The Island by Ragnar Jonasson

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BOOK #2 IN THE HIDDEN ICELAND trilogy.

Slow burn. But it’s well worth reading all 3 books.

Elliðaey is an isolated island off the Icelandic coast. It has a beautiful, unforgiving terrain – and an easy place to vanish.

At the peak of her career Hulda Hermannsdóttir is sent to discover what happened when a group of friends visited Elliðaey – but one failed to return.

Could this have links to the disappearance of a couple ten years previously out on the Westfjords? Is there a killer stalking these barren outposts? …

ragnar-jonasson

You’ve seen photos of Elliðaey island.

In 1953, the white structure seen in the images was built by the Elliðaey Hunting Association. Anyone who wants to visit is allowed to do so.

Several tour companies operating in the Vestmannaejar peninsula offer day trips to Elliðaey, as well. See the puffins.

THE DARKNESS by Ragnar Jonasson

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I’ve read a few books from Icelandic author Ragnar Jónasson.

Mixed feelings.

The Darkness, I think, is one of his best. An Icelandic TV adaptation is planned.

The lead character is a 64-year-old detective being forced unwillingly into retirement.

Original.

The body of a young Russian woman washes up on an Icelandic shore. After a cursory investigation, the death is declared a suicide and the case is quietly closed.

Over a year later Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir of the Reykjavík police is forced into early retirement at 64.

She dreads the loneliness, and the memories of her dark past that threaten to come back to haunt her. But before she leaves she is given two weeks to solve a single cold case of her choice. She knows which one: the Russian woman whose hope for asylum ended on the dark, cold shore of an unfamiliar country.

Soon Hulda discovers that another young woman vanished at the same time, and that no one is telling her the whole story. Even her colleagues in the police seem determined to put the brakes on her investigation. Meanwhile the clock is ticking. …

Crime by the Book review

U2 w. Mick Jagger, Fergie and Will.i.am – Gimme Shelter

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Excellent.

Merry Clayton was the female singer on the Stones original 1969. Fergie is a great stand-in.

I like the Edge updating the guitar, as well.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Nine Lives of Pakistan by Declan Walsh

On By Rick McIn books, government, human rights, IslamLeave a comment

I’ve never been to Pakistan. But am keen to go as there is terrific hiking in the Himalaya.

I read this excellent book as research.

Sadly, in terms of progress, India has done far better since Partition .

The invasion in 1979 by the Soviet Union was a huge setback, of course.

Declan Walsh is an Irish author and journalist who is the Chief Africa Correspondent for The New York Times. 

Walsh was expelled from Pakistan in May 2013—an experience he wrote about in his 2020 book The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches from a Precarious State—but continued covering the country from London.

In fact, Walsh was ejected just prior to the 2013 Pakistani general election when Nawaz Sharif was just barely elected.

The subtitle of the book is Dispatches from a Divided Nation and the author criss-crosses those political, religious, ethnic and generational fault lines, assembling a portrait of the vast country of 220 million people through his travels and the lives of the nine compelling protagonists.

Walsh is a wonderful writer, with a gift for sketching an impression of a place, time and ambience with a few brief lines. …

What also shines through is the relish with which Walsh throws himself into the far corners of Pakistan, into crowds, celebrations and rites, with a drive born of fascination with the land and its people. …

Guardian Review

“Above all, Pakistanis are survivors. Yet a country, like a person, may only have nine lives. Rather than fate to overtake them, some of the people I met in the Insha’Allah nation took matters into their own hands…”

Book Review: The Nine Lives of Pakistan by Declan Walsh

Death in a Strange Country by Donna Leon

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Very good.

Death in a Strange Country (1993) is the second novel in Donna Leon‘s Commissario Brunetti mysteries set in Venice and the sequel to Death at La Fenice (1992).

In fact, a good series to dig into.

Hijack miniseries

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One of the best TV shows of 2023.

If you came to me with a proposed plot about a hijacking, I’d explain that storyline died with 9/11.

Surprisingly, this show is excellent.

Apple TV+’s latest offering is Idris Elba on a Plane.

He plays ordinary guy Sam Nelson – known for his business negotiating skills back on Earth – who finds himself trapped on a hijacked flight and forced into the role of reluctant hero. …

Only Elba could carry this perfect piece of summer insanity off. Even then, it requires every ounce of his physically and metaphorically massive presence to do so. …

Hijack unfolds perfectly. Suspense builds, is released, builds again, a little more tension, a little longer wait until the elastic snaps back each time.  …

Guardian review

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The Leopard by Jo Nesbø

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This Nesbø novel (2009) is a good example of why I don’t like the Harry Hole books.

Too complicated. Too dark. No characters to cheer for ➙ certainly not Harry.

There are better Jo Nesbø books, of course. Skip this one.

Following the traumatic Snowman case, former police inspector Harry Hole has exiled himself in Hong Kong.

Kaja Solness, a new Norwegian Crime Squad officer, tracks down Hole and asks for his help investigating possible serial killings in Oslo.

Hole is convinced to return when told that his father, Olav, is seriously ill and will not live much longer.

He returns to Norway to find that the Crime Squad is in the middle of a power struggle with Kripos and its power-hungry head, Mikael Bellman, who seeks to put his agency in sole charge of the country’s murder cases.

Hole finds himself the target of Bellman’s hostility, though Bellman is keen to take credit for the results of Hole’s work. …

A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin

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In the 24th instalment in the Inspector Rebus series written by Ian Rankin, both Rebus and his frenemy ‘Big Ger’ Cafferty, the gangster, are old.

Rebus had retired in 2007.

Both are a little bored. COVID-19 is a threat but lockdown has ended, probably in 2022.

Cafferty wants Rebus to find a man. Surprisingly, Rebus agrees.

Rebus ends up on trial for a crime. Did he do it?

Rebus both fears exposure of past misdeeds and examines his own motives at the time, trying to ascertain whether, in breaking the rules, he also crossed the moral lines he had drawn for himself.  …

All the Rebus books are great. This one certainly as good as any.

I recommend you start at the beginning:

Knots and Crosses (1987).

A Deep Dive into … Bread

On By Rick McIn food, travelLeave a comment

Norway has cheaper and far better bread than Canada.

Kneippbrød, for example, is the most popular. 100% whole wheat flour. The whole grain (shell, kernel, and germ) is used.

In Canada, bagels are the most popular bread. I love bagels. No complaint there. 🙂

#2 is packaged sliced white bread. Not good.

I believe the main reason bread is better in Europe than North America is competition. There are far more bakeries and producers — still — in Europe.

Since fewer Canadians buy good break, it’s comparatively expensive compared with the Superstore white bread sold as a loss leader at CAD $.97.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.