#iceland noir

[richardarmitagefanpage]

New photo of Richard by Ásdís Ásgeirsdóttir at Iceland Noir in Reykjavík, Iceland. (November 18, 2023)

📷: mbl.is

[siveydensipuli]

Nordic noir -bingo

[photosbynimit]

Iceland Nostalgia

[caracolartstudio]

Among twenty snowy mountains, The only moving thing Was the eye of the blackbird.

-Wallace Stevens

[jenmedsbookreviews]

Dark As Night by Lilja Sigurðardóttir, translated by Lorenza García

Today I am sharing my thoughts on book 4 in the Áróra Investigations series by Lilja Sigurðardóttir, Dark As Night, translated by Lorenza García @sigurdardottirlilja @orendabooks #lorenzagarcia #books #bookreview #darkasnight #bookstagram Link in bio

Today I am sharing my thoughts on book four in the Áróra Investigations series by Lilja Sigurðardóttir, Dark as Night. Translated into English by Lorenza Garcia, this book is set to answer some of our favourite financial investigators questions about her sister, Ísafold, but potentially leave her with many more. My thanks to publisher Orenda Books for the advance copy, and to Anne Cater of Random…

[universalambients]

Iceland, 1828

[mymurderbooks]

Title: Winterkill

Author: Ragnar Jónasson

Rating: ★★★★☆

Series: Dark Iceland

---

This is the first book I've read in Ragnar Jónasson's #DarkIceland series, but is the 6th in the series, and I think it's actually the last. It was reasonably engaging and ultimate okay.

The detective is Ari Thór in a small Icelandic ski town, Siglufjörður, which is a real small Icelandic town (home of The Herring Era Museum, and where one of my favourite Nordic Noir tv series, Ófærð, was filmed). Without any spoilers, the primary death is a possible suicide, there's a redrum moment where a nursing home resident writes "She was murdered" over and over again on his bedroom wall - and reading it has the vibe of an SVU episode, with an SVU-esque ending.

Which is not a bad thing at all. The reveal to the main mystery was just okay for me and it's more or less solved by a witness basically telling him the main clue, but this was tempered by a side mystery solving which made it a little more satisfying. The lead detective Ari Thór isn't annoying, and I don't care for his personal life but it isn't detailed such that it gets in the way of the story.

I was hoping there would be more of a mystery puzzle, this is more of an investigation type mystery than a Poirot. However it's engaging enough, and I think it's a good book to relax with - much like an SVU episode. The story takes place over Easter but I felt it was a good choice for this long Christmas weekend.

spoilers under the cut:

I'm reassured that all the non-perp adult characters viewed the 19 year old victims as children and schoolgirls, and they're positioned as such in the novel's POV. Credit to the author for not sexualising them or assigning equal blame with the perp.

The side murder was slightly more satisfying because:

a) it was based on mysterious scrawlings and I have a preference for that (also letters, conversation snippets, etc.),

b) Ari Thór had to recognise that there was a murder and figure out who was murdered, although that's reasonably straightforward

But there wasn't that much payoff honestly. It's a littl disappointing that the main death was a suicide after the promise of "but surely, there's no other prints and no one else could possibly have been there!" which buoyed me up for more of a locked room mystery.

The ending was a little too SVU-esque. As soon as the vic's mother phoned him up sounding all rattled, I knew it was because she killed the perp. But I guess it provides closure, or something.

Overall, it was okay for me. I would read more from the series.

[miriamvowen]

Murder at the Residence, Stella Blomkvist

Murder at the Residence by Stella Blómkvist (Stella Blómkvist #1) trs Quentin Bates @CorylusB @graskeggur

[themaresnest-dumblr]

Okay, so which country's Eurovision entry is this one then?

“We feel pain, and fear it. We feel shame, and fear it. We feel loss, and fear it. We hate the Darkness, and fear it… The Dremora have deep thoughts, and must master fear to overcome it.”

–Excerpt from Spirit of the Daedra

[mistigrisunshine]

spuffy fic rec

figured all the time i spend scouring EF and ao3 might be useful to someone!

part 1 - part 2 - part 3

Scooby Crew, Where Are You? by Twinkles [9k]

In a not comics-compliant post-series universe where spuffy have been reunited and everyone else is drifting apart, chaos drops by for a visit. Or a nefarious scheme. I guess we'll find out XD

To Apprehend Air by Quinara [19k]

Two days after LMPTM, Spike's soul is stolen. But that's OK; they can get it back, right? Simple. How hard is it to hop dimensions, anyway? Or storm a castle…

Wild and Wonderful by solstice [23k]

Dawn is nine and three quarters. She is resilient, strange and sharp as a tack. She's a credit to her big sis. But she's just been kidnapped by one of the most notorious vamps of all time - Drusilla. Things look bad. Enter Spike, her very unlikely hero. Spike's relationship with Drusilla has been on the rocks since the Acathala debacle and the morsel in the crate is her double-edged gift to him: a chance to make things right, and a chance to be really bad. Kill the girl and make it hurt. But for some reason he. just. can't. Instead, he tosses the niblet into the trunk of his Desoto and hits the road, leaving his one hundred year relationship in tatters, and grinding his reputation into the dust. Buckle your seat belts nice and tight. We're in for a bumpy ride.

