ICELANDIC BLOOD DROP AWARD (Blóðdropinn)

Icelandic author Yrsa Sigurðardóttir’s lBráðin (The Prey), received the Icelandic Blood Drop Award (Blóðdropinn) for the best crime novel of 2020.  From Shotsmag: “The ‘Blood Drop’ Award is a crime fiction prize, hosted by Crime Writers of Iceland. The novel that receives the prize becomes the Icelandic nomination for the Glass Key, an award given annually to a crime novel from one of the Nordic countries—Iceland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway. Usually, every Icelandic crime novel published each year is automatically nominated.”

HT: The Rap Sheet

Yrsa Sigurdardottir's Iceland-My Soul to Take

I've always been interested in Iceland having landed there on one of those cheap flights to Europe decades ago. We had a problem with the plane (Iceland was a touchdown point -my final destination was Italy), and I got to spend several hours and do a very tiny bit of touring. It wasn't enough. What a stark but beautiful landscape.

Later I read the gripping thrillers of award winning author Arnaldur Indridason. His terse writing and ingenious plotting has made him one of my favorites. I was lucky to have Arnaldur on my Around the World panel at Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, this past year, and it was wonderful to see his personal humor during the panel. Inspector Erlendur, himself, is quite brooding.

I've also read Icelandic author Yrsa Sigurdardottir's novels. My Soul to Take is the latest in the Thora Gudmundsdottir series. This time Thora takes on a hotelier on the West Coast of Iceland as a client. Yrsa Sigurdardottir really conveys her country and its unique culture and stark landscape in her books. I haven't read this latest in the series, but I'm moving it to the top of my TBR.

I was so glad to get an email today from HarperCollins with a link to a terrific video in which Yrsa tours her native Iceland and introduces My Soul to Take. The scenery is breathtaking. Yrsa should market this to the Icelandic tourist bureau.

Yrsa wrote an article entitled " A Depressing Lack of Crime" for the Scandinavian issue of Mystery Readers Journal in 2007. The article isn't available on the web, but the issue is. If you're interested in Scandinavia, you'll want to get a copy. No pressure. The motto of Mystery Readers Journal is "enriching the lives of mystery readers."