I’m in Iceland with a woman looking for her missing brother

Operation Napoleon by Arnaldur Indridason is set in Iceland. The author is Icelandic and the book was written in his mother tongue, translated into French and then translated from French into English by Victoria Cribb. It’s one of a series of books by this author but I have not read any of the others and I felt that this book worked well as a stand-alone.

At the end of WW2 a lost German bomber crashes on a glacier where it is promptly buried by snow and ice. In the present day the aeroplane becomes exposed by the warmer weather and an American party are sent to recover something which has been present on the aircraft since the war and which cannot come into the open. The American expedition is determined to find what they are looking for and they are also not prepared to let anyone get in the way. Two Icelanders spot what is happening and are captured but they have got a message out before that happens and now Kristen has to find the aeroplane to discover what has happened to her brother.

This is a thriller/adventure story which sweeps the reader along nicely with a fast paced plot and plenty of events. The story is set against the weather and environment of the glacier and rural Iceland and is told from various points of view, although you mainly identify with Kristen and those she involves in her search for answers about what has happened to her brother.

The plot and the events are mostly far-fetched and some of what Kristen does is definitely unbelievable but the whole story is very enjoyable and there are quite a few nice twists along the way – the ending is well done too. It was always interesting to see how the author got the characters into seemingly impossible situations and then got them out again. This is a very enjoyable novel if you can suspend your disbelief and get carried away with the adventure.

I picked this book up in a hotel in the Canary Islands on holiday in exchange for a couple of my books which I left for new readers to find. It had obviously been well read so I have now popped it on the book table in my local Sainsbury’s so that it can go to a new home. I shall, however, look out for this author as I would read other books that he has written.

I have read a number of books set in Iceland in my time but they have all been thrillers. Has anyone else read any other type of book or has a particularly good thriller to recommend ? The best I have read is, I think, Burial Rites by Hannah Kent which is an historical crime novel where the emphasis is on the process and injustice rather than on solving the crime – I recommend it.