The setting for this book is stunning. I even went to Google maps and checked the setting out. It took me a couple of false starts to get into this book. I think I read 2 other books just trying to get through the first 25% of this one. I'm glad I kept reading though because it was a heck of a mystery. I didn't care much for Ari Thor, but he grew on me, and I began to understand his thinking more. I'd definitely read more from this author. My thanks to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley.

This is a short, quick read in which no one is what they seem. Ari Thór Arason is an outsider, but as a cop, he is almost the property of the town. He is also a good guy but has many dark secrets and a barely concealed anger management problem. When his superior is shot, he will have to lead the investigation with the help of his former boss. They will dig under the surface of the apparently placid village, which is itself almost another character. Siglufjörður seems like a lovely place, surrounded by mountains on three sides and right by the sea, but the secrets that Ari Thór will discover are not as quaint as all that. Crooked politicians, drug dealers and a lot of personal drama are interspaced with excerpts of a diary written by a very disturbed person. How this will come into play is a surprising development. The ending is unexpected and very dark. Just like the long winter nights in this Icelandic village.

See link to goodreads review

Small town murder mysteries are among some of my favorite reads, and Nightblind by Ragnar Jónasson didn't disappoint.  The story is fast-paced and full of unpredictable turns.  This is one of those novels in which I did not guess who had done it, yet the surprise ending felt natural and not forced.

The characters are interesting and well developed, too.  I especially liked Ari Thór who struggled to balance his job with his home life.  He was doing everything he could to find the murderer, but at the same time, he wanted to please his wife who thought he should be at home more often.  To be truthful, I thought that his wife was kind of a bitch.  After all, the guy is in the middle of a murder investigation!  Cut him some slack!

The other thing I liked about the book was the looming presence of winter.  The season is almost like another character.  Everyone is concerned about the upcoming cold, snow, and darkness.  This gives the book an eerie atmosphere, almost as if the tiny Icelandic town is cut off from the rest of the world.  I wasn't exactly scared when I read this book, but I felt a certain malevolence throughout it.

The only part of the book that didn't agree with me was the ending.  Like I said before, I was surprised by the end, but it fell flat.  I was expecting more cat-and-mouse tension.  However, the events draw to a close quite suddenly and then...nothing.  All the buildup in the story dissipated without an explosion leaving me wanting more.

Overall, though, I enjoyed this book.  I didn't realize that Nightblind was the second book in a series, but it worked well as a stand alone.  I am definitely interested in reading the other books as well.  Jónasson is a terrific writer and a great storyteller.  Thanks to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the review copy.

Ari Thór Arason is still policing in Siglufjörður, despite the claustrophobic winters. Just now, he is grappling with having lost out on a major promotion. When the successful candidate is discovered near death in a bloody heap, Ari Thór must find his attacker.

The entire country of Iceland is shocked by the shooting of Inspector Herjólfur in the small town of Siglufjörður. The inspector has been shot down outside an abandoned house with a violent history.

Ari Thór Arason , the policeman, who missed out on the promotion to inspector that went to Herjólfur, is home sick with the flu when he gets the call-out by the inspector's wife who has not been able to contact him.

It comes as a great shock when Ari Thór realzes if it hadn't been for the flu he might have been the one shot since Herjólfur was covering his shift.

Ari Thór old boss, Tómas, is brought back to head the investigation into the shooting. They quickly fall into their old rhythm, although Ari Thór finds himself thinking more independently, a surprising change for him.

As with any book set in Iceland, the landscape becomes a major player in the story, setting a dark atmosphere of claustrophobia and isolation in this small northern town.

The pace is slow as the investigators slowly build their case despite the red herrings, one of which has consequences to Ari Thór's home life where he is settled into a happy life with his girlfriend and new son.

The story is interwoven with the journal of a new patient in a psychiatric ward. It's not until the end that we are given the the patient's name and the main reason he has been committed.

The story follows the lines of a classic mystery. Other than our access to the journal we know no more than the detectives. We are swept up in their investigation as they methodically investigate all leads, even those that lead to powerful politicians.

Plot and story is key with Ragnar Jónasson. His characters are well delineated, but don't take center stage, nor do their personal stories, but neither are they ignored. As mentioned, setting is important, but not overwhelming.

A very satisfying read, with fans hoping for translations of the other books in the series.

