I was attracted to this book because of the cover and the wonderful tagline: 'Lies. Manipulation. Murder. There's nothing quite like family.' How could I resist that?

Helga Finnsdottir lives with her adoptive parents, Viking warlord Unnthor Reginsson and his wife Hildigunnar, in a remote valley. It is rumoured Unnthor possesses a great treasure chest of gold, obtained during his previous career of raiding and pillaging, but Unnthor is admitting nothing. Unfortunately Unnthor's three sons and his daughter have come to visit for the summer, and they all have an eye on a share of the gold. When tensions spiral out of control, and someone is found murdered, it is up to Helga to find the culprit before an innocent life is taken.

Kin is basically a Viking murder mystery, although with the power struggles between the family members, and the manipulations of Hildigunnar, it did sometimes remind me of The Godfather. There are a lot of characters: Unnthor's three sons and his daughter, plus their wives and husband. The story does takes its time to explain who everyone is and set up possible motives for murder - which doesn't take place until about 40% into the story. This might be a minus for some readers, but I enjoyed the setting up of time and place, and all the details of Viking life. The dialogue is a bit 21st century, but that didn't bother me either.

I loved the characters, especially Helga and her adoptive parents (when I wasn't thinking about The Godfather, the mum and dad out of Brave kept popping into my head), but I did get confused between the various wives of Helga's adoptive brothers. The murder victim wasn't who I was expecting it to be and I didn't guess the identity of the murderer either. As I read a lot of crime novels, this is always a plus for me!

I thought Kin was brilliant! I really enjoyed reading something so different, and I'm definitely going to look out for the next book in the series.


I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of this book, which will be published on 8th March 2018.

Thank you to Snorri Kristjansson, Quercus and NetGalley for my copy of this book, which I received in exchange for an honest review.

A ho-hum whodunit set in a Viking longhouse that failed to hold my interest. The use of the time period/Viking culture seems to me to be scant dressing for a very rudimentary plot. The characters are all so thoroughly unpleasant it is hard to care about a single one of them. Furthermore there is no one moment that allows the reader to empathise or identify with any one of them - suspect, victim or otherwise. They are all so obviously capable of bumping off any, and possibly every, member of their own family at the drop of a hat. It is the lack of ambiguity in the characters that prevents any significant tension from building. There are no grey areas and therefore little pleasure in the pondering, the guessing, the being shocked by the twist, the satisfaction at the reveal. The main character is bland and instantly forgotten. The storyline took an age to get going and went next to nowhere (literally and figuratively) The writing was solid but the anachronistic language was jarring and irritating. Also the lack of convincing atmosphere of the setting/time period reduced the level of immersion I usually enjoy in novels of this nature. All that said, it is a fairly entertaining affair if somewhat under-realized.

Kin, from Snorri Kristjansson is a story of family, and what ties them together. Old grudges and old wounds, for certain, and if they’re bound by blood, that blood can also be spilled. It’s a detective story set in the era of Viking raiders, one where a glowering sky enfolds a group as much in bloody thrall to their pasts as enraptured by family affection. If the combination of Vikings, mystery and murder sound good, then this is the book for you.

This is a starker world, one where a household is one of the core units, where what can be farmed is the limit of one’s landholding. Kristjansson evokes the atmosphere of the period with remarkable skill. The crystal blue skies, the sense of isolation, the mixture of self-reliance and reliance on the settlement group. The farmland sits in a wider landscape with a stark beauty, giving a unique blend of humanity and wilderness at a time when that demarcation wasn’t yet fully realised. There’s a wonderful liminality to the setting as well; the Gods of the Norse have a presence here which is almost physical, their existence felt and accepted, if never entirely seen. The role of religion, of faith, is expored somewhat here as well – as a driver for peoples motivations, as a means of social control, and in its own purity and simplicity. Whether or not the Gods are real, this is a world which accepts that they are, and that acceptance permeates the thoughts and actions of the characters.

