As Iceland's first lady from 2016 to 2024, Canada-born Eliza Reid (Secrets of the Sprakkar: Iceland's Extraordinary Women and How They Are Changing the World) was a bridge between two nations. In her first novel in a planned series, Death on the Island, an old-school mystery so gratifyingly bendy it delivers multiple twists, Canadian-Icelandic relations could really use her unifying spirit.
One not-so-dark and stormy night, a small Canadian delegation of diplomats are attending a private dinner at an upscale restaurant on the tiny Westman Islands (population: 4,500), off the south coast of Iceland. The occasion is the official opening of a Canadian artist's exhibition inspired by Iceland's nature; the show is being coordinated by the Canadian embassy. At the gathering, the deputy ambassador winds up dead; as the Canadian ambassador puts it to the investigating officer, "We toasted, and drank, and then she seemed to choke or something." And yes, some of the people present had reason to want the deputy ambassador dead.
Reid chases the murder with chapters that count down the hours to the event, during which the novel's perspective wanders among four characters who ultimately attend the dinner, one of whom--the ambassador's wife--decides to play detective. Aside from Reid's suspense-maximizing structural inventiveness, Death on the Island is a Christie-esque affair, with a tight roster of secret-keeping suspects and a satisfyingly stagey all-hands-on-deck summing-up; Reid has just swapped out Christie's secluded English country manor for an Icelandic island that's not all that much bigger. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer