The Flatey Enigma (Audible Audio Edition) Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson Jeff Crawford Kate Rudd Brilliance Audio Books
Download As PDF : The Flatey Enigma (Audible Audio Edition) Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson Jeff Crawford Kate Rudd Brilliance Audio Books
Ketilsey Island, 1960. Near this deserted island off the western coast of Iceland, the dawning of spring brings with it new life for the local wildlife. But for the decaying body discovered by three seal hunters, winter is a matter of permanence. After it is found to be a Danish cryptographer missing for months, the ensuing investigation uncovers a mysterious link between him and a medieval manuscript known as the Book of Flatey. Before long another body is found on Flatey, another tiny island off the western coast. This time, in the ancient Viking tradition, the victim's back has been mutilated with the so-called blood eagle. Kjartan, the district magistrate's representative sent to investigate the crime, soon finds himself descending into the dark, dangerous world of ancient legends, symbology, and secret societies to find the killer.
Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson's Glass Key-nominated Nordic mystery captures the era with visceral authenticity and the austere quiet of a world far off the beaten track. Full of surprising humor, complex clues, and brooding intensity, The Flatey Enigma is so captivating you won't be able to put the book down until Kjartan has cracked the code.
The Flatey Enigma (Audible Audio Edition) Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson Jeff Crawford Kate Rudd Brilliance Audio Books
Such a terrific mystery novel! Two things stand out in "The Flatey Enigma." First, the reader is introduced to the fascinating and distinctive culture of Flatey Island, Iceland, in the 1960s. Life in Flatey is isolated, harsh, and claustrophobic, with everyone knowing all about the lives of the others living on the tiny island. So how could an author create a convincing story of a mysterious death here?This leads to the second important point about this book. The reader has to pit wits against the devious and cunning mind of the author, Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson. When I read the solution to the mystery, I felt like banging my head again the wall because I hadn’t solved it (and I should have), but instead I hurried to Ingolfsson’s site to see how many books he had written and to eagerly anticipate the next one.
This is not a traditional murder mystery with the police investigating from the beginning. Local officials begin the investigation. There are no police in such a small place. The author delivers the clues fairly. An engrossing look at a very different culture, and a terrific who-done-it. One of my favorites in Nordic Noir.
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The Flatey Enigma (Audible Audio Edition) Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson Jeff Crawford Kate Rudd Brilliance Audio Books Reviews
The Scandinavian crime genre offers many rewards for readers, but most of the stories I have read so far have very similar themes running through them. After a while the formula becomes familiar, like settling back in an old armchair that you have moulded to your comfort through countless hours of reading.
The Flatey Enigma gives a brief nod in the direction of that formula in the sub-story dealing with police procedures in Reykjavik, but the rest of the book is very different.
The action takes place mostly on the tiny island of Flatey in the Breidafiord Bay. Flatey in 1960 is a cold, bleak place with few resources, and its small community of inhabitants live close to subsistence level. They don't have the luxury of soft-eyed environmentalism that more affluent societies enjoy in 2012, so if you are likely to be upset by pragmatic descriptions of hunting and eating animals and birds more familiar to most of us in zoos than on the dinner plate, you might find some of the images disturbing.
The book starts with the discovery of a body on a deserted island, but the first few chapters are more concerned with description and atmosphere than action. In this, Viktor Ingolfsson's familiarity with the island and its culture comes through, with evocative images of an economically depressed but close-knit community well-used to the dangers of their unforgiving sea and climate, but now faced with an unpleasant intrusion. The development of atmosphere, not threatening but hauntingly bleak and spare and timeless, is unusual in urban crime stories, although familiar in other genres.
The thread weaving through the story, however, is the Flatey Book, a bound vellum collection of medieval (and very bloodthirsty) Viking stories. The book (which is real) was taken from the island in dubious circumstances, and ownership is in dispute. A modern puzzle based on it (the enigma of the title) has a small but passionate academic following.
Excerpts from the Flatey Book appear at the end of each chapter, couched as answers to the clues in the Flatey Enigma, the context of which does not become clear until quite late in the book, as the relationship of some of the key characters through their association with the Flatey Book is gradually revealed. There may be a temptation to skip these little italicized vignettes, but stick with them because they do add depth to the picture of the culture of the islanders, who have grown up with these sagas.
This is not a book for those who like fast-paced action. Flatey is not a fast-paced island. Nor is it a police procedural, or a story about a gifted amateur detective thrust into the limelight. Ingolfsson's characters are minor bureaucrats somewhat out of their depth and in Kjartan's case, a long way out of his comfort zone.
The plot does seem to rely on a lot of coincidences. As a citizen of a place with a much bigger population than Iceland, the number of people who manage to cross each other's paths years after they first met seems a little stretched to me. However, the Flatey Book provides a plausible point of commonality and I am willing to accept that in small populations such as academic specialities and even Iceland itself, the usual "six degrees of separation" may well be only two or three. Occasionally, the translation also doesn't quite seem to fit expectations, but not jarringly so.
Neither of these factors interfered with my enjoyment of the book, and I would recommend it for readers prepared to put aside their preconceived notions of crime novels and seek an Icelandic story a bit out of the ordinary.
At least half way through, I thought, what a good writer and what a terrific translation (Brian FitzGibbon). So many Scandinavian mysteries are sandbagged by shoddy translations that make the works seem set in a very down market English shire. The use of Mum and bloody, and many more common British expressions, disorients.
But that is not true for The Flatey Enigma.
The land or islands come alive. The food and the weather are Icelandic, not British.
The conceit that the murder or murders connect to the very real Flatey manuscript is maybe more comfortable, maybe comedic, for Icelanders.
The ending seems a bit forced. Too little is foreshadowed. Too many Macguffins in place of clues. But I ordered another by this writer. And will keep an eye out for more by the translator.
This was an interesting read. Overall I enjoyed the story, even if it was slow-paced, it unfolded nicely in the end. The events move at a very meandering pace, despite everything taking place over the course of less than a week - I felt like this immersed me more in the culture of the residents of Flatey, a rural island in the 1960's. Each chapter is followed by an excerpt from the Flatey Book, a collection of sagas of the vikings that seems to be tied to the dead body that is discovered at the beginning of the book.
The parallels between what is happening in the present and the sagas were great, but took a long time to show. From the description I was also expecting this to be more central to the story, but it didn't take up as much of the focus as I thought. I couldn't tell if it was the translation or the way it was originally written, but the writing style was also a little plain - the few photos and the map in the book were very helpful, since there's not much in the way of description.
I did enjoy getting to know all the inhabitants of the small, remote island, and appreciated all the loose ends being tied up. This felt like a character-driven story with a backdrop of mystery, so I would recommend it to those who enjoy stories with an immersive, historical setting.
Such a terrific mystery novel! Two things stand out in "The Flatey Enigma." First, the reader is introduced to the fascinating and distinctive culture of Flatey Island, Iceland, in the 1960s. Life in Flatey is isolated, harsh, and claustrophobic, with everyone knowing all about the lives of the others living on the tiny island. So how could an author create a convincing story of a mysterious death here?
This leads to the second important point about this book. The reader has to pit wits against the devious and cunning mind of the author, Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson. When I read the solution to the mystery, I felt like banging my head again the wall because I hadn’t solved it (and I should have), but instead I hurried to Ingolfsson’s site to see how many books he had written and to eagerly anticipate the next one.
This is not a traditional murder mystery with the police investigating from the beginning. Local officials begin the investigation. There are no police in such a small place. The author delivers the clues fairly. An engrossing look at a very different culture, and a terrific who-done-it. One of my favorites in Nordic Noir.
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