This started well, but I think the four equally-weighted strands of plot were too many. Coincidental connections between the initially discreet characters and events soon began to strain credibility, and in order for each strand to be fully exploited, the novel became too long and, in the end, it was a bit of a plod.

Would like to have had more of the Icelandic hinterland instead. ( )

An engaging blend of blackmail, sexual mischief, coldly calculated murder and a solid police procedural, this Icelandic investigation combines a well-woven plot with a cast of intriguing characters. Sergeant Gunnhildur, the resolutely down-to-earth pragmatist, is the anchor around whom the storyline revolves, and she’s currently one of the most interesting female investigators in crime fiction.

Gunna however, doesn’t hog the limelight. She’s frequently in the wings, while the entertaining supporting cast take centre stage. There’s the part-time dominatrix who’s turned a hobby into a profitable sideline. A dipwit narcissist civil servant who’ll do almost anything to recover his missing laptop. His bullying boss, driven by terror of political humiliation.

Best of all is Baddo, a time-served ex-con who’s been banged up abroad and has every reason to steer clear of coming home, but reluctantly returns to Iceland. Baddo is acres more interesting than your average rent-a-thug, a brooding, intelligent and effective menace who plainly has an interesting past – and who makes faster progress with his illegitimate investigation than the police do with their attempts.

Amid the chilly slither of slushy ice, Bates also conveys quiet moments of social commentary in non-judgmental fashion. These are deftly delivered without slowing the pace or detracting from the plot – they are simply a part of the story, just as much as the sturdy, matter-of-fact nature of the Icelandic characters. When some investigators might turn to drugs, booze or self-indulgent misery, Gunna and her fella spar with affectionate wit; Bates totally nails the dialogue between a loving, comfortable couple.

His writing is less quirky and more accessible than some Nordic authors (although you will need to be able to cope with Icelandic names if you’re to keep track of the cast). Although ‘Chilled’ unflinchingly portrays callous violence, it doesn’t submerge the reader in the overwhelmingly claustrophobic, stifling atmosphere so typical of Scandinavian mysteries. It’s written fluently and with crisp clarity, and crams multi-faceted texture into a rapid read.

This is gripping fiction, with a wicked villain and a marvellously robust female protagonist, but it feels only a step removed from the real world. After being somewhat ambivalent about the first book in this series, I’m now eagerly anticipating the next…
8/10

There's more detail on the plot and characters over at
https://murdermayhemandmore.wordpress.com/2015/09/04/chilled-to-the-bone-death-i...
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Another great book by Quentin Bates. Police sergeant Gunnhildur is alerted when a man is found dead tied to a bed in a hotel. The investigation brings her to more strange occurances of men being found tied to their beds in hotels and robbed, they are not hurt however just their pride. She is concerned that this whole thing had been kept under wraps and away from the knowledge of the police force. The investigation escalates into a group of ruthless people who will do anything to keep their secrets safe. The Icelandic council and business men do not come out looking good but as the investigation hots up where will it end. Gunnhildur also has her own family problems to deal with as well.

I love Bates writing and the forays into gunnhildurs life and the life of some of the other characters does not detract from the real plot. I cant wait for the next book. ( )

This is the third in Quentin Bates' series of Icelandic police procedurals, featuring the redoubtable Officer Gunnhilder. I was delighted when it was published last December, because I so much enjoyed the two earlier novels in the series -- "Frozen Assets" and "Cold Comfort". But for me at least, this book was not as compelling as the other two. The central character -- Gunnhilder Gislasdottir of the Reykjavik police -- is still very sympathetic, and great fun to watch in action: she takes no nonesense. Also, the subsidiary characters are well drawn, and the book is suspenseful. What's missing is the intertwining of Iceland's crime scene with Iceland's financial collapse, which for me was a lot of what made the earlier two books so interesting. The fading of this theme into the background may be simply the result of some normalization in Iceland's financial situation, which is a very good thing for the Icelanders. Despite my disappointment, I will continue to follow Officer Gunnhilder -- she really is a great character. ( )

Gunna Gísladóttir, a detective segeant in the Reykjavik police force, has a corpse on her hands. Though it seems likely the wealthy gentleman died of natural causes, he did so in rather unusual circumstances. Someone had tied him to a hotel bed as part of a discreet bit of bondage. Whoever his partner was has disappeared. Gunna soon discovers that hotels Chilled to the Bonearound the city are aware of a woman who men have been hiring to participate in such entertainments, only to abscond with their valubles as soon as they were tied up.

The absconder adds a bit of insurance by photographing the men in their embarrassing situation, just in case they decided to give her trouble. After a quick shopping expedition, she always calls the front desk to have her hapless, humailiated mark set free.

This con has been working out very well indeed for Hekla, who (readers soon find out) has put away enough money that she can begin to think about retiring – until an unfortuanate heart attack intervened. But that’s not the least of Hekla’s worries, as it turns out. A laptop she acquired during one of her jobs has something on it that some government officials want very badly.

In the third book in the series, Quentin Bates tosses a number of balls in the air and keeps them moving. Gunna is not the only one looking for the mysterious woman who takes the role of dominatrix in an unexpectedly prosaic direction. A criminal who has recently returned to Iceland after years in a Baltic prison is also on the hunt, hired by a desperate civil servant who lost a laptop.

Gunna is a great protagonist – down to earth, capable, wonderfully balanced even when her children throw challenges her way. Hekla, the conwoman, is also a sympathetic character, trying to take care of her family as her country is putting the pieces back together after a disastrous banking collapse. Even the aptly-named Baddó, a hard man who can kill people without remorse on his way to a missing laptop, comes to life as a fully rounded human being. There are a number of secondary characters, including Baddó’s criminal associates and unsavory officials who don’t want the emails on the missing laptop revealed. The frequent shifts from one point of view to another sometimes mades it hard for me (a lazy reader) to keep track of who’s who. Personally, I would have liked to spend as much page time as possible with Gunna.

Once again Quentin Bates gives us a view of a small country that has been buffeted by change, first pulled out of its traditional hard-scrabble economy by high-flying bankers, then doing their best to recover from the crash the bankers created as well as from the cultural hangover of having had too much wealth injected into their society too quickly. There is a sense, toward the end, that something fundamental is still out of joint, that there are crimes that the police can’t protect the people of their little island from. But there is also the promise that Gunna and her team will do their best, regardless.