And what characters they are. Our focus is Helga Finnsdottir, the incisive ward of the Reginsson family. Helga is clever, certainly, but also capable of being smoothly charming and acting quickly. She carries some insecurities around her own position in the family, and those facets of self doubt are ones the text doesn’t shy away from. But she’s a solid investigator, one with an interest in the truth, even as she starts digging into family secrets. If Helga isn’t all sweetness and light, she’s certainly forceful enough to carry the reader along with her, and her own weaknesses are ones it’s easy to empathise with. One of the strands explored in the text is that of agency – as women, Helga and her female relatives could have been seen as marginalised, but here they’re a very active part of the family; while Helga carries some of the aura of an outsider, not tied to the family by bonds of blood, her adopted mother is a force of nature, one always able to achieve her goals through putting the right word in the right ear, through shared history or careful construction of narrative. That soft power is backed up by Reginsson, an ex-raider, now aging but still powerful in his own raw physicality. The Reginsson partnership is one of the highlights of the text – a match which clearly has decades of affection behind it, alongside a clarity born of experience, and a ruthlessness likewise.

But there’s a swarm of other characters here as well, as the Reginsson family comes together. The raiding son, with an eye for wine and another for women. The second son, a tower of a man with old wounds from his brother. The third son, a farmer, who may be carrying his own demons. The daughter, a vicious fighter with schemes of her own (and a husband from as far away as Sweden!). The Reginsson children are a complex bunch of marauders, and there’s always a sense - in the dialogue, in the way they pass each other mead, in who goes to do chores with whom - that they have their own agendas at play. Once the initial barrage of names is over, they swiftly grow their own personalities, sympathetic and otherwise, stepping out of our cultural preconceptions of the period to become living, breathing, scheming, stabbing, screaming, plotting, charming, friendly, murderous people.

To be honest, I would have been happy with Kin if it had just been a memoir of the Norse. The family dynamics, the close knit, often tense, occasionally poisonous relationships wrapped inside bonds of blood and affection make this an absolutely cracking family drama. But it’s a murder mystery too. For the sake of spoilers, I won’t say any more – but the mystery is carefully constructed and plausible, and the resolution reasonable, with a solid emotional payoff. It’s the relationships between characters which make the stakes, and make the situation feel real – and they’re top-notch. Somewhere in the dizzying spirals of ties between families is a killer, but quite who it is – in a world where violence floats close to the surface – is another question.

Anyway, Kin. Do you want to read it? The pagan Norse period may not be for everyone, but here it’s given surpassing depth and integrity. The characters are complex and believable, and the central mystery one which rewards careful reading – and working it out alongside Helga was great fun. If you’re in a Scandi-noir mood, and willing to leap back through the centuries, then this is a book which will reward a reading; I, for one, look forward to the further adventures of Helga Finnsdottir.

A departure for Snorri Kristjansson here. Well, not that much of a departure - this is still very much about Vikings, but it has quite a different feel from the Swords Of Good Men books. There are no epic voyages (in fact, the whole thing takes place on one farmstead), and no magic or Norse Gods (weeeeeelll, almost no Norse Gods...). The main attraction for me was the evocation of domestic life in Viking times, which was convincing and interesting, with the push and pull of honour and hearth. At heart though this is a crime novel, a murder mystery where family tensions spill over into bloodshed. It's every Christmas Day dinner argument you've ever had turned up to eleven. With knives. A good read, and with a second book already promised, this could be a series to look out for,

I really enjoyed the premise of Kin, and I liked the way Kristjansson wove the story of this divided family. All the drama was excellent; however, I struggled to connect to the mystery side of things. I felt no tension or expectation over the murders, and had little interest in Helga's investigation, aside from how it related to unravelling the relationships between the family members. That said, the prose was easy, pleasant reading, and the characters were well drawn, so I am still giving the book four stars. If you enjoy historical fiction with a murder mystery twist, this is a book you'll want to check out.