Frozen Assets: Introducing the Gunnhilder Mystery Series Set in Iceland [Hardcover]

Quentin Bates (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 18, 2011

A body is found floating in the harbor of a rural Icelandic fishing village. Was it an accident, or something more sinister?  It’s up to Officer Gunnhildur, a sardonic female cop, to find out. Her investigation uncovers a web of corruption connected to Iceland’s business and banking communities. Meanwhile, a rookie crime journalist latches onto her, looking for a scoop, and an anonymous blogger is stirring up trouble. The complications increase, as do the stakes, when a second murder is committed. Frozen Assets is a piercing look at the endemic corruption that led to the global financial crisis that bankrupted Iceland’s major banks and sent the country into an economic tailspin from which it has yet to recover.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A Note to Readers from Quentin Bates

Much of what became Frozen Assets took shape during Iceland's financial boom. Reykjavík prospered and the country's bankers were hailed as financial wonders who appeared to have dug up a whole cache of Philosopher's Stones.

Grumpy cynics had wondered when the bubble would burst, what would happen when all those private jets, limousines, and other status symbols had to be paid for. But the problem didn't lie solely with Iceland's nouveau riche maxing out credit cards on expensive toys. With banks frantically pushing bizarre dollar-euro-yen-franc loans at them, ordinary working families stockpiled luxury goods at a brisk clip.

I spent much of 2008 in Iceland. In January everything was normal, if you consider a super-heated economy and sky-high prices normal. By springtime things were less comfortable. The exchange rate had started to slide for the first time in years and although nothing was said out loud, it was common knowledge that the banks' coffers were bare. Business was starting to slow, despite the forest of cranes dotting the skyline. There was a nagging uncertainty that maybe the economic miracle wasn't quite as copper-bottomed as people had been told.

By summer, fear had permeated the society. Government and trade declared business as usual, but my friends and relatives all told me the same thing; behind the window-dressing, things were looking grim. Every working Joe knew something was brewing, without knowing what it was or when it would happen. Few people seriously believed the government was telling the whole truth.

For a few months in the summer I stayed away, working on Frozen Assets. My rotund heroine, Gunna, had already jumped onto the page with a frown on her face and taken on a life of her own.

Back in Iceland for an extended visit in October, I arrived on the day that the first of Iceland's hyper-inflated banks admitted that they'd been doing the equivalent of paying their Visa bills with Mastercard, and the government stepped in to help them out.

An old friend greeted me with the words, "Congratulate me on my bank."

"Why's that?"

"Haven’t you heard? Glitnir's been nationalized. It belongs to the taxpayer now--that's me."

People were stunned, not so much by the fact that the bank had failed, but at the sheer depth of the corruption, greed, and incompetence behind that failure. Somehow Icelanders have always been tacitly resigned to the corruption of those in power, but this was taking things to a new high. As a writer, I couldn't help but feel a guilty thrill. It was fantastic material. I knew I had to rewrite Frozen Assets so that the last chapters would coincide with the dramatic events of 2008.

Re-drafting Frozen Assets in the winter of 2008-09, I couldn't fathom the scale of what had happened, and even today, two years after the crash, new revelations are still coming to light.

Hopefully Frozen Assets captures the desperate atmosphere in Iceland as its economy skidded toward the rocks. Without question, the fallout in the aftermath of the crash will reverberate through the rest of the series, just as it will for the residents of Iceland for many years to come.

---

From Booklist

A body found in the harbor presents a challenge for the Hvalvik, Iceland, police force, led by Sergeant Gunnhildur Gisladottir (“Gunna the Cop”), which generally deals only with speeding drivers and disorderly drunks. Rejecting the theory that the case is an accidental drowning, Gunna finds a link to an earlier hit-and-run fatality and is on the trail of a canny Norwegian suspected of more than one murder. Along the way, a web of corruption is uncovered, encompassing the federal government and the private sector and involving the minister of Environmental Affairs and his wife, the hot-tempered head of a prominent public-relations firm. Intermittent entries by the anonymous Skandalblogger add spice to the investigation, which is executed efficiently by Gunna, a no-nonsense 36-year-old widow and mother of two teenagers. British author Bates, a former Iceland resident, captures the chilly spirit of Nordic crime fiction in what is the apparent start of a promising series with a distinctly appealing protagonist. Fans of Arnaldur Indridason’s Reykjavík mysteries will want to add Bates to their reading lists. --Michele Leber

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Soho Crime; First Edition edition (January 18, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569478678
• ISBN-13: 978-1569478677
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 1 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #266,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Murder during the Icelandic crash February 7, 2011

By Lynn Harnett TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Bates' debut introduces a rural Icelandic cop, Officer Gunnhildur Gisladottir, 36-year-old widowed mother of two teens, one already working the fishing boats. Gunna is prickly and guarded, but not easily ruffled - or intimidated.

When she finds a body in the harbor that appears to be a drunken accident, she follows her doubts, uncovering another accidental death and a link between them.

Meanwhile, the anonymous Skandalblogger, exposing corruption in high places, enrages the head of a major PR firm and her philandering husband, an environmental minister, both of whom are steeped in shady deals and quick money.

It's 2008 and the action moves around the small country from rural seaside to Reykjavik, encompassing fishermen and finance ministers in the reckless greed and optimism of development. But hints of uncertainty multiply as building sites go idle, rumors fly and tensions build towards the crash that readers know is coming.

British author and sometime Icelandic resident Bates embeds his well-paced mystery in this strange time, making (some) sense of it for American readers while introducing us to a heroine we could enjoy for the long haul. He doesn't skimp on the plot either, intertwining Gunna's investigation with the killer's movements and ratcheting up suspense as he brings it all together in a rousing finale.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Corruption May 9, 2011

By Ted Feit VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

This English-born first-time author, who splits his time between Iceland and England, undertook to write this murder mystery around a contemporary idea: the collapse of Iceland's monetary and banking system [which to date has not recovered], coupled with massive political corruption. As a murder mystery it works fairly well for an initial effort. On the other hand, the economic/political aspect left, to this reader, much to be desired.

The novel is written with two voices. Interspersed with a fairy well-written mystery are a series of "blogs," gossipy items that were supposed to supply background and set the stage for the story, but which are more confusing than helpful in moving the plot forward. Some good editing or rewriting might have salvaged the effort, but more likely just eliminating them and using narrative might have been more effective.

A small town policewoman doggedly chases a three-time murderer while effectively being hamstrung by higher-ups. The murderer is an employee of an international aluminum company in partnership with a corrupt minister and his wife, the head of a public relations agency and front for the insiders who seek to profit from a new plant and hydroelectric facility. It's too bad; the novel could have been up there with the best of Icelandic and Scandinavian books, but falls too short. But, hey, the author shows promise, and we'll probably hear from him again.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good start to a series of Icelandic procedurals July 20, 2011

By Edward Waffle

Format:Hardcover

Does the world need another series of police procedurals set in Iceland? The author and publisher of "Frozen Assets" is about to find out. It is quite a bit different from the work of Arnaldur Indridason or Yrsa Sigurđardóttir. Quentin Bates is English so his work doesn't need to be translated. He lived in Iceland for years and still has many contacts/friends there. He has a less dour and dark view of things than Icelandic authors, not quite as affected by the national mood of depression and angst.

Social and political issues are woven throughout the book: privatization of state enterprises, control of the power supply, legal and illegal immigration with the banking collapse and economic catastrophe just over the horizon--that will clearly be a major part of the next books in the series as Iceland adjusts to being poor.

There are a lot of characters in "Frozen Assets", a few too many names to keep track of for comfort although Bates may simply be introducing most of the cast of the rest of the series. The protagonist, Gunna the cop, has many of the hallmarks of the modern fictional detective: she is a recovering alcoholic who keeps a bottle of cognac in the back of her refrigerator, has a slightly rebellious daughter who may become a problem as the series progresses (but no husband--he died on a fishing trawler a few years before) and is constantly at odds with her immediate superior. A possible love interest is introduced, relationships with cousins from all over the island are discussed and every bit of her home and office is described.

"Frozen Assets" is a good procedural that will appeal to fans of the genre--like me.