Queen of Icelandic Noir

 

I have a soft spot for Iceland since it was some articles I wrote about it many years ago that launched my career in journalism.
 
 
And this afternoon, part of the Bloody Scotland book Festival, Yrsa Sigurdarddottir from Reykavik was in Stirling.
 
Why is Iceland so late in joining other Scandinavian countries in the noir genre?
“Quite simple,” said Yrsa. “ We have no crime in Iceland. Maybe one murder a year or  two. Usually foreigners.”
 
So publishers thought there would not be any interest in thrillers set in Iceland.
 
They were wrong. And today Yrsa is the undisputed queen of Icelandic Noir. 
 
Hear I have a confession to make. I have never read any Scandinavian noir but today I bought her latest book “The Absolution” about the dark side of social media.
Oh yes, Yrsa’s day job is an engineer.” I keep the two quite separate.”