Fire and Ice

I have now read all of the books in Michael Ridpath’s series ‘Fire and Ice’; they are detective stories set in Iceland. The main character is Magnus, a policeman who is Icelandic by birth but spent much of his life in the US and became a police officer there before being seconded back to the land of his birth in the first of the series, ‘Where Shadows Lie’.

In the first novel, not only are we introduced to Magnus but we glimpse a little of his own personal history, and begin to realise that he is not only desperate to solve the crimes which have been committed and find the culprits, but also to find the culprit of crimes committed in his own family’s history. It is an interesting premise, that the successful detective can’t solve the mystery of his own father’s death. As the series progresses we learn more about Magnus as a character, but we also learn more details of his father’s murder, and the complicated and difficult relationships he has with other members of his own family, including his brother and his grandfather.

In the latest in the series, ‘Sea of Stone’ Magnus answers the questions which have been torturing him since his father’s death… I am so tempted to say more and give more clues to what you will find when you read these excellent novels, but I won’t because the least little thing I say, might spoil the unexpected and so very clever, yet totally believable, conclusion. Each of the novels has a different story-line, different crimes to be solved, but ‘Sea of Stone’ has a crime much closer to home.

These are really gripping stories, with intricate plot-lines, interesting themes engaging and believable characters and a lot of really fascinating detail about Icelandic culture; as a semi-outsider, Magnus views the country and its inhabitants differently and enables us as readers to understand the society in which he finds himself. However the biggest star of the books is Iceland… the descriptions are vivid, and leap off the page. If you have never thought about visiting Iceland, I bet you will really want to by the time you have got into one of the books. I am fortunate to have been there once, and am going again, and just can’t wait! Magnus’s ‘adventures’ allow us to be taken on a tour of the country, the lava fields, the islands, the mountains and volcanoes…

Although Magnus’s quest for the truth about his family’s dark secrets is over in ‘sea of Stone’ I really hope the series hasn’t ended and Michael Ridpath will give us another story about him… and Iceland!

http://www.michaelridpath.com/icelandic-series-home.html

Fire and Ice: