If you had to choose a new location for a crime series, where would you look?
Michael Ridpath had to do just that. He chose Iceland, a country of fjords, glaciers and volcanoes, of long, manic summer days and long, sinister winter evenings, a place where everyone is on Facebook and everyone’s grandmother has spoken to an elf.
This is his account of researching the country: the breathtaking landscape, its vigorous if occasionally odd people, the great heroes and heroines of its sagas, and (of course) those troublesome elves; with a little bit thrown in about how to put together a good detective story.
Writing in Ice: A Crime Writer’s Guide to Iceland by Michael Ridpath is published on 1 July, 2021.
Michael’s feature looking at his experiences researching in, and writing about, Iceland is Historia’s lead story on 4 July, 2021.