Travel Tuesday, Five Books set in Iceland with snow, ice and crime fiction
Iceland is great if you love crime fiction. There’s plenty of books set in Iceland which evoke the landscape in ways you might see or notice unless you take an author guide with you.
Travel Tuesday books set in iceland
Iceland Noir might be over for another year but you can go there right now – pick up one of these five books to see the country in a new light.
Destination Iceland awaits…
Reykjavik – Tainted Blood
Setting: city centre visit, city underbelly
This book is set in the city centre but there’s an interesting angle here. The police investigate crimes, both modern and old, through the maze of genealogy. The most fascinating setting in this novel is a Genetic Research Centre, which actually has a base in reality. A centre of this kind would have files and files of medical data on each and every Icelanders, as well as a genealogy database which could trace the heritage of every person back to the Middle Ages. Imagine that?
Iceland and Morocco – The Sealwoman’s Gift
Setting: The sea
History and heritage galore in this historical novel! This is a real treat of a novel as it delves into the hidden history of the country and its people. There’s so many legends and culture in this book that you can learn so much even before you head out to Iceland for real. It’s based on a raid on Iceland in 1627 by Algerian and Moroccan pirates. Many Icelanders were killed and 400 sold as slaves in Algiers. It’s one of the most traumatic events in Icelandic history and it’s not hard to see why.
Iceland – The problem with Chickens
Setting: animal world
You might not think that chickens could cause problems in Iceland but the ones in this book are laying their eggs off the cliff edges. What are the people of Iceland to do?
Iceland – Half a Kingdom
Setting: A castle and the woods
Another children’s book but sometimes these are the best books to discover the small details about a country and its people. The King of Iceland is kidnapped by two troll girls. His men set out to find him and rescue him. His rescuer? A peasant girl from the local village. There’s something magical and fairytale like about books set in the woods, all that time ago.
Iceland – The Moonstone
Setting: The volcanic and rocky landscape
The landscape in Iceland is very unique and the volcanic and rocky countryside is stunning! However, this book takes you back to 1918 and the time when one volcano caused more than a few problems
More where those came from!
