The Edge of the Habitable World: The Officer Gunnhildur Novels of Quentin Bates

British author Quentin Bates spent a decade in Iceland as a young man, working variously as a netmaker, factory hand, and trawlerman. Returning to England, he became a journalist for a nautical trade mag, but never lost his love for Iceland. Now mystery readers can enjoy the country along with Bates in his Officer Gunnhildur novels, the second of which, Cold Comfort, is just out in the U.S.

Frozen Assets, Bates’s first book featuring Officer Gunnhildur “Gunna” Gisladottir–a single mother of three children–won critical acclaim on this side of the Atlantic. Booklist noted of this work: “Fans of Arnaldur Indridason’s Reykjavík mysteries will want to add Bates to their reading lists.” Similarly, Publishers Weekly wrote: “[A] crackling fiction debut … palpable authenticity.”

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Annus Mirabilis in a Mutable World

For those of you who may have missed this when it was posted at The Rap Sheet, I reprise here the “Story behind the Story” of my new novel, THE SILENCE, a “splendid third whodunit featuring attorney Karl Werthen and criminologist Hanns Gross,” according to Publishers Weekly. The novel was also picked by Kirkus Reviews in pre-pub for its “10 Thrillers to Watch for This Fall” list. Herewith, some of the backstory to the genesis of this work, third in the Viennese Mysteries series.

I turned twenty-one on Easter Sunday in Rome, squeezed amongst  the throngs of people gathered in  St. Peter’s Square as the pope gave us all a plenary indulgence. I am not Catholic or Christian or even particularly religious, but the fact that the slim speck of white far away on a balcony over the enormous piazza erased all previous sin in my life was emblematic of that annus mirabilis in my life.

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