Monday, July 23, 2012

Far North-Michael Ridpath

Far North


Michael Ridpath

Minotaur, Aug 7 2012, $25.99

ISBN: 9780312675042



In 2009 during the pots-and-pans revolution, unemployed banker Harpa Einarsdóttir accidentally kills her former boss Gabriel Örn. Several months later in London, someone shoots to death Icelandic banker Óskar Gunnarsson, who was under investigation for fraud. Other assassinations follow.



On loan to the Icelandic police because of his family’s roots, Boston PD detective Magnus Jonson is assigned to the inquiry into Gunnarrsson’s murder. He seeks a link between that death and the accidental death of Örn. However, the murder of his Icelandic expatriate father several years ago in Boston still disturbs Magnus who is unaware that the tie to his dad’s killing goes back to 1934 with what two young boys witnessed.



The financial meltdown in Iceland serves as the impetus for an exhilarating police procedural (see Where the Shadows Lie) as a nation of 300,000 suspects exist with rage against the banking elite. The investigation to excellent while Magnus works the case but struggles with what happened to his dad as he has never found closure. Readers will relish this strong Icelandic whodunit as the cops, who lost big time to the crisis, sympathize with the vigilante.



Harriet Klausner



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