I rarely write reviews of crime fiction that I read. Not because I don’t like it (I wouldn’t read it then), but because for me reading crime fiction is my form of relax after more challenging books. Sometimes though a book is so good it needs to be shared. I did it before with fantastic books of Pierre Lemaitre and more than once with Jo Nesbo, because if you’re going to read crime fiction it better be good 😉

I read Snowblind few months ago, I think I got it on one of the Kindle Daily Deals, it sat on my reader for a while, but finally I got to it. I read it, loved it and was lucky because it was the first book in the series (I was not that lucky with Harry Hole, starting in the middle of the series and then going both directions). Recently when I was in Waterstones I saw Blackout and thought ‘why not?’ I haven’t read crime in a while and this one could be good stuff. I got lucky again, as this is the second book in the series (I forgot to check that in the bookstore).

Ari Thor still lives in Siglufjörður, fighting his claustrophobia and getting on with his personal life he managed to completely mess up. One day a body of a man beaten to death is found, the investigation begins, but it’s not just the police investigating. A young reporter travels north form Reykjavík to investigate on her own. The story has multiple sub-plots, characters are well developed and the social context is realistic and detailed. There are many motives for the murder, so suspects multiply, but all involved are also distracted by problems in their personal life, decisions they have to make, mistakes they’ve made in the past, the guilt, the anger…

That’s how a good crime fiction looks like!

This is book #11 of my 20 Books of Summer hosted by Cathy at 746books.

Photo by Violetta Kaszubowska