Officer Gunnhildur Books In Order

Publication Order of Officer Gunnhildur Books

The “Officer Gunnhildur” series by the British born author and journalist Quentin Bates is about a widowed mom with two children (a daughter and a son) named Gunnhildur “Gunna” Gisladottir. She has a sardonic sense of humor, is middle aged, and she also is a grandmother. She is also down to earth and intelligent. In the early books of the series, Gunna works as an officer, but gets a promotion later on and becomes a sergeant.

The series is made up of both short stories and novels; that are considered to be both police procedural and Scandinavian crime fiction. This series is set in the village of Hvalvik, Iceland. This is the series that the author made his debut in fiction writing in 2010, with the release of the first novel in the series “Frozen Assets” or “Frozen Out” as it is also known and released by this name.

He was able to work on the first novel because of a writing course at a university that allowed him to take afternoons off at work once a week. And it all started from working for an obscure nautical trade magazine as a journalist, that would later turn into different sidesteps until he decided to finally sit down and write fiction. He also saw that there was a lot of competition to get published and just had to try his hand, and after his agent gave him advice and encouragement, was able to finish and later sell the novel.

The series has been translated into different languages, besides English, like Polish, German, Dutch, and Finnish.

“Cold Steal” by Quentin Bates is the fourth novel in the “Officer Gunnhildur” series that was released in 2014. For months, a thief who has been ripping off Reykjavik homes of their valuables has been the thorn in the side of the local police. The thief makes a mistake, and breaks into the wrong house and caught in a trap, something that he never thought would ever happen. Gunnhildur, who investigates the case, is frustrated the whole time while looking for a victim that seems to have gone missing at the scene. She thinks it might be related to two businessmen who had been murdered. These two businessmen had some shady dealings and connections that Gunna is told to steer clear of.

Fans of the novel enjoy the way that Bates writes and finds that there is a great balance between the romance in Gunnhildur’s life and the investigations that she does. Some simply like Gunnhildur’s character and the way she conducts herself and how strong of a character that she is. There is both light and dark inside of her and its enjoyable the way that you see both aspects to her character. Bates has written another winner that has a complex plot and develops Gunna even further, teaching you more about this extremely real character, once again. Fans love these complex and intelligent novels that Bates writes, and they cannot wait for him to release more of them.

Some did not like the way that the novel was written, as it was confusing and felt foreign to them. Some felt that certain things in the novel stretch what could actually really happen, and the novel serves as good material, but not literature. Some even felt that the novel was very slow going throughout the early part, making the novel hard to finish. Some of the development of certain characters is a little confusing, as some of the characters are developed in detail and are minor, but some who are in quite a bit of the book do not get that kind of development.

“Thin Ice” by Quentin Bates is the fifth novel in the “Officer Gunnhildur” series and was released in 2016. Two small time crooks steal from the biggest drug dealer found in Reykjavik, but things go bad fast when the getaway driver does not show up to get them. They decide to steal a car and take some hostages, in the form of two women, a mother and daughter. Tension between the two men and their hostages grow quickly, and find themselves holing up in a country hotel that is isolated and closed up for the season. Gunnhildur and company, meanwhile seem to be looking into what appears to be a dead end case: the disappearance of a mother and daughter and their vehicle while they were shopping. This and the death of a thief who burned to death, they later find out, is all related.

Fans of the novel find that Gunna is a breath of fresh air, in a world of tragically flawed or even overly quirky and full of a lot of sass. She just has some dry humor and catches the bad guy and tries to balance her home life and work. Some find that the stories in the series get better and better, some liked the side plot that talks about Gunna’s son, but also the main story too. This one is a great one for fans to sink their teeth into. You also see the social and economic problems that Iceland is facing at this point in time. Some found that it was actually more interesting to read about the criminals and the hostage situation, as that part of things is a little more interesting than what the cops are doing. It was interesting too, to see how the criminals and hostage (especially one of each) get along with each other. Some enjoyed reading about the hostages and found that they were not at all your typical hostages, that they had quite an interesting past- one of the hostages did anyway. The other was perceptive and calculating, especially for her age.

Some did not like how little back story was in the novel and the development Bates gives the main character and her family in this novel was scarce. Some found that it was not the best the series has to offer. Some felt that this novel was lost on them, almost as if it were written for a certain group that they themselves are not a part of. Some found themselves skimming the novel, not really reading every word of it.