HAVE YOU READ? IT’S A MYSTERY

Jan. 5: Ragnar Jónasson and Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Reykjavík: A Crime Story. Trans. Victoria Cribb. ISBN 9781250907332. Best-selling Icelandic crime writer Jónasson has teamed up with the country’s prime minister Jakobsdóttir to produce this novel, which introduces readers to yet a new category of fiction: “Scandinavian noir” (Amazon.com). While Iceland is a notoriously peaceful country with one of the lowest crime rates in the world, the story is based on a cold case from 1956 involving the disappearance of a young girl. Thirty years later, a journalist revives the investigation – with consequences that reach into the corridors of Icelandic power. Feb. 2: James McBride, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store.  ISBN 9780593422946. The New York Times headlines its review of McBride’s book thus: “A murder mystery inside a Great American Novel” (Danez Smith, August 6, 2023). In 1972, a skeleton is discovered. Who is it? The hunt for the identity of the victim, and that of the killer, takes the