Broken (2022)

A hard-boiled and thrilling crime story set in contemporary Reykjavik, a city full of contradictions, dusted with pitch-black humour and memorable characters.

A teenager disappears during a school trip to the Thingvellir National Park. As the whole police force is busy coping with an underworld gang war, it falls to police officer Dora, who struggles with the effects of brain damage incurred during a shootout, to investigate. At her side is Rado, the son of Serbian immigrants, who has worked his way up the police ranks but has since been sidelined due to his family’s connections with a Polish criminal gang.

NOVEL INFLUENCES Clockers (Richard Price), Police (Jo Nesbo), Heat (Michael Mann), Blacktop Wasteland (S.A. Cosby), The Bridge (Hans Rosenfeldt).

Jon Atli Jonasson is a multi-award winning writer for stage and screen. His work has been widely shown across Europe.

“Broken by Jón Atli Jónasson is the best Icelandic crime novel published this year, and in fact one of the best I’ve read in a long time. … Jon Atli has created one of the most interesting crime solving duos of the genre … he manages to build up such suspense and awaken such curiosity that I could not put the book down, and he never takes a shortcut. Each thread is firmly woven, fits perfectly within the pattern and doesn´t unravel. When you‘ve read crime novels for half a century you get familiar with many of the tricks used and the solution is often obvious in the first few chapters. But not here. There are many surprises and no cheap solutions at the end. I sincerely hope that Jon Atli will write more books like these and I‘m already excited for the next one.” STEINGERDUR STEINARSDOTTIR, STEINGERDUR.BLOG.IS