The journey from publication of my series in Iceland to publication in the UK took five years, and I wish to thank a few people who provided great help along the way. Barry Forshaw included me in his writings on Nordic Noir long before my books became available in the UK, and has been incredibly supportive ever since. Yrsa Sigurðardóttir introduced me to so many wonderful people related to the field of crime fiction abroad and encouraged me to attend crime festivals in the UK before I had a UK publisher. Quentin Bates, who subsequently became my translator, supported the books from day one and has been invaluable in the process. Ann Cleeves and William Ryan also proved instrumental in introducing me to my UK agent, David Headley, and encouraged him to take a leap of faith, which eventually led to the series being picked up by Karen Sullivan, my incredible publisher, who took a leap of faith of her own, for which I am forever grateful.
Thanks are of course also due to my excellent Icelandic publishers, Pétur Már Ólafsson and Bjarni Þorsteinsson, and my wonderful international agent, Monica Gram at Copenhagen Literary Agency.
Last but not least, my family deserves all the thanks I can give, and more: María, Kira and Natalía.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Icelandic crime writer Ragnar Jónasson was born in Reykjavík, and currently works as a lawyer, while teaching copyright law at the Reykjavík University Law School. In the past, he’s worked in TV and radio, including as a news reporter for the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service. Before embarking on a writing career, Ragnar translated fourteen Agatha Christie novels into Icelandic, and has had several short stories published in German, English and Icelandic literary magazines. Ragnar set up the first overseas chapter of the CWA (Crime Writers’ Association) in Reykjavík, and is co-founder of the international crime-writing festival Iceland Noir. Ragnar’s debut thriller Snowblind became an almost instant bestseller when it was published in June 2015, with Nightblind (winner of the Dead Good Reads Most Captivating Crime in Translation Award) and then Blackout following soon after. To date, Ragnar Jónasson has written five novels in the Dark Iceland series, which has been optioned for TV by On the Corner. He lives in Reykjavík with his wife and two daughters.
Visit him at www.ragnarjonasson.com or on Twitter @ragnarjo
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Quentin Bates escaped English suburbia as a teenager, jumping at the chance of a gap year working in Iceland. For a variety of reasons, the gap year stretched to become a gap decade, during which time he went native in the north of Iceland, acquiring a new language, a new profession as a seaman and a family, before decamping en masse for England. He worked as a truck driver, teacher, netmaker and trawlerman at various times before falling into journalism largely by accident. He is the author of a series of crime novels set in present-day Iceland (Frozen Out, Cold Steal, Chilled to the Bone, Winterlude, Cold Comfort and Thin Ice), which have been published worldwide. He’s currently working on translating the next title in Ragnar Jónasson’s Dark Iceland series.
Visit him at www.graskeggur.com or on Twitter @graskeggur
Copyright
Orenda Books
16 Carson Road
West Dulwich
London SE21 8HU
www.orendabooks.co.uk
First published in Icelandic as Rof, 2012
Exclusive hardback edition published by Orenda Books in association with Goldsboro Books in 2017
First reprint 2017.
Copyright © Ragnar Jónasson 2012
English language translation copyright © Quentin Bates 2016
Map copyright © Ólafur Valsson 2016 and 2017
Ragnar Jónasson has asserted his moral right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publishers.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
HB ISBN 978–1–910633–59–5
PB ISBN 978–1–910633–57–1
eISBN 978–1–910633–58–8
Typeset in Garamond by MacGuru Ltd
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon cr0 4yy
The author would like to thank the people of the north of Iceland and Siglufjörður in particular for the use of those places as the settings for this book. It should, however, be made clear that this is a work of imagination with none of the characters portrayed here having any basis in reality.
This book has been translated with financial support from
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Australia
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For details of other territories, please contact [email protected]
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