The murderers who came in from the cold

The murderers who came in from the cold

Iceland is a quiet, small country, full of nature: mountain ranges, fjords, volcanoes, geysers, ice, snow and the vastness of the Atlantic. But Iceland is also a sparsely populated country, full of mysterious stories - about fairies and trolls, the Icelandic saga itself. Iceland is exciting through and through. So it's no wonder that outstanding crime novels and thrillers also come from this European outpost. ntv.de presents two current highlights here.

"Hildur", Satu Rämö

Welcome to the mountainous Westfjords, in the remote northwest of the country. According to an old folk tale, two giant trolls once tried to tear the Westfjords away from the island of Iceland. Just before they succeeded, however, the sun rose, the trolls froze, became two mountains and the Westfjords remained connected to the main island by a seven-kilometre-wide headland. Today there are two mountain roads, but hardly any traffic on them. The Westfjords make up a fifth of Iceland's total area, but only two percent of the total population live there - around 7000 people, in several villages, some of them tens of kilometers away. Hildur Runarsdottir was born in the Westfjords. She works as a police investigator and heads the missing children's department.

What sounds like a quiet job is often mentally grueling. Especially because Hildur lost her two younger sisters as a child. They once disappeared without a trace. The family broke up as a result, so Hildur grew up with her aunt. Hildur lifts weights, jogs through snow and ice with spikes on her shoes and surfs. The sea helps her to forget the weight of her family's loss, at least for a short time.

When Jakob from Finland starts as a trainee at the small police station, she takes him with her to the sea: wet suit on, up on the board and off to the crest of the wave. Jakob also has something that is bothering him, which is why he has come to the Icelandic wasteland of the Westfjords: Jakob is Finnish, a father and divorced. His ex-wife, once the love of his life, has withheld his son from him. She takes Jakob to court, threatens him - and Jakob leaves to find himself anew.

Hildur and Jakob get on well together: Here the local who loves eating gray-brown offal sausage and going to the gym. There's the quiet Jakob, who only speaks English and has discovered knitting for himself. Icelandic sweaters, mind you, made from local sheep's wool. He knits during breaks at work, but also in the car on the way to missions. When a dead body is found after an avalanche, not killed by the snow but by a slit throat, Hildur and Jakob have no idea that this murder has the potential to terrify Iceland, because the dead man in the snow is not the only murder victim. A serial killer in Iceland?

As a reader of Satu Rämö's "Hildur", you learn that murders are rather rare in Iceland, that the best-known serial killer had an axe and was already up to mischief centuries ago. But you also learn a lot about the country itself, about the Westfjords, the people who live there and their everyday lives, which could certainly be simpler. You learn why the front doors in Iceland open inwards and why Icelandic food takes some getting used to for Central Europeans. At the end, you also think you know what happened to Hildur's little sisters. But that's just the cliffhanger for the next book in the "Hildur" series. As a reader, you can hardly wait!

"Night", Yrsa Sigurdardottir

The same is now also true of Yrsa Sigurdardottir's books. The award-winning Icelandic bestselling author (such as the "Huldar & Freyja" series) now shines with another page-turner thriller: "Night". This one also takes the reader into the seclusion of a remote fjord. The Hvarf family has settled on a former farmstead. Rich in stones, but also very mysterious. The two daughters are home-schooled. Their father had a brain tumor and is struggling with its after-effects. The girls' mother tries to keep the family together as best she can.

One winter evening, a neighbor knocks on the Hvarfs' front door. The family has not been seen for more than a week. No one opens the door. He enters through the back door. A mistake, as it soon turns out: The sight he sees inside the house is etched in his memory. He will forget it: The two girls and their mother are dead, there is blood everywhere, apparently they have been beaten to death with an axe.

When investigator Tyr and his colleague Karo arrive at the crime scene, another body has been found: the au pair, who lived alone in an outbuilding and had probably not been working for the Hvarfs for long. Tyr and Karo suspect the father, as there is no trace of him. But the Hvarf's neighbor is also a possible murderer: he was at war mainly with the woman of the house. It was about horses and their use. And the question of why the family threw out two au pairs within a very short space of time also raises questions. Was it just a terrible family tragedy? The discovery of another body throws the two investigators into turmoil.

Like "Snow", "Night" is a thriller with many facets that also fits perfectly into the horror genre: A remote farm; a family with secrets; things that disappear without a trace; eerie noises and ghostly footprints; shadows and mysterious messages. "Night" guarantees goosebumps for the reader. And somehow it doesn't want to let up. It stays with you from the beginning to the end of the book - even if you keep telling yourself that Iceland is just a quiet, small country.

1. Given the thrilling narrative of "Hildur" by Satu Rämö, Iceland proves to be an unexpected setting for chilling crimes, despite its serene reputation as a country filled with natural wonders.
2. If you're looking for another thriller set in Iceland, Yrsa Sigurdardottir's "Night" is a chilling addition to your reading list, promising mystery, suspense, and a dark twist on the country's quiet and picturesque image.

Source: www.ntv.de