Gunnhildur, a sergeant at a police station in a rural area in southern Iceland has to investigate the identity of a man found drowned in the harbour of the fishing village of Hvalvík. Although the man appears to have been the victim of an accident, she feels that there is more to this than meets the eye and finds out that this was certainly the case as she follows the trail in spite of being discouraged from pursuing it.
Frozen Assets (or Frozen Out - UK title) is the first book in the Sergeant Gunnhildur Gisladottir (Gunna the Cop) series, set in Iceland, and written by Quentin Bates. I haven't ever read a mystery set in Iceland, although there are several authors who write using that country as a setting. I really enjoyed this storyline and getting to know the characters that populate Gunna's world. If there was anything that was a little confusing, it was keeping track of the names and who was who. The author had a discussion at one point of the method of Icelandic surnames or rather, no surnames, which was very interesting. There was also a tendency for nicknames. I muddled through, all the while remembering that this was the first book in a series and I would get it all sorted out soon.
I didn't get as much of a sense of the country of Iceland itself as I might have liked, but hopefully that will be remedied in future books. There were descriptions of certain parts of the culture, such as the food (which did not tempt me, by the way). I do know that Gunna herself is from the fjord country of northwest Iceland and I believe that the third book will be set there or at least partially. Gunna herself is an interesting character, strong and competent. She's a widow with two children and reminds me a bit of Ruth Galloway, the protagonist in Elly Griffiths' series. I look forward to reading Cold Comfort, the second in the series, which has just been published.
Here's Cathy's thoughts on Frozen Assets - Kittling: Books.
Sounds interesting, but I think I would have to read this when it gets warmer! :-)
ReplyDeleteHm, sounds like it might be interesting, especially since you compared her to Ruth Galloway, a character I enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteI heeded your recommendation earlier and have this one on my list!
ReplyDeleteI like the way you described this one. I get muddled up with too many names too!
ReplyDeleteHmmm, I'm not so sure I want to start this series. I'm reading at least one other series that is set in Iceland and find the names difficult to follow as well.
ReplyDeleteNow that you mention it, she does bear a resemblance to Ruth Galloway!
ReplyDeleteWhen I read, it's as if there's a voice inside my head reading the story to me. And that voice inside my head loves romance language names, Gaelic names, Russian names, Indian names... however, it stumbles like the dickens over Germanic and Scandinavian names. It trips over every single one. I decided not to say anything about that in my own review, though.
I just finished, and am still mulling over my feelings about it. I do know that I really liked Gunna. I found the names much more confusing than in the Arnaldur Indridason books. And the whole economic crisis left me quite muddled.
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