Cold Malice
This week’s Friday read is the new thriller in Quentin Bates’s Icelandic crime series, Cold Malice. Atmospheric and intricately plotted, the novel is set in the dramatic, bleak landscapes of Reykjavik and centres around Officer Gunnhildur, a police detective and single mother, who is tasked with solving Reykjavik’s most complex crimes.
This is the perfect dark and brooding thriller for fans of Jo Nesbo and Henning Mankell and you’ll learn a lot about Icelandic culture, its customs and quirks, from the novel. It’s both a gripping mystery and armchair travel for these times when we’re unable to stray far from our living rooms!
Hannah Wann
'Superior crime fiction set in Iceland' The Times
'As chilling as an Icelandic winter' S. J. Bolton
Reykjavík detective Gunnhildur Gísladóttir tries not to believe in ghosts. But when Helgi, one of her team is certain he's seen a man who had been declared dead more than fifteen years ago, she reluctantly gives him some unofficial leeway to look into it.
Has the not-so-dead man returned from the grave to settle old scores, or has he just decided to take a last look around his old haunts?
Either way, there are people who have nursed grudges for years, hoping for a reckoning one day. Even the rumour of his being alive and kicking is enough to spark a storm of fury and revenge, with Gunnhildur and Helgi caught up in the middle of it.
The seventh dark and atmospheric thriller in Quentin Bates's Icelandic crime series. A tense page-turner perfect for fans of Jo Nesbo, Henning Mankell and Søren Sveistrup's The Chestnut Man.
Praise for Quentin Bates:
'A great read - leaves you craving the next installment' Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
'A perfect book to curl up with in front of the fire' The Bookbag
'Well written and absorbing' Woman's Way
'Captures the chilly spirit of Nordic crime fiction . . . Fans of Arnaldur Indridason's Reykjavík mysteries will want to add Bates to their reading lists' Booklist
'[A] crackling fiction debut ... palpable authenticity' Publishers Weekly
'A superb new series' Eurocrime
