How is the first week of January treating you? Is it snowing where you are? Have you been reading much over Christmas? And the most important question: did Santa bring any good books for you? I got new and second-hand books but must admit that I had no headspace to focus on reading much nor writing for a while hence my blog has been hibernating since autumn.

However, now that the days are tiny bit longer even if bitterly cold, and everything is covered in the snow and the whiteness creates more light at night, and I also have a new cat introducing new routines at home and supervising everything I do, I decided to ease myself gently into the fiction reading. First on the list: Historical Value by Quentin Bates. At 29 pages the short story was indeed very short, and ‘sweet’ in the way that all cool writing is: setting up an interesting background to what could have happened in the past, shaping believable characters and even if a conclusion comes quickly and nicely packaged, it makes you want more. Introduction of the quick-thinking detective who needs to navigate the official crime scene outside his jurisdiction while on holidays could really develop into much bigger / shocking story. Maybe it will be the case.

I might have mentioned Quentin Bates once or ten times before: my favourite translator from the Icelandic, journalist, publisher (Corylus Books) and writer (Summerchill – 2015, Cold Breath – 2019, Cold Steel – 2019, Cold Malice – 2020) that could probably use more hours in a day to just write. That’s what he says about this standalone continuation of the Gunnhildur books: ‘Old bones come to light on a remote farm in the north of Iceland. Detective Helgi Svavarsson is reluctant to get involved with what looks like something he feels calls for an archaeologist rather than a policeman. In any case, he’s off duty and has family business to attend to. But he can’t help but be intrigued as suspicion falls on the now elderly woman who farmed at Fagrabrekka for so many years – and what became of the man who caught the bus south one winter afternoon, forty-two years ago?

Historical Value is cheaper than chips (or coffee) and will definitely stay with(in) you for much longer. Get it now.