Translated by Quentin Bates — The Hotel Manager’s Guide to Murder is the first in a trilogy featuring detectives Hauker and Dagný. You may be familiar with the stories of the big London hotels that discreetly take care of everything for their guests, even the quiet handling of a natural death in the night, managed as if it was a perfectly normal part of the day. At the glamorous Hotel Bristol in Reykjavik they go one step further and the residents have no idea what goes on behind the scenes… which includes murder.
Torfi is called in by his boss, Asbjörn, and Sigridur from HR. It’s an ambush. They fully intend to sack him and yet he comes out of the meeting with a promotion and a substantial pay rise, and the entire story hinges on this.
Without realising it, Torfi has intimated that he knows something is going on at the hotel. As there really is something going on, he is now in on the take. Maybe he can cope with the new ‘responsibilities’ but everything comes at a price.
Late one night he gets a phonecall summoning him back to the hotel. Asbjörn wants him to get rid of a body; a man who died in mysterious circumstances. Torfi should report it but he feels pressured into hiding the corpse so he goes along with the plan. In true noir fashion, by failing to notify the police there’s no turning back and his troubles are just beginning.
The police are soon sniffing around anyway, and soon we meet Hauker and Dagný. Who was the man? How did he die, and what else is the hotel hiding? Look out for the rough sleepers, Ragi and Láki, who fall foul of the bad guys when they witness something they shouldn’t. The pair turn up early every morning for their usual titbits from the kitchen but this one fateful morning they arrive a little too early. They are among a strong cast of characters who colour the narrative.
Torfi is still dealing with the daily trials of ordinary life, like the rows with his wife and coming to terms with the fact that his little girl is turning into a teenage goth. Now he has bigger problems on his plate. He was out of his depth the moment he took the new job and, as things spiral, the whole Torfi dug just gets deeper and deeper. He never set out to do anything particularly wrong, but couldn’t help but become embroiled.
The Hotel Manager’s Guide to Murder is an easy read but it’s dark and engrossing. The plot is pacy, a great example of the runaway plot, where events just keep overtaking characters. In fact, it’s darker than you might think from the title. As a mystery it is intriguing but what really elevates the story and will thrill Crime Fiction Lover readers is the wry humour – all based on the absurdity of the situation which escalates, Torvi’s blundering into trouble, and, crucially, the knowing we have as readers thanks to the clever hints of trouble ahead by the author. We recognise, for instance that he is implying he knows much more than he does when he gets the promotion and it’s a harbinger of what’s.
The two detectives, Dagný and Hauker, are peripheral to the story, which is much more about Torfi, but I look forward to their return in the next novel.
Like the brilliant Stella Blomkvist, whom we would recommend, Arason is publicity shy but he understands that bone dry Icelandic humour perfectly. Icelandic noir has always been dark but this is more subtle, again like Blomkvist. Stylish fun.
Read our interview with author Erlendur Arason here.
Blekverk
Print/Kindle
£4.79
CFL Rating: 4 Stars