Zane Radcliffe

Sigríður bristled as if she wasn't yet ready to tolerate such a public display of affection. 'Birna, fetch this young man a beer and I will feed him some fish', she barked, as though Callum was a performing seal. She offered him a bowl that appeared to contain several ripped-up tufts of bright yellow loft insulation. 'This is harðfiskur,' she explained. 'Dried fish. We hang the catch out on racks and when the gulls lose interest in it, we consider it ready to eat.'

When Glaswegian Internet show more entrepreneur Callum Pope moves to Iceland to live with his girlfriend Birna and set up a company arranging locations for films, things don't go smoothly. Birna's 11-year-old daughter Asta resents him, while her mother Sigríður unnerves him by seeing darkness in his aura and a shadowy woman standing at his shoulder.

Why did Callum so suddenly sell his business at a bargain price, and up sticks to another country? What is the dark secret from his past that could put his new family in danger?

Zane Radcliffe certainly has an amusing way with words; blind ponies, elves, highly-explosive artificial geysers, all-terrain vehicles that come with a moonroof as standard, a policeman who likes to use his handcuffs every now and then to stop them rusting up, and the strange foodstuffs that Sigríður serves up for Callum, all help to lighten the tense atmosphere of the book. This is a very enjoyable thriller, which, as the title suggests, also serves as a guide to Iceland and the Icelanders.

Finished just in time, as I'm off to Iceland on holiday at the weekend! show less

I picked this up before a trip to Iceland and read it there, so I can confirm that the atmosphere of the book is very authentic. Twisty plot and interesting characters elevate what could have been a more run-of-the-mill cross between a travelogue and mystery novel.

Proof copy.