A Magnus Iceland Mystery
5 total works
From the million-copy bestselling author, perfect for fans of Stieg Larsson, Anne Holt, and The Killing.
'Michael Ridpath is trouncing the Scandinavians on their home turf. This is international thriller writing at its best.' Peter James
Iceland, 2017: When a young Italian tourist is found brutally murdered at a sacred church in northern Iceland, Magnus Jonson, newly returned to the Reykjavik police force, is called in to investigate. At the scene, he finds a stunned TV crew, there to film a documentary on the life of the legendary Viking, Gudrid the Wanderer.
Magnus quickly begins to suspect that there may be more links to the murdered woman than anyone in the film crew will acknowledge. As jealousies come to the surface, new tensions replace old friendships, and history begins to rewrite itself, a shocking second murder leads Magnus to question everything he thought he knew...
From the million-copy bestselling author, perfect for fans of Stieg Larsson, Anne Holt, and The Killing.
"Michael Ridpath is on the war path, trouncing the Scandinavians on their home turf. This is international thriller writing at its best, fine characters, page turning suspense and a great, fresh location." PETER JAMES
Iceland 1934: Two boys playing in the lava fields that surround their isolated farmsteads see something they shouldn't have. The consequences will haunt them and their families for generations.
Iceland 2009: the credit crunch bites. The currency has been devalued, savings annihilated, lives ruined. Revolution is in the air, as is the feeling that someone ought to pay the blood price... And in a country with a population of just 300,000 souls, where everyone knows everybody, it isn't hard to draw up a list of those responsible.
And then, one-by-one, to cross them off.
Iceland 2010: As bankers and politicians start to die, at home and abroad, it is up to Magnus Jonson to unravel the web of conspirators before they strike again.
But while Magnus investigates the crimes of the present, the crimes of the past are catching up with him.
Untangling murder from myth is Iceland-born, Boston-raised homicide detective Magnus Jonson. Seconded to the Icelandic Police Force for his own protection after he runs afoul of a drug cartel back in Boston, Magnus also has his own reasons for returning to the country of his birth for the first time in nearly two decades - to investigate the unsolved murder of his father.
Binding Iceland's landscape and history, secrets and superstitions in a strikingly original plot that will span several volumes, Where the Shadows Lie is a thrilling new series from an established master.
Operation Meltwater: FreeFlow, a group of internet activists committed to the freedom of information have video evidence of a military atrocity in the Middle East and have chosen Iceland as their HQ while they prepare to unleash their greatest coup on the world's media. On the glacial rim of erupting volcano Eyjafjallajökull, they christen their endeavour Operation Meltwater. Minutes later, in the steam and mist, one of them is murdered. The list of people Freeflow has antagonized is long - the Chinese government, Israeli military, a German Bank, Italian politicians, even American College Fraternities. Magnus Jonson has a long list of suspects but he's getting precious little help from FreeFlow - for an organization dedicated to the transparency of information, they're a secretive bunch.
But they are not the only ones with secrets. Asta, a newly qualified priest, has contacted FreeFlow with information about a scandal in the church. Her involvement with FreeFlow will cost her dear.
And with the return of Magnus's brother Ollie to Iceland, the feud that has haunted their family for three generations is about to reignite.
When Constable Pall Gylfason gets a dispatch call to investigate a suspected homicide in a remote farmstead, he is surprised to find that Detective Magnus Jonson is already at the scene. Magnus identifies the dead man as his estranged grandfather. As Pall begins to review the crime scene it becomes apparent that forensic evidence has been tampered with and that Magnus' version of events doesn't add up. Before long, Magnus is arrested for the murder of his grandfather. When it emerges that his younger brother, Oli, is in Iceland after two decades in America, Pall begins to think that Magnus may not be the only family member in the frame for murder...
Can Magnus prove his innocence without implicating his brother? And can both men get to the heart of the twisted secrets that blighted their childhoods? What unfolds is a tale of familial ties and bloodthirsty vengeance, of isolated communities scarred by the tragedies of the past - and of a final, painful reckoning.