Posted on September 20, 2025 by Chat About Books · 5 Comments

Snowblind (Dark Iceland Book 1) by Ragnar Jónasson (Author) Quentin Bates (Translator) @ragnarjo @OrendaBooks

Snowblind (Dark Iceland Book 1)

by Ragnar Jónasson (Author), Quentin Bates (Translator)

I won the first five books in the Dark Iceland series some years ago now and I’m so glad I’ve finally had a chance to start reading them.

What a start to a new series Snowblind is!

Ari Thór Arason is a likable character. A rookie policeman who accepts a first job in Siglufjörður without consulting his girlfriend (she is not happy) and moves away without properly sorting out their relationship.

Typically, a town where not much happens and no-one locks their doors, Ari Thor soon finds himself thrown in at the deep end with two investigations whilst also managing to jeopardise his relationship further by easily having his head turned by a local woman.

The relentless snow and continuous darkness of Siglufjörður is quite claustrophobic for the residents and for the reader. I could easily imagine the oppressive atmosphere and how it would take some getting used to.

I enjoyed the police procedural aspects of this story along with getting to know Ari Thor and his colleagues. I do enjoy an insight into their personal lives as well as enjoying a good mystery.

Fast-paced, tense, and suspenseful. I loved it!

I have already started book 2, Blackout. I’m invested in these characters now.

Siglufjörður: an idyllically quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland, where no one locks their doors – accessible only via a small mountain tunnel.

Ari Thór Arason: a rookie policeman on his first posting, far from his girlfriend in Reykjavik – with a past that he’s unable to leave behind.

When a young woman is found lying half-naked in the snow, bleeding and unconscious, and a highly esteemed, elderly writer falls to his death in the local theatre, Ari is dragged straight into the heart of a community where he can trust no one, and secrets and lies are a way of life.

An avalanche and unremitting snowstorms close the mountain pass, and the 24-hour darkness threatens to push Ari over the edge, as curtains begin to twitch, and his investigation becomes increasingly complex, chilling and personal. Past plays tag with the present and the claustrophobic tension mounts, while Ari is thrust ever deeper into his own darkness – blinded by snow, and with a killer on the loose.

Taut and terrifying, Snowblind is a startling debut from an extraordinary new talent, taking Nordic Noir to soaring new heights.

Snowblind:10th Anniversary Edition: including NEW Dark Iceland series prequel, Fadeout.

Happy reading!

Posted on September 16, 2025 by Chat About Books · 2 Comments

The Woman in the Moonlight by Patricia Morrisroe

The Woman in the Moonlight

by Patricia Morrisroe

The Woman in the Moonlight is a beautifully written novel set in Vienna in the early 1800s.

Eighteen-year-old Julie Guicciardi begins taking piano lessons with Ludwig van Beethoven and quickly becomes enamoured with him. He is drawn to her too, but circumstances prevent them from marrying.

Julie is encouraged to marry someone else. However, her husband is unable to give her children so substitute sperm donors (for want of better words) are arranged. The first against Julie’s will, which turned my stomach. I can’t even imagine! The things that went on behind closed doors back in those days are quite shocking, especially within supposedly well-to-do households. The man who eventually fathers her children is much less heinous, and Julie grows to love him although they could never be together. She made a promise to his wife. His wife who arranged for her to have his child as she was unable to do so. Honestly, it seems that it was all going on back then!

Anyway, the story centres around Beethoven, his troubles, and Julie’s unending love for him. How she keeps finding her way back to him, whatever else is going on her life. Goodness knows why really as he isn’t very nice to her for the most part, but he captivates her, and she can’t help her affection for him. And I think he loved her in his own way.

Based on the true events of Beethoven’s life, I found this story compelling. I didn’t know much about him previously. He is a fascinating if not entirely likable man who struggled in his later years having to face going deaf. Particularly devastating for a musician.

It is an unlikely love story. One that certainly endures. I really enjoyed it.

A stirring and romantic historical novel about nineteenth-century Vienna and the tragedy and dynamic passion that inspired Ludwig van Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.

Vienna, 1800. Countess Julie Guicciardi’s life is about to change forever. The spirited eighteen-year-old is taking piano lessons with Ludwig van Beethoven, the most talented piano virtuoso in the musical capital of Europe. She is captivated by his volatile genius, while he is drawn to her curiosity and disarming candor. Between them, a unique romance. But Beethoven has a secret he’s yet to share, and Julie is harboring a secret of her own, one so scandalous it could destroy their perfect love story.

When Beethoven discovers the truth, he sets his emotions to music, composing a mournful opus that will become the Moonlight Sonata. The haunting refrain will follow Julie for the rest of her life.

Set against the rich backdrop of nineteenth-century Vienna, The Woman in the Moonlight is an exhilarating ode to eternal passion. An epic tale of love, loss, rivalry, and political intrigue. A stirring portrait of a titan who wrestled with the gods and a woman who defied convention to inspire him.

Happy reading!

Posted on September 5, 2025 by Chat About Books

Coming Up Trumps: A Memoir by Jean Trumpington

Coming Up Trumps: A Memoir

by Jean Trumpington

What a fascinating lady who led a remarkable life! I admit that I didn’t know who she was before I read this book. I must have picked it up at a book sale somewhere as I love a good memoir and I’m glad I did as it was highly entertaining!

Told with candour and wit it very much reads like you’re sitting with her over tea and cake whilst she regales you with stories from her life. And what a life! A mostly charmed childhood, a land girl followed by work at Bletchley Park. A successful marriage, motherhood, a political career, and a stint as the mayor. There isn’t much she didn’t pack in to her 96 years! This book takes us past her 90^th Birthday as she determines to continue to enjoy her life to the max whilst she can. Quite the inspiration with a cracking character! She also loved Staffordshire pottery so she’s alright by me 😉

I hope she is resting in peace after her very long and full life.

Forthright, witty and deliciously opinionated, Jean Trumpington’s Coming Up Trumps is a wonderfully readable account of a life very well lived.

In this characteristically trenchant memoir, the indomitable Jean Trumpington looks back on her long and remarkable life. The daughter of an officer in the Bengal Lancers and an American heiress, Jean Campbell-Harris was born into a world of considerable privilege, but the Wall Street Crash entirely wiped out her mother’s fortune.

At fifteen the young Jean Campbell-Harris was sent to Paris to study but two years later, with the outbreak of the Second World War, she became a land girl. However, she quickly changed direction, joining naval intelligence at Bletchley Park, where she stayed for the rest of the war. After the war she worked first in Paris and then on Madison Avenue, New York, with advertising’s ‘mad men’. It was here that she met her husband, the historian Alan Barker, and their marriage, in 1954, ushered in the happiest period of her life before embarking on her distinguished political career, as a Cambridge City councillor, Mayor of Cambridge and, then, in 1980, a life peer.