World Enough, and Time by toooldforthis [23k]

“You came back wrong,” he told her, all those years ago. He was right, but it took them a very long time to realise exactly what that meant. It meant a hundred more apocalypses, a thousand battles. It meant a journey, a prophecy, a war. They’d lose one other, and find their way back, and choose, again and again. And all the while, the earth was failing. There are a lot more people than you think who are here for the long haul – like, the really long haul. This is a story about two of them.

Once You Eliminate the Impossible by yellowb [30k]

Icelandic noir. Inspector Summers of the Reykjavik police force has finally got her big chance: she’s in charge of a murder case.

sometimes enough by taxicab12 [35k]

“Tell me everything,” Willow said, not sounding particularly like she’d been asleep. “Are his friends cool?” Buffy blinked. “Some of them. There was this one British guy—” “Ooh, accents, hot.” “—who wouldn’t stop staring at my boobs,” she finished. “Ew, men, gross.” “Spike,” Buffy said with a scoff. “What kind of name is that?” Or, Buffy falls in love and in love and in love. For some reason, life keeps happening anyway

ever waiting airports (full of the love that you deserve) by womanaction [41k]

Buffy catches up with Riley's helicopter, solving one problem and introducing a host of others. How is she supposed to rebuild their crumbling relationship in the face of an angry hellgod out for blood, an emotional teenage sister who spent millennia as a glowing ball of energy, and a weirdly helpful vampire? Season 5 rewrite from "Into the Woods" on.

GTFO by Girlytek [54k]

Spike doesn’t take the extra hundred bucks to be the decoy. Ethan doesn’t hang around to gloat. With the Initiative on their tail (just a little one), and Ethan needing a good being killed, Spike and Fyarl-Giles get out of town. There’s nothing like a road trip to put your demons in perspective.

Care by Sigyn [72k]

While under her Will Be Done spell, Willow just happened to say “I don’t care about anything,” and as a result, wanders blithely off as a vengeance demon. Spike and Buffy are left to protect a threatened Xander and a blind Giles while under the effect of a powerful love charm. But all is not happy in paradise – they’re still constantly fighting, and Angel is determined to end the spell they’re under. In a desperate attempt to collect the tattered remains of all their lives, ex-watcher Wesley Windham-Pryce is called in to try and play marriage counselor between the vampire and the slayer.

The Soul Lies Down by the_moonmoth [73k]

"As a child, I used to dream of a man in black and white, spinning in the desert like a dervish, sword flashing in the moonlight as he danced with death." Dawn travels back in time to save the vampire who saved her life. It's not purely out of sentiment, though -- the fate of the world is at stake (again) and somehow Spike is at the center of events. If only he can stay on the right side of Buffy. A sequel to Angearia's "Fin Amour".

Summer’s Lease by Iamblichus [86k]

Buffy thought it would be just another night of slaying lame-ass campus vampires, but one green demon, some unexpected help from Spike, and a spurt of fluorescent blood later, she finds that her world has acquired a novel complication.

Indigo Overture by Rikki_oko [119k]

Spike's just a drummer, content to live in lead singer Angel's shadow. But when a certain blonde strolls in on Angel's arm, will Spike be content to take the backseat forever? Loosely based on the eighties song, Jesse's Girl.

[riepu10]

"Hollywood actor Richard Armitage says he feels like a bit of a traitor to be lined up with world-class writers at Iceland Noir. Kristín Ólafsdóttir talked to the actor about the first novel, earthquakes in Grindavík and the Icelandic Christmas tradition that he plans to adopt." (x)

[richardarmitagefanpage]

New photos of Richard during Iceland Noir in Reykjavík, Iceland. (November 18, 2023)

📷: mbl.is

[tenaciouschronicler]

January 15-17 2025 2010

I went back to page 833 to re-watch the events that canonically occurred in this Midnight Crew adventure. It seems like this stage transition is gonna be a good indicator of the switch to this B-plot (though I doubt we'll get many, if Any, more).

I mostly took notice because Spades Slick, our current main character, has a rancorous hatred of clocks and the stage is literally in front of cogs reminiscent of older clocks with the sun and moon acting as the hands. Though, looking at it closer it seems this clock is Very broken if thats the case, with the moon hand stuttering before the hands switch positions and the cogs spinning and stuttering themselves.

Anyway, intense scrutinization of the transition page aside, lets look at what the intermission holds so far starting with: WV would love this intermission on color scheme alone.

