Michael Ridpath

An ancient Icelandic saga leads to murder in this ingenious new crime series from international bestseller Michael Ridpath.

Michael Ridpath is on the war path, trouncing the Scandinavians on their home turf. This is international thriller writing at its best, fine characters, page turning suspense and a great, fresh location. PETER JAMESThe first two Magnus Jonson mysteries brought together into one ebook volume.Where the Shadows LieAmid Icelands wild, volcanic landscape, rumours swirl of an eight-hundred-year-old manuscript inscribed with a long-lost saga about a ring of terrible power. A rediscovered saga alone would be worth a fortune, but, if the rumours can be believed, there is something much more valuable about this one. Something worth killing for. Something that will cost Professor Agnar Haraldsson his life.Untangling murder from myth is Iceland-born, Boston-raised homicide detective Magnus Jonson. Seconded to the Icelandic Police Force for his own protection after he runs afoul of a drug cartel back in Boston, Magnus also has his own reasons for returning to the country of his birth for the first time in nearly two decades - the unsolved murder of his father. And as Magnus is about to discover, the past casts a long shadow in Iceland.66 NorthIn Iceland, the credit crunch is biting. The currency has been devalued, banks nationalized, savings annihilated, lives ruined. Grassroots revolution is in the air, as is the feeling that someone ought to pay... the blood price. And in a country with a population of just 300,000 souls, where everyone knows everybody, it isnt hard to draw up a list of exactly who is responsible. And then, one-by-one, to cross them off. As bankers and politicians start to die, at home and abroad, it is up to Magnus Jonson to unravel the web of conspirators before they strike again.

What if you woke up to discover that youd killed the only woman you had ever loved?Alastair Cunningham wakes up in hospital with almost total amnesia. But he knows that something terrible happened in his past, something that haunts him still. A young family friend, Clemence, is called in to help rekindle his memory. Retreating with Alastair to his remote cottage by a Scottish loch, Clemence finds a peculiar manuscript hidden away from prying eyes. Reading the prologue, she discovers a murder by someone very much like a young Alastair. The victim? Clemences grandmother, Sophie. Could this kindly old man truly be a killer? Clemence becomes determined to find out what happened all those years ago, even if she must risk everything to do so...

From the million-copy bestselling author, perfect forfans of Stieg Larsson, Anne Holt, and The Killing."Michael Ridpath is on the war path, trouncingthe Scandinavians on their home turf. This is international thriller writing at its best, fine characters, page turning suspense and a great, fresh location." PETER JAMESIceland, 2010: Called to investigate a suspected homicide in a remote farmstead, Constable Pall is surprised to find that Sergeant Magnus Jonson is already at the scene. The victim? Magnuss estranged grandfather. But it quickly becomes apparent that the crime scene has been tampered with, and that Magnuss version of events doesnt add up. Before long, Magnus is arrested for the murder of his grandfather. When it emerges that his younger brother, Ollie, is in Iceland after two decades in America, Pall begins to think that Magnus may not be the only family member in the frame for murder...

From the million-copy bestselling author, perfect for fans of Stieg Larsson, Anne Holt, and The Killing."Michael Ridpath is on the war path, trouncing the Scandinavians on their home turf. This is international thriller writing at its best, fine characters, page turning suspense and a great, fresh location." PETER JAMES Iceland, 2010: A group of internet activists have found evidence of a military atrocity in the Middle East. As they prepare to unleash the damning video to the worlds media, to the backdrop of the erupting volcano Eyjafjallajokull, one is brutally murdered. As Magnus Jonson begins to investigate, the list of suspects grows ever longer. From the Chinese government, Israeli military, Italian politicians, even to American College Fraternities, the group has made many enemies. And more are coming to the surface every day...And with the return of Magnuss brother Ollie to Iceland, the feud that has haunted their family for three generations is about to reignite.

Hugely enjoyable and thought-provoking, Launch Code brings to mind the classic thrillers of Alister Maclean and Jack Higgins. A well-crafted ingenious mystery, tightly plotted, compelling and contemporary, this could well be Michael Ridpaths best novel yet. - Stav Sherez, author of the Carrigan & Miller series1983: Three hundred feet beneath the Atlantic, submarine Lieutenant Bill Guth receives the order hes been dreading: a full nuclear strike against the USSR. Crisis is soon averted, but in the chaos that follows, one crew member ends up dead...2019: Bills annual family gathering is interrupted when a historian turns up, eager to uncover the truth about the near-apocalyptic Cold War incident. Bill refuses to answer, but that night the man is brutally murdered.What happened all those years ago? How much is Bill to blame for events in the past? And who will stop at nothing to keep the secrets of 1983 where they belong?Deadly state secrets and deadlier family secrets - perfectly crafted, scrupulously researched Launch Code weaves an ingeniously dark and tangled web that will keep you gripped and guessing to the very end. Ridpath is one of the best thriller writers around. - Craig Russell, author of The Devil Aspect

From the million-copy bestselling author, perfect for fans of Stieg Larsson, Anne Holt, and The Killing.Michael Ridpath is trouncing the Scandinavians on their home turf. This is international thriller writing at its best. Peter JamesIceland, 2017: When a young Italian tourist is found brutally murdered at a sacred church in northern Iceland, Magnus Jonson, newly returned to the Reykjavik police force, is called in to investigate. At the scene, he finds a stunned TV crew, there to film a documentary on the life of the legendary Viking, Gudrid the Wanderer. Magnus quickly begins to suspect that there may be more links to the murdered woman than anyone in the film crew will acknowledge. As jealousies come to the surface, new tensions replace old friendships, and history begins to rewrite itself, a shocking second murder leads Magnus to question everything he thought he knew...