I am a big fan of Nordic mysteries and I was so looking forward to reading this book! It is about the murder of a police officer that takes place in a small northern town in Iceland. I love the Icelandic setting and the bonus by the author's grandfather after the book. I had not yet read anything by this author and it is so exciting to discover a new series! I found it an easy and interesting read. Ari Thorn and all of the characters are very likable and I am so looking forward to reading more by this author.

2.5 Stars

I felt this could have been a great Icelandic thriller, but there were just too many issues I had with it. For one, there were at least 7 POVs and many of them we could have done without as they had nothing to do with the mystery of who killed a police officer. Secondly, while I liked that the author tried to put red herrings in, a lot of them were too long winded for my liking. Still, I enjoyed getting to see Iceland through this book.

Nightblind by Ragnar Jónasson

Iceland is a country known for its arts and culture, liberal social attitudes, education, natural wonders, and low crime rate. It is also has the fifteenth highest level of gun ownership in the world per capita. When a police officer is shot one night in Siglufjörður, exactly one-half of the police force of this small town is injured while on duty. Ari Thór Arason is alarmed that his superior officer has been critically wounded but at the same time, he is aware that he could have been the one rushed to the hospital, since he was supposed to have been on duty that night, except that he was home sick with the flu. There is also the underlying regret about the cool relationship he has had with his new boss. Why, he wonders, was Herjólfur at an abandoned home late that night? The more obvious question: Who shot him?

We first met Ari Thór in Ragnar Jónasson’s Snowblind. Now, in Nightblind, the local officer has settled in with girlfriend Kristín and their infant son. When his boss moved to Reykjavik, Ari Thór had hoped to be promoted, but Herjólfur was hired instead. Tómas is called in from the capital to command the investigation. He seems more self-assured (and even a tad pushy) now than before, and his fellow officer both welcomes his experience and is a bit bothered, because he, too, has gained confidence in his own abilities and has his own ideas about how to proceed. Nevertheless, the two men get along well enough. They roll up their sleeves and get to work questioning witnesses.

Interspersed between the dark scenes in Siglufjörður are strange, puzzling messages from another voice. This was disconcerting at first until I realized that these were journal entries written by a patient at a mental hospital. A mystery within the mystery! Who is this person? How does he – or she – figure into the events in Siglufjörður? Was this patient writing in the present, or perhaps decades earlier? Each successive note revealed a bit more but not quite enough...

Jónasson moves the plot along slowly but surely, setting up conflicts, questions, clues, and red herrings. A few suspects emerge, but the tone is mostly low key, except when two police officers burn the midnight oil to solve the crime, because shootings, especially of law enforcement personnel, are so rare in Iceland.

We do get to know Ari Thór better in this second book of the Dark Iceland series. That’s not an easy task, because he is a quiet man with a secret that he doesn’t share, not even with Kristín. It has to do with his father, and his lack of sharing is partly responsible for the tension in their relationship. He feels the tension, yet he is afraid to ask...But as we know, relationships are a two-way street, and the author shows us Kristín’s discomfort as well. Yet, Ari Thór does not strike me as someone who is totally comfortable in his own skin. His manner of questioning civilians and suspects in the shooting inquiry seems forced and awkward. I look forward to seeing how this character develops in future novels.

There are other characters who strike me as uniquely Icelandic, at least, as people I would imagine to be individuals who put up with the cold, the darkness, and the isolation of a fishing village. They are strong, stoic, and efficient. It really did not surprise me that there are some who succumb to the darkness, the damp, and the cold of this northern land. More than one resident of this tightly knit community has a secret. But which of them is desperate enough to kill a policeman? Perhaps the journal holds the key?

I found myself enjoying Nightblind much more than Snowblind, and I will probably continue reading the series. I wish to thank NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

4 stars

**I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review**

I feel I wasn’t given a fair chance at enjoying what otherwise may have been an entertaining read. Allow me to explain. This was an ARC read for me and with ARCs we are told to ignore errors such as grammar, punctuation, spelling, and the like. They will presumably be fixed before the final edition. That’s fine with me… usually. But my copy of this book was so riddled with errors it made reading it a difficult challenge.

The major problem was the formatting. Try reading
a book that
acts like this

on numerous occasions and
then tell me you can en-
joy it.

And by the way… I’m not exaggerating here. Page after page had truncated lines, inconsistent spacing, no breaks before new chapters begin, some chapters I swear weren’t even numbered, and the final straw… going from 54% back to 47% and needing to flip back to where you actually were in the book! Just too much to overcome.