We find ourselves at the mansion of rival mob, The Felt, ran by one Lord English. Because the Felt burned down the casino the last time we saw them, Slick and his gang are here to locate and crack a Vault. Slick, as noted above, has taken it upon himself to have a secondary mission of destroying all 1000 clocks in the mansion.

The universe of Midnight Crew is different than the one of Homestuck, with a different inventory system and no humans with Slick specifically saying "It is a member of a species that you do not recognize, with a ghastly furred upper lip." of the floor gentleman under that rug.

While the plot of this intermission is way more straight forward and noir flavored than Homestuck proper, there are silly moments while we get our bearings.

Instead you momentarily pretend it is a really cool automobile that commands the fear and respect of larcenous adversaries everywhere. BEEP BEEP BEEP All aboard the idiot wagon!

10 out of 10, great content.

On an interesting note much like how mspaintadventures.com takes the kids to the Midnight Crew webcomic, the reverse is true here, with Homestuck being the comic displayed. And of course, the eponymous 4:13 displayed and destroyed in the corner of the laptop. (5/1000 clocks destroyed)

While there are efforts to separate the two there are some connections here and in Homestuck, mostly with this barcode pattern. PM, AR, WV, Jack, his minion and Slick all have the marking with PM and AR's being on the right wrist and the others on the left. I dont know if there is significance in location since AR throws a wrench in the light/dark side separation idea. The coloring Is inverted depending on the color, however. WV and PM's have been shown the clearest and they are not copies of one another, so we can assume every barcode is unique. The one on the back of Slicks card, when turned 90 degrees to the left, looks very similar to WV's up there, though without a clearer look we cant be 100% sure its and exact match. And while most things about Jack and Slick are supposed to make us aware they are two different people, Im curious on if their barcodes just Happen to be the same. I for one would find that hilarious.

Back to the plot, we get introduced to the members of the Felt.

If the Midnight Crew are cards, the Felt are billiards. Three of the members have already been killed so not much is said about them aside being muscle. Two photos are missing, the leader Lord English and number 8, someone named SNOWMAN who Slick must have it out for personally if hes not gonna kill them outright.

Lets breakdown some of these guys because their names arent cohesive (meaning similar naming conventions ala Midnight Crew) But, there are some puns here and I need to explore them:

Itchy- sounds like 'ichi' which is one in Japanese

Doze- sounds like 'dos' which is two in Spanish

Trace- sounds like 'tres' which is three in Spanish

Clover- four leaf clovers are lucky

Fin- kinda hard to figure out, best Ive got is sounds like 'fimm' in Icelandic which is five nickname for the $5 bill derived from the Yiddish "finef"+

Die- six sides to a die

Crowbar- also vague, best guess is the shape of a seven matches a crowbar kinda

Snowman- same as Crowbar in that its more the shape of the number lending to the name

Stitch- no clue honestly probably from the saying "a stitch in time saves nine"*

Sawbuck- a carpentry tool of a wooden rack with 'X' shape crosses at either end; lent itself to the slang term for the $10 bill during the Civil war which had two Roman 'X's on the back

Matchsticks- same as 7 and 8 in being a visual pun

Eggs- 12 eggs in a dozen

Biscuits- bakers dozen tends to mean 13 of an item

Quarters- i got nothing sounds like "quatorize" which is 14 in French*

Cans- ditto here sounds like "quinze" wich is 15 in French^

English- the only one to be an actual billiards term. Side spin applied to the cue ball that alters its natural roll

* thank you to @lemonine for these suggestions

^ and thank you to @homestuckreplay for this one

+ and a final thank you to @reeseskups for the mystery of Fin

All this in mind and what we've seen so far, Lord English most definitely has to have a solid white hat while Snowman has a black one. Maybe thats why Slicks so obsessed with them; theyre encroaching on the Midnight Crew brand. Theres also the idea that Slick is gonna be dealing with time shenanigans? Apparently the Felt are very notorious for this with Die being the worst offender, which I guess explains all the clocks.

For now, Deuce and Droog are hunting down the Felt while Boxcars heads to the vault. Lets see how this blows up for them, yes?

[richardarmitageshands]

Iceland Noir 2023

[caracolartstudio]

The sky Lights up The ground creaks Wind blows Cold and hard Look and listen Light and warmth Glows

Eefje de Visser - Golven

[jenmedsbookreviews]

Death at the Sanatorium by Ragnar Jónasson

Happy publication day Ragnar Jónasson. Death at The Sanatorium is out today and I'm sharing my review over on the blog. (link in bio) @ragnarjo @michaeljbooks #books #bookreview #deathatthesanatorium #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #icelandicnoir

Today I am sharing my thoughts on the brand new mystery from Ragnar Jónasson, Death At The Sanatorium, which just happens to be released today. Happy publication day Ragnar. My thanks to puiblisher, Michael Joseph, for the advance copy via Netgalley. Here’s what it’s about: Source: NetgalleyRelease date: 22 August 2024Publisher: Michael Joseph Continue reading Death at the Sanatorium by…