Snowblind

Ragnar is one the most successful contemporary crime authors hailing from Iceland, also as his series featuring rookie policeman Ari Thór Arnarson is not set in the urban sprawl of the Icelandic capital Reykjavík but instead in the small town of Siglufjörður on the north coast and provides fascinating insight into Icelandic topography, history, and culture of the remote regions of the country. Snowblind is the first of the series, a slow-burning but gripping whodunnit set in a Siglufjörður cut off from the rest of the country by avalanches and snowstorms...  

Ari Thor, the newbie policeman of this story, takes his first job at a remote outpost in the far north of Iceland. Almost immediately, he is confronted with the suspicious death of the chairman of the drama group in the small town. Everyone in the troupe is under suspicion, and there are many secrets for him to uncover. His piecing together of disparate clues is similar to the way I try to craft my mysteries with my amateur sleuth.  

Snowblind is Ragnar Jonasson's debut and the first book in the Dark Iceland series. Again, an author who knows perfectly how to evoke that moody, compelling Nordic Noir vibe. He paints a vivid picture of the isolated town of Siglufjordur in the far north, and the claustrophobic feeling that creeps in when residents are trapped in the city by a snowstorm. A great read that sometimes reminded me of Agatha Christie's locked room mystery The Mousetrap: a snowstorm, broken phone lines, and a bunch of people trapped with a murderer among them.