The story itself was pretty much what I expected from the genre—very thematic with lots of difficult to pronounce names and a general sense of foreboding. The characters were well drawn and the story itself interesting enough. Although I felt the ending was a little rushed. Given the page count is in the low 200s the hurried ending seemed an odd choice to me.

Overall I’d give this a 2.5 stars and round up to 3.

This second in a series will appeal to my customers who love Nordic mysteries, I love the Icelandic setting and the wide array of interesting characters as Ari Thor investigates the murder of a policeman, It's dark, Nordic noir will sell well during the holiday season.

I'm a big fan of Nordic mysteries so this was a welcome new voice for me! Taking place in Iceland, the novel centers around the seemingly senseless murder of a policeman found at an abandoned house. There appear to be few clues so Ari Thor has little to go on as he begins the investigation. Initially interviewing family members proves fruitless so he must turn to others in the community for help. Intertwined with excerpts from a young man confined to a psychiatric ward, the mystery unravels slowly with some shocking conclusions. I enjoyed it from start to finish!

Ragnar Jonasson's second mystery translated into English is an elegant and engaging tale that picks up a few years after his debut SNOWBLIND, with Ari Thór Arason having had several adventures in between. His roller-coaster relationship with his girlfriend Kristin is back on, in fact the couple have a baby son together. Not that domestic life is bliss - far from it, actually.

Ari Thór missed out on a promotion when his old mentor Tómas climbed the police ladder and moved south for a role in Reykjavik. Instead, it is Herjólfur who runs the show in their small town of Siglufjörður. So when Ari Thór is off sick with the flu, Herjólfur answers a call to a deserted house on the outskirts of town. Instead of discovering or stopping a crime, though, Herjólfur becomes one; he is caught full force by a shotgun blast in the darkness.

Was Herjólfur set up for ambush, or was it Ari Thór who was the intended target? Just what is going on in a country with so few murders, when a policeman is gunned down?

As media and politicians swirl, desperate for answers and progress, Ari Thór and Tómas struggle to find any leads at all. Will the perpetrator of this random act of violence escape justice? And just what is being hidden by the new mayor and his deputy, an out-of-towner with a mysterious past?

Ragnar Jonasson has crafted an exquisite tale that is as crisp and chilling as the snow and ice surrounding Siglufjörður. His prose is sleek, evocative without being verbose. The story glides along, fascinating and full of twists and turns. Ari Thór comes across as a very human, rounded character. He's a competent small-town cop, but no superhero. His life is both simple and complicated.

In a way, NIGHTBLIND harkens back to those 'violent crime in a peaceful setting' tropes of classic mystery fiction, or television programmes like Murder, She Wrote and Midsomer Murders. Siglufjörður is a small town unused to deadly violence, where connections run deep, known and secret. A less verdant Cabot Cove. But at the same time, there's a contemporary feel to Jonasson's storytelling - NIGHTBLIND feels more timeless, rather than old-fashioned.

Threaded throughout Ari Thór's investigation is the journal of a young man in psychiatric ward, and the tension is delicious as we wonder just how this young man fits into things. Who is he, why is he in the asylum, and rather importantly, when? Is he still there now?

Jonasson does a great job when it comes to drip-feeding information, building suspense and crafting a lovely plot, in among his nice touch for setting and character. Backstory is revealed organically, never through over-expository word-dumps in dialogue or description. Although NIGHTBLIND is a shorter novel compared to many nowadays, I never felt short-changed. It is a tale well-constructed and well-told, layering in plenty of character, theme, and social issues. Smooth but substantial.

Arnaldur Indridason may be the king of Icelandic noir and Yrsa Sigurdardottir the queen, but Jonasson shows with his series that he's a Crown Prince, more than ready to ascend the throne

I liked the way Ragnar made Ari Thór's character change from dense to smart over the whole story line and it was very life like with his getting angry, jealous, and then serious. I can relate to that. The whole Herjólfur family seems to have been terribly brutal in their everyday life and Ari Thór's excellent thinking put the brakes to it .

It was quite noir in that Ari Thór's life was in turmoil with his female partner,Kristin and their new son, Stefnir. He couldn't control his jealousy. I think that this was a very telling book on how people work out their problems and then face the music bad or good. We can use this in the U.S.. I will recommend this book to my readers highly.