Greenland Noir

So keeping in mind that Greenland has a total population of 56,000...and its largest (and capital) city (Nuuk) has a tad more than 18,000, which is about the size of St. Matthews, which is a pretty small part of Louisville (which is not exactly what you would call a Big City)...

...it's a bit surprising that there is such a thing as a Greenland Crime Novel, and at least slightly hilarious that you can actually refer to Greenland Noir. I mean...how much crime could there be in a place with such a small population? And how big would their police force be? I'm imagining three of four guys sitting around with their feet propped up on desks for most of the day. Smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo.

But I had stumbled upon an Iceland(population over 364,000) Noir book a little while back...the most excellent House of Evidence by Viktor Arnar Ingólfsson...and I guess that put me on the list for Very Cold Police Procedural Novels, because this 

popped up in my You Should Buy This feed.

And that cover...right? What a superb design job. Also, it was a mere 99¢, and after wolfing down the Amazon Free Preview, I was more than happy to slap that dollar bill down on the table. So to speak.

I was almost immediately entranced by the lead character,  David Maratse, who is apparently--despite the name--a native Greenlander. He is quite a change of pace from the usual Neo-Noir hero. For one thing, he can barely walk when we first meet him...due to injuries sustained in the case right before this one...about which we know very little, and about which I'm telling less, as I aim to be a No Spoilers kind of guy. For another thing, he has just been retired from the police force, and he is heading out for a quiet village (heh heh...like 18,000 wasn't quiet enough for him?) in order to hunt and fish. He's even trying to quit smoking. And unlike pretty much every cop / detective you've ever seen in the prow of a novel, he isn't an alcoholic. 

The Greenland setting is also pretty fascinating. I regularly find myself Googling things that are mentioned--not just towns, but buildings, statues, etcetera--which has the effect of making me really feel the environment much more intensely than pretty much any novel I've ever read. And that may be low balling it. It also makes me long for a movie version, because it would be quite a thrill ride. (And by the way, Michael Fassbender would be an excellent choice to play David Maratse...and he does have previous experience in playing a policeman in a very cold place--in the much maligned The Snowman, which I thought was pretty good, and which is currently available on hulu. And I would love to see Anya Taylor-Joy play Petra Jensen. After seeing her in The New Mutants, I know she could pull this off.)

Speaking of movies...I'm sorry to say that I don't get a good picture of the characters in the novel. In fact, I was at such a deficit in this regard that when I finally got a description of the aforementioned Petra (Piitalaat) Jensen, I was kind of startled to see that she was pretty obviously of Inuit descent.  And yes, the name and the knowledge that she was Greenlandic should have tipped me off earlier, but what can I say other than that it didn't? And to be honest, I'm still not sure about Maratse. But you know what? The pages of this book turn so quickly that it's not something I was aware of at all until after I'd finished the book, and it certainly was no stop to me. 

Speaking of the story...it is a murder mystery of sorts...not the kind where you figure things out, though, so I guess more of a police procedural, actually. I'm glad to say that despite some intense violence, I never got that "I must look away" feeling that I get from so many stories and movies and television shows these days...wherein the writers really do seem to be getting some kind of perverse pleasure out of manifesting disgusting scenes. No, Our Christoffer is made of much better stuff than that.

I purchased this book at 10:41 pm on October 30th. Four days later (as the crow flies), I had finished it. And just for context, I was reading a bit of 8 other books every day during this time. (Well, pretty much ALL of the time. Sometimes more. 3 with daughter, 3 with son, 1 with my Daily Devotional Reading program / regimen, and 1 for my daily dose of Isaac Asimov.) And usually a comic book or graphic novel or two as well. I think that tells you something about how compelling Christoffer Petersen's writing is.

And on November 3rd, I bought the second book in this Greenland Crime series: 

And again...isn't that just a superb cover? This one cost $2.99, but I didn't even have to think about that. And although I was a little unhappy with the Cliffhanger Ending (it was good, I just don't like cliffhangers), I burned through this one in a few days, too, and on November 9th it was time for

And not only another great cover, but a great title as well...taken from a line in Frankenstein, by the way. This one was a little rougher (violence-wise) than the previous two, as it pretty much had to be since the central action centered around torture (again, no details), but even with this Christoffer Petersen managed to evoke the horror of the action without turning into the cheap theatrics of horrific details. That takes some skill, for sure. And at the end of this one, there was a plot twist that I would never have seen coming, even though in The Real World that's the way it would have to happen. But you know, I can't remember another novel, story, movie, or tv show which took that twist. So more kudos to CP.

To summarize: Christoffer Petersen creates multiple characters you will care about and who seem very unique and real...including relatively minor characters. He comes up with plots which are exciting, take unexpected turns, and which make you turn those pages at a furious rate. And on top of that, he doesn't go for cheap shots...which gives me the impression of a man with a strong moral center, you know what I mean? That is certainly something which we could use more of these days. I can't help thinking about the contrast between Jo Nesbø's Harry Hole and Christoffer Petersen's David Maratse. I love Harry, for sure. And I've read all twelve of the novels which feature him. But after only one of the David Maratse novels, I cared much more about David, and he seems much more like a real person to me. 

Okay. That took me into the fourth novel in the series, Inside the Bear's Cage: Crime and Punishment in the Arctic. And I'll just say that that plot twist I alluded to earlier was followed to a logical conclusion, and that I am now hesitantly starting the last novel in the series, which is Whale Heart: Polar Politics and Persecution in the Arctic and Antarctic. "Hesitantly"? Yes...but only because this is the last book in the series, and I don't want it to end. The good news is that there are other stories about David Maratse, which I will be onto in the near future, and there are also stories about Petra Jensen which I am planning on getting into. I am having some trouble figuring out the overall chronology of all of this, but if I get a handle on it, an annotated bibliography will certainly be forthcoming.