The Polar Bear Killing is a novella that sits within the Icelandic Fire and Ice series by Michael Ridpath. It’s a reasonable enough story, and highlights a minor police character from the main series. What I do really like about Ridpath’s writing though, is the time he takes to explain the geographic details, and other historic points of interest about the setting in which the story takes place.

The story is set in the remote Icelandic town of Raufarhöfn, the northernmost town on the Icelandic mainland, nestled on the eastern shore of Melrakkaslétta peninsula. Raufarhöfn is home to the Arctic henge, a massive stone circle on the hill just north of the town, 50m in diameter with four giant gates (representing the seasons) up to 7m in height. The monument is currently under construction and aims to explain the strong local beliefs in the mythology of the Edda poem Völuspá (Wise Woman’s Prophecy).

That was probably the highlight of the story for me - learning more about this remote place, adding it to the list of places I want to visit. I was also interested to get a sense of how polar bears manage to get to Iceland, floating on ice floes from Greenland.

So all in all a good little read and almost finishes off everything Ridpath has to offer in this series.

A cop shoots a stray polar bear. Days later the cop is found shot just as the polar bear had been. It was pretty obvious to me from practically the beginning who the killer had to be, but it was still an atmospheric and enjoyable read, filled with appealing characters. Will definitely read more in the series by this author. Read as the last book in the NYC Scandinavia House Nordic Summer Reading Challenge - a book set in Iceland.