TO LOVE, HONOUR, AND BETRAY...One of our finest thriller writers.Daily Mail1936: Devastated by the death of her beloved brother Hugh, Emma seeks to keep his memory alive by wholeheartedly embracing his dreams of a communist revolution. But when she marries an ambitious diplomat, she must leave her ideals behind and live within the confines of embassy life in Paris and Nazi Berlin. Then one of Hughs old comrades reappears, asking her to report on her philandering husband, and her loyalties are torn.1979: Emmas grandson, Phil, dreams of a gap-year tour of Cold War Europe, but is nowhere near being able to fund it. So when his beloved grandmother determines to make one last trip to the places she lived as a young diplomatic wife, and to try to solve a mystery that has haunted her since the war, he jumps at the chance to accompany her. But their journey takes them to darker, more dangerous places than either of them could ever have imagined...Thoroughly engaging. Prewar Europe has rarely been evoked with the skill that Ridpath displays here.Financial Times

"Michael Ridpath is on the war path, trouncingthe Scandinavians on their home turf. This is international thriller writing at its best, fine characters, page turning suspense and a great, fresh location." PETER JAMES An atmospheric novella set in the remote north of Iceland, featuring lone-wolf police sergeant Magnus RagnarssonIceland, midwinter: the days are fleeting, the nights endless and sergeant Magnus Jonson has been sent to an isolated fishing village in the West Fjords to investigate the possible homicide of a road construction worker. Ringed by steep mountains, this bleak village is cut off from the rest of Iceland and from the modern world. The locals are adamant that Icelands legendary huldufolk - hidden people - had a hand in the death. Magnus finds their superstition suspicious... As he digs deeper, Magnus discovers that the victim was not a popular man, leading him to suspect that other, more human, passions are at work...

From the million-copy bestselling author, perfect for fans of Stieg Larsson, Anne Holt, and The Killing."Michael Ridpath is on the war path, trouncing the Scandinavians on their home turf. This is international thriller writing at its best, fine characters, page turning suspense and a great, fresh location." PETER JAMES Iceland 1934: Two boys playing in the lava fields that surround their isolated farmsteads see something they shouldnt have. The consequences will haunt them and their families for generations. Iceland 2009: the credit crunch bites. The currency has been devalued, savings annihilated, lives ruined. Revolution is in the air, as is the feeling that someone ought to pay the blood price... And in a country with a population of just 300,000 souls, where everyone knows everybody, it isnt hard to draw up a list of those responsible. And then, one-by-one, to cross them off. Iceland 2010: As bankers and politicians start to die, at home and abroad, it is up to Magnus Jonson to unravel the web of conspirators before they strike again. But while Magnus investigates the crimes of the present, the crimes of the past are catching up with him.

Iceland 1934: Two boys playing in the lava fields that surround their isolated farmsteads see something they shouldn't have. The consequences will haunt them and their families for generations. Iceland 2009: the credit crunch bites. The currency has been devalued, banks nationalised, savings annihilated, lives ruined. Grassroots revolution is in the air, as is the feeling that someone ought to pay ...ought to pay the blood price. And in a country with just 300,000 souls, in a country where everyone knows everybody, it isn't hard to draw up a list of exactly who is responsible. And then, one-by-one to cross them off. Iceland 2010: As bankers and politicians start to die, at home and abroad, it is up to Magnus Jonson to unravel the web of conspirators before they strike again. But while Magnus investigates the crimes of the present, the crimes of the past are catching up with him.

From the million-copy bestselling author, perfect forfans of Stieg Larsson, Anne Holt, and The Killing."Michael Ridpath is on the war path, trouncing the Scandinavians on their home turf. This is international thriller writing at its best, fine characters, page turning suspense and a great, fresh location." PETER JAMESWhen a polar bear is sighted in a sleepy Icelandic fishing village, then shot dead by local policeman Constable Halldor, it triggers a debate in the local community. Was Halldor a hero for killing the bear, or should the animal have been protected?Animal rights activists in the area see the constable as a villain, and when days later the dead body of Halldor is discovered at a remote beauty spot, the activists are immediately under suspicion. As Sergeant Magnus Ragnarsson and his colleague Detective Vigdis Audardotti begin to investigate the policemans murder, they soon discover that things are not as clear-cut as might first appear. By degrees, Magnus and Vigdis are drawn into this small and complex community - one riven with rivalries and grudges - in search of a deadly killer...