Satu Rämö

I really enjoyed reading The Clues in the Fjord by Satu Ramo. Set in north-western Iceland, the story follows Detective Hildur Runasdottir and Finnish-Norwegian intern Johansson. The book tells of three different murders, all connected. Each body has blonde hair in its mouth, but determining whose hair, and why its in their mouths takes considerable time. In the middle of all this, Hildur is trying to figure out what happened to her sisters twenty-five years ago; the girls had simply show more disappeared on their way home from school, and no trace of them was ever found.

Returning to my true love, Nordic crime fiction, has been wonderful. I've sampled authors who are new to me, and am planning to continue reading Nordic crime. The book wasn't just a good police procedural. It was informative about things that non-Icelanders might not understand, and bits of it took place in Reykjavik and a drive there from the north. Some of the places were familiar to me, as I visited Icelandic a few years ago, and that familiarity always makes a book a special treat.

I'm planning to read more of Ramo's Hildur series. There is one follow-up which I can purchase easily, and a second one that may not yet be available; it's possible that it's not been translated into English yet. How lovely to find a new Nordic author to follow! show less

A nice slice of Nordic crime to sink the teeth into. The Clues in the Fjord follows Hildur, a detective who works in the barely inhabited wilds of Iceland, where she is partnered up with Jakob, a Finnish trainee, to investigate a rare spate of murders.

This is a solid piece of crime fiction in which the landscape of the Westfjords and the unique setting—bleak with a small population where everyone knows everyone else—is ever-present and a powerful backdrop to the story. The author show more is clearly thinking about a longer series and building a strong arc for the lead character, and that’s something I really like. Although not perfect, most of the expected cliches and tropes of detective fiction are absent. There are occasional flashbacks so the reader has to keep an eye on the dates at the start of each chapter, and the flip over to the killer’s point of view is sometimes jarring.

The little details of Icelandic life are interesting and help to place the narrative. Certainly this is a unique community and, as someone who has never visited and knows little about the place, it is right for the author to provide anchors to hold on to. I can imagine this irritating Icelandic readers and I did feel it was overdone. The pace occasionally stalls under the weight of domestic detail—yarns, knitting, and everyday life—so that it takes more than a hundred pages before the plot properly ignites. I had no interest in Hildur’s workouts. She’s fit and likes exercise—that was established early on. I’d have preferred to know more about her than that.

Overall hits was a good read. An intriguing serial killer mystery with an engaging central lead who has potential. show less

I picked up this book because it’s the first of a new series set in Iceland and because it has had glowing reviews. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

Hildur Rúnarsdóttir, working out of Ísafjörður, is the only detective in the Westfjords. She is joined by Jakob Johanson, a police trainee from Finland who chose Iceland’s most sparsely populated region for his internship. Both Hildur and Jakob have difficult backstories. Hildur’s two sisters disappeared 25 years ago and she show more self-medicates by exercising strenuously. Jakob is the midst of a custody battle for his son; he has taken up knitting as a way of helping himself keep calm.

The pair’s first case begins when a man’s body is found after an avalanche destroys his home but evidence clearly shows that he was murdered. Then two other murders occur and it becomes clear that the three victims must be somehow connected and that the motive for the killings lies in that connection.

Both Hildur and Jakob are appealing characters. They are intelligent, sensitive, kind, and empathetic. Though hampered by his not understanding the Icelandic language, Jakob helps as he can and he and Hildur quickly become good partners and friends. Because both are familiar with loss, they earn the reader’s sympathy.

One problem with the book is its slow pace. Since this is the first of a series, I understand the need to develop character but often there seems to be more focus on the characters’ personal lives than on the investigation. Sometimes elements seem to serve little purpose. For instance, Jónas and his story are entirely superfluous. On the other hand, there are unanswered questions regarding the case.

Then there are the over-explanations about Iceland and its culture and customs. There are passages like, “As is customary in Iceland, the door opened inward. The amount of snow that packed in front of doors would make them impossible to open outward. An inward-opening door guaranteed a quick exit, even in winter.” We are given information about Ístex, “Iceland’s largest and oldest woollen mill. Ístex was owned by sheep farmers, and most wool from the autumn and spring shearings was sold to the mill and turned into yarn of various qualities. Wool from Icelandic sheep had made a name for itself among knitting communities around the world, and the most popular colours were hard to find outside Iceland.” We learn that Icelandic police don’t carry firearms, but the author feels the need to explain “Police firearms were a regular topic of debate, but no changes had been made to the legislation yet. And Icelanders were in no way anti-gun. There were actually quite a few guns in the country because a lot of people liked to hunt.”

The author moved to Iceland from Finland and the book gives the impression that she wants to expound on what she has learned about her adopted country. What is the relevance of the information about the Centre Party? Is it necessary to preach about the importance of runners warming up the upper parts of their bodies? I might enjoy learning about the expensive, expressionist landscapes of Jóhannes Kjarval, “Iceland’s most famous twentieth-century painter” but is that information relevant to the plot?

The book was not carefully edited. For instance, Hildur drives to the police station and waits in the vehicle for her boss Beta. Beta opens the driver’s door and climbs in and Hildur drives away. Both women are sitting in the driver’s seat? We learn early in the novel that Hildur has an aunt named Tinna living in Ísafjörður and another aunt in the Faroe Islands but then later there’s a statement that “Tinna was Hildur’s sole remaining relative”? Hildur contacts an excavator operator and “made him promise to wait for her. She would stop by that evening to show him the exact spot [to dig]” but by the time she gets to the location, the man had already “opened that mound”? Why would a passer-by ask to take a photo using someone else’s camera if the photo would remain with the camera owner?

For those interested, the second book in the series, The Grave in the Ice, will be released in the spring of 2025, and the third, The Shadow of the Northern Lights, will be available in the fall. I’m not certain I will continue following Hildur and Jakob because the weak plot and slow pace do not make for a gripping page-turner.

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Hildur is in a good place personally and professionally so is happy to juggle several cases. She is looking into the attack on a Venezuelan working on a cruise ship, some robberies from holiday homes and the discovery of human remains on her family property. Then, the old family friend she is visiting dies in suspicious circumstances, and she realises her sister might not be guilty of the crimes she is in prison for. Now Hildur has a lot on her plate!
I was a latecomer to this series and show more reading the fourth episode (my second) I can see how many of the plotlines are strung out through time. For example the death of Hildur's parents and the reasons she was separated from her sisters are still touched upon here. Also the mares' blood case comes back in. This is in addition to a couple of really satisfying cases that are completed in this book. It's all cleverly thought out and well-executed. show less