Winterkill by Ragnar Jonasson

 This is the final installment of the Dark Iceland series by R. Jonasson. Once again, we find Ari Thor, inspector in the northernmost town in Iceland, embroiled in a mysterious death that just happens to overlap important personal life business. In this installment, a young woman dies from apparent suicide by throwing herself a balcony. But did she? Meanwhile, Ari Thor’s ex-girlfriend and young son are visiting from Sweden. The pressure is on for Ari Thor do his usual comprehensive work and figure out this complicated mystery and spend quality time with his son and sort his personal life. Another good story by R. Jonasson. A side note on translation. This book was translated from Icelandic to French to English. This double translation adds some more differences to the story based upon the new translator’s personal style and I found it a little smoother of a read than the other books which were translated to English directly from Icelandic by the same person. However, you can get an idea of what is truly the style of the author based upon how this story and the others are similar. Although this book is presented as the final installment of the Dark Iceland series, the door is still open for more. For instance, the mystery of Ari Thor’s father who mysteriously disappeared is not yet disclosed. Time will tell if we will see the return of Ari Thor.