I’m in Reykjavik again. Home from home. Going from one cold climate country to another. This is my fifth time at the crime fiction festival, now with a slightly different dark twist, and my twelfth (thirteenth?) trip to Iceland. The country and the island that caught me and my my heart, and luckily will not let go.

‘Iceland Noir was born in 2013 over a curry in one of Reykjavík’s finer Indian restaurants. Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, Ragnar Jónasson and Quentin Bates were idly wondering why Iceland had never had its own crime fiction festival. The idea gelled and by the time we all met again Crimefest in Bristol a few weeks later, it seemed we had all been thinking much the same thoughts and Iceland Noir was born on the spot.’

Iceland Noir’s programme is packed with darkness of all types: http://www.icelandnoir.com/programme2022. The authors and readers, the excitement, the books, the conversations, and the unique atmosphere of this piece of land that combines magic, traditions, stunning landscapes, fantastic creativity, ‘book floods’ as well as modern ills and controversies. But before the festival starts officially for most of the guests, although some events are already happening, I’m getting ready to chair my first panel with Louise Mangos, Jeff Siger, Paul Cleave and Thomas Fecchio, and enjoying silence of the chilly day. Yesterday sunshine painted the skies in incredible shades of pink. Today strong winds and cold rains might remind us that you don’t mess with nature, and have to respect whatever the Norse gods throw at you.