Book Review - Sea of Stone by Michael Ridpath. Number 4 in the Fire and Ice series finally exposes who murdered Magnus' father

The end of Meltwater, book 3 in the Fire and Ice series, sees Magnus going to confront his grandfather, Hallgrimur, only to find him dead.  Magnus concludes that his younger brother Ollie is responsible for this terrible deed.  Sea of Stone starts with the police finding Magnus at the crime scene, seemingly deliberately interfering with the evidence, and so incriminating himself.  We know from Meltwater that Magnus is innocent, but as the reader is the only person privy to that secret, we then see polarised views of whether Magnus is a murderer or not.

Magnus has got himself into a fix.  To protect his brother, Magnus avoids answering direct questions and refuses to confirm or deny certain details about what happened when he went to meet Hallgrimur.  Although Magnus’ unwillingness to co-operate makes it seem like he’s innocent, it’s soon pointed out that his behaviour could equally be interpreted as a sign of his guilt and there’s at least one senior policeman, Baldur, who is prepared to believe that Magnus is guilty.  As Magnus is remanded in custody, we see more of the family backstory developing, with deceit, greed, adultery and worst of all murder coming to the fore as the action speeds up with an alarming escalation of violence.  The truth about Magnus’ father comes out as an excellent climax to a well developed plot, with a final shocking consequence which shows that some Icelandic traditions are far from dead. 

I did wonder when I picked this book up if Ridpath could follow Meltwater with an equally good novel.  Simple answer – yes!  Sea of Stone has a good, easy to follow narrative with a sophisticated plot that’s built around “old fashioned” reasons for crime – human weakness, jealousy and a misguided need for revenge.  The novel has a rich backstory and Ridpath makes good use of the whole cast of characters from colleagues Vigdis and Arni to Magnus’ love interest Ingileif, as well as introducing a new character Inspector Emil (the Dumpling), responsible for catching Hallgrimur’s murderer.

I love the Icelandic backdrop to the book and to me the depth of Ridpath’s understanding of Iceland, its traditions, people and their behaviours simply shines through adding a real richness to the scenes, characters and plot of the novel.

And as always, Ridpath leaves you with a little hook at the end.  You know that whilst the case of who murdered Magnus’ father is finally solved, it’s still not going to be a happy ending for him and Ollie.  I’m sure there’s more to come in the Fire and Ice series.

Romancrimeblogger