Thanks to the publisher for my free copy in exchange for a review!

I’ve noticed I usually start my reviews of thrillers with ‘I don’t usually enjoy thrillers but’ and then go on to say how much I enjoyed this one - maybe I ought to be reading more thrillers?! 😅 I certainly would if they all had the complexity and dark humour of Jenny Lund Madsen’s Thirty Days of Darkness!

The premise of this thriller is a fun one - Hannah is a snobbish Danish author of ‘serious’ literary fiction who is challenged by her crime-fiction-writing nemesis to write a crime novel in 30 days. She accepts and retreats to rural Iceland for inspiration (we all know how good Nordic Noir is), but finds herself a little closer to the inspiration than she initially planned, embroiled in a series of murders in a tiny close-knit community.

Although Hannah does fall into the stereotype of the alcoholic lead of a crime novel, she more than makes up for it with her deadpan wit and the entertaining way she needs to stick her nose in everywhere it shouldn’t be. She’s infuriating at times, a giant snob, kisses somebody’s wife, but you can’t help but root for her. I also appreciated the queer rep in this book, not something I’ve seen much of in translated crime thrillers.

The wider cast of characters were just as interesting, from the first murder victim, the town’s sole police officer, the outcast professor turned almost-homeless academic, Hannah’s host and her mysterious and tragic past, it truly was a well-spun web of drama and intrigue. The translation from the Danish by Megan Turney read super smoothly, and since there’s quite a lot of dialogue this was definitely appreciated. Nothing worse than clunky translated dialogue!

Apparently this is the first in a series - I’m not entirely certain how that’ll play out in terms of which characters we’re revisiting, but I’ll definitely be picking it up!