After the plodding start to the first book in the Officer Gunnhilder series of novels, the series settles down with the second story. Gunna has a new job in the serious crime unit and it is a bloody, complex tale with a body count high enough to make other fictional dectives quite jealous.
Quentin Bates has found his voice and captures the character of the Icelandic people in the aftermath of the recent financial crash. What the book lacks though is the landscape of Iceland.
This is a city story and takes place in the urban environment. The opening chapter of the first book showed us that he can make us feel the cold of the natural landscape, and I hope that in a future book we might get to see, and feel, that side of this northern thriller.
And as to the title of the book? Yes, you are kept guessing to the very last page to find out the significance. It’s worth the wait though.
