Ragnar’s Rupture

The Shots team were delighted to be able to attend Ragnar Jonasson’s launch party for his novel Rupture, a startling addition to his Dark Iceland series. I first met Ragnar a few years ago before he was published in English, when he joined the Quiz Team I was captaining at a Crimefest event in Bristol. I was impressed by Ragnar’s knowledge and insight into the work of Dame Agatha Christie.

It came as little surprise when Karen Sullivan of Orenda Books picked up Ragnar’s work for the English market; with excellent translation by fellow writer Quentin Bates.

So the literary critics and crime-fiction reviewers gathered at David Headley’s Goldsboro Books in London’s West-End, so celebrate the latest work from the dark imagination of Ragnar Jonasson.

So what is Rupture all about?

1955. Two young couples move to the uninhabited, isolated fjord of Hedinsfjörður. Their stay ends abruptly when one of the women meets her death in mysterious circumstances. The case is never solved. Fifty years later an old photograph comes to light, and it becomes clear that the couples may not have been alone on the fjord after all…

In nearby Siglufjörður, young policeman Ari Thór tries to piece together what really happened that fateful night, in a town where no one wants to know, where secrets are a way of life. He's assisted by Ísrún, a news reporter in Reykjavik who is investigating an increasingly chilling case of her own. Things take a sinsister turn when a child goes missing in broad daylight. With a stalker on the loose, and the town of Siglufjörður in quarantine, the past might just come back to haunt them.

Haunting, frightening and complex, Rupture is a dark and atmospheric thriller from one of Iceland's foremost crime writers.

Ayo Onatade recently interviewed Ragnar, as part of his blog tour, and his insight can be sampled Here

We captured Karen Sullivan welcoming the guests and introducing Ragnar on video here –

And Shots have discounted copies available from our bookstore Here

And here are few photos from the event