Last summer, I had my first ever run-in with the Icelandic police, who put out an all-points alert for me and my hired car. In the end, I turned myself in.
I had spent most of lockdown writing my latest Magnus crime novel, Death in Dalvik. The problem was I had never been to Dalvík. I planned to go in May 2020 and then again in November 2020, but COVID stopped me. I had already finished the 3rd draft of the novel by the time I was eventually allowed to leave Britain for Iceland in June 2021.
Iceland is always a brilliant place to visit, but it is even more brilliant without tourists, as it was last summer. The COVID tests involved a certain amount of high-stakes form filling and app downloading and deleting, but I got there in the end.
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| Valley just to the south of Dalvik |
The nearest big town to Dalvík is Akureyri, in the north of Iceland. Akureyri is the regional police headquarters from where Magnus would be operating to solve his crime in Dalvík. So I took a photograph. Among some stiff competition, Akureyri is Iceland’s drabbest police station.
I took the picture before breakfast. Around lunchtime, I thought I would drop in for a chat. I was a little nervous about this. Policemen are almost always helpful in these situations, but you never know: in Qaqortoq in Greenland they refused to talk to me and booted me out of the station.
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| Akureyri police station |
I introduced myself to the receptionist, whose eyebrows rose. She scurried off. After several minutes a chief inspector showed up and led me outside the station to talk (for COVID reasons, I think). I said I was a British crime writer and was writing a novel set in Dalvík. The chief inspector smiled and said he knew. Apparently, the desk sergeant had seen me taking a photograph that morning and had come outside to speak to me. I remember seeing him emerge from the station – I assumed he was sneaking a quick cigarette – so without waiting for him, I drove off. He noted my rental car number and put out an all-points alert.
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| The Akureyri police in action |
Fortunately, I had parked my car on a side street all morning, so the police hadn’t found it. But they had contacted Avis who gave them my email address. From which they deduced my website and my Twitter feed. From which they learned I had just been in Dalvík, researching a crime novel.
I was impressed by their detection skills. I spoke to the Avis guy as I left Akureyri who was less impressed: he thought there just wasn’t enough crime in Akureyri to keep them properly occupied. Which is probably a good thing.
I returned to England without a criminal record or an Interpol red notice, and finished my book. The result, Death in Dalvik, is out on 20 April. Dísa is an intelligent 16-year-old schoolgirl who is given five Bitcoin by her father in 2017 and through astute trading turns it into enough money to bail out her grandparents’ bankrupt farm. Her mother is so impressed, that she too catches the cryptocurrency bug. She persuades the wealthier inhabitants of Dalvík to invest in a new cryptocurrency, Thomocoin, with predictable results. The poor woman is found dead on a mountainside, and my detective Magnus investigates.
Death in Dalvik by Michael Ridpath (Yarmer Head) Out Now
When sixteen-year-old Dísa is given five bitcoin by her divorced father she is unimpressed: she hasn't heard of the cryptocurrency, and five of anything can't be worth very much. But a year later, when her grandparents are about to lose the farm near the Icelandic village of Dalvik where their family has lived for centuries, quiet, unassuming Dísa is able to rescue it with the profits from her astute trading of her father's gift. Unknown to Dísa, her mother Helga catches the cryptocurrency bug. Not only does Helga invest in Thomocoin, a new cryptocurrency sweeping Iceland, but she persuades many of her neighbours in Dalvík to invest too, taking a cut for herself. Helga is found murdered on the hillside above the farm and Inspector Magnus Jonson investigates. Magnus realizes that Dísa, now a nineteen-year-old student, can help him unveil the shadowy forces behind Thomocoin. But torn between loyalty to her family and fear for her life, Dísa has other ideas.
More information about Michael Ridpath and his books can be found on his website. He can also be found on Facebook and you can follow him on Twitter @MichaelRidpath and on Instagram @michaelridpathauthor
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