Blackout (Dark Iceland Book 2)

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

I had to start Blackout as soon as I’d finished book one in the Dark Iceland series, Snowblind, as I found myself quite invested in these characters. I am even more so now.

In this book we experience summer in Northern Iceland. Very different to the oppressive atmosphere of the dark winters. It sounds like such a beautiful country.

In this book Ari Thor and his colleagues are faced with a complex case whilst dealing with their own personal battles. Full of suspense, I was eager to find out where this story would lead. I thoroughly enjoyed the police procedural aspects of this story. I also enjoyed the story from the perspective of a journalist. As always, I do like learning more about the characters and their personal lives. I know some crime thriller readers don’t, but for me it helps to make them more real and believable. After all, whatever job anyone does it doesn’t necessarily define them.

This book ticks all the boxes for me again. I have already started book 3 in the series, Rupture.

On the shores of a tranquil fjord in Northern Iceland, a man is brutally beaten to death on a bright summer’s night. As the 24-hour light of the arctic summer is transformed into darkness by an ash cloud from a recent volcanic eruption, a young reporter leaves Reykajvik to investigate on her own, unaware that an innocent person’s life hangs in the balance.

Ari Thór Arason and his colleagues on the tiny police force in Siglufjörður struggle with an increasingly perplexing case, while their own serious personal problems push them to the limit. What secrets does the dead man harbour, and what is the young reporter hiding? As silent, unspoken horrors from the past threaten them all, and the darkness deepens, it’s a race against time to find the killer before someone else dies…