1955. Two young couples move to the uninhabited, isolated fjord of Hedinsfjörður. Their stay ends abruptly when one of the women meets her death in mysterious circumstances. The case is never solved. Fifty years later an old photograph comes to light, and it becomes clear that the couples may not have been alone on the fjord after all…
In nearby Siglufjörður, young policeman Ari Thór tries to piece together what really happened that fateful night, in a town where no one wants to know, where secrets are a way of life. He’s assisted by Ísrún, a news reporter in Reykjavik, who is investigating an increasingly chilling case of her own. Things take a sinister turn when a child goes missing in broad daylight. With a stalker on the loose, and the town of Siglufjörður in quarantine, the past might just come back to haunt them.
I am sure Ragnar must have read my mind after I finished the last book of his I’d read as I was praying to find out more about the intriguing character of Isrun whom he had introduced in Blackout. So I was delighted when I read the blurb for Rupture to discover that Isrun plays a role in this book too.
Ari Thor seems a much quieter, thoughtful man in Rupture – after the rash decisions and actions he had made in regards to his private life in the last book, Ari seems to be taking life steadier especially when the town of Siglufjordour is put under quarantine due to the outbreak of a highly infectious disease. It is due to the restriction of his movements that he asks Isrun for her help in finding out information about a potentially unsolved murder from over 50 years earlier.
This is a classic locked room mystery where there is only a certain amount of suspects to choose from and the discovery of the solution is just pure magic. This series of books is fast becoming one of my favourites that I’ve read in the genre in a long time. They are intimate without being stifling, simple without being facile and elegant without being pretentious.
This series is opening my eyes about a country I know very little about and I particularly appreciated the pronunciation guide at the beginning of this book as I discovered I’d been pronouncing a lot of names incorrectly in my head!
I urge every reader who enjoys traditional Golden Age crime mixed with modern-day sensibilities to give this series a try. I can’t wait to see what the future lies in store for the characters in these books and the author. Beautifully evocative of place and character, these books are a pure delight to read.
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