The murder rate in Iceland is 20 times lower than the world average, which works out to be .3 murders per 100,000 people. To put it another way, there were 25 murders in Iceland between 2000 and 2012. This has not stopped Iceland from producing some excellent mystery writers. Recently, I read two books by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir. Someone to Watch Over Me and Day is Dark feature her leading character Thora Gudmundsdottir, a lawyer. Her books feature suspense, twisty plots, interesting characters, sly humor, and a touch of the supernatural, as one would expect in the land of trolls and ice.
The reader also gains insight into daily Icelandic life such as the devastation of personal finances caused by the failure of Icelandic banks resulting in Thora's parents having to move in with her, her children, and boyfriend Matthew from Germany. The constant fight to maintain dry, warm feet when dealing with the winter snows. Or Iceland's unique cuisine as indicated by this passage:
"Mathew had managed to adapt to many aspects of Icelandic society, but taking cod liver oil was the exception. Thora allowed him to skip it--he had enough to put with from her friends, who had all come up with the same idea when Matthey and Thora were invited to dinner or a party: to ply him with cured shark and brennivin."
My view of Iceland is so influenced by owning an Icelandic horse. I assumed all Icelanders were avid riders and most owned horses. I have read two books by Sigurðardóttir and no horses have turned up--cats, dogs, but no horses.
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