"Bjartus is a sheep farmer. After 18 years of servitude to a master he despises, all he wants is to raise his flocks unbeholden to anyone. Nothing, not inclement weather, not his family will come between him and his goal of financial independence. Only Asta Solillja, the child he brings up as his daughter, can pierce his stubborn heart."--

"On a winter night, an eleven-year-old Salvör and her unmarried mother Sigurlína disembark at the remote, run-down fishing village of Óseyri, where life is "lived in fish and consists of fish." The two struggle to make their way amidst the rough, salt-worn men of the town. After Sigurlína's untimely death, Salvör pays for her funeral and walks home alone, precipitating her coming of age as a daring, strong-willed young woman who chops off her...

"Aldis hates her job working in a juvenile detention center in rural Iceland. The boys are difficult, the owners are unpleasant, and there are mysterious noises at night. And then two of the boys go astray. Decades later, single father Odinn is looking into alleged abuse at the center. The more he finds out, though, the more it seems the odd events of the 1970s are linked to the accident that killed his ex-wife. Was her death something more sinister?...

"Chilling, and complex, Nightblind is an extraordinary thriller from undeniable new talent Ragnar Jonasson. Ari Thór Arason: a local policeman, whose tumultuous past and uneasy relationships with the villagers in an idyllically quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland--where no one locks their doors--continue to haunt him. The peace of this close-knit community is shattered by the murder of a policeman--shot at point-blank range in the dead of night...

Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution. Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their...

"When Sergeant Gunnhildur Giacute;sladottir of the local police force is called in to investigate the death of a man found tied to a bed in one of Reykjaviacutek's nicest hotels, she finds no sign of criminal activity but suspects there may be more to the case than meets the eye. Could the death of the shipowner be related to a local gangster's recent return to Iceland after many years abroad? What begins as a straightforward case for Gunnhildur soon...

Reykjavik, 1918. The eruptions of the Katla volcano darken the sky night and day. Yet despite the natural disaster, the shortage of coal and the Great War still raging in the outside world, life in the small capital goes on as always. Sixteen-year-old Mani Steinn lives for the movies. Awake, he lives on the fringes of society. Asleep, he dreams in pictures, the threads of his own life weaving through the tapestry of the films he loves. When the Spanish...

A small group of friends go for a weekend in an old hunting lodge on the isolated island Ellidaey to reconnect in a beautiful place that's completely cut off from the outside world. But one of them isn't going to make it out alive. And detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir of the Reykjavik police department is at the peak of her career and determined to find out the truth. Could this death have links to the murder of a young woman ten years previously...

Hailed for combining the darkness of Nordic Noir with classic mystery writing, author Ragnar Jonasson's books are haunting, atmospheric, and complex. Rupture, the latest Ari Thór thriller, delivers another dark mystery that is chillingly stunning with its complexity and fluidity. Young policeman Ari Thór tries to solve a 50-year-old murder when new evidence surfaces. But the case proves difficult in a town where no one wants to know the truth,...