kalmann, is an intriguing character. He is a shark fisherman who stumbles across a body in the snow.

At times he is variously funny, frustrating, sad, and untrustworthy. He hints at past mysteries without fully revealing what they are, or the part he played in them. I read a lot of murder mysteries, and this is the one that has stuck in my mind throughout the year.

I wasn’t sure I’d read this book, which arrived as part of a two-books-a-month plan from a local bookshop. But the cover said it was an Icelandic mystery, which sounded promising, so I started reading the first chapter and quickly devoured the rest.

The book is by turns funny, captivating, insightful, and heartwarming, and I loved it.

Kalmann, a simple soul known in his Icelandic village as "The Sheriff" because of his penchant for wearing a cowboy hat, is wise beyond expectation. When he tells of finding a pool of blood, and then the rich man of the village is… show more.