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    The Flatey Enigma
    The Flatey Enigma
    The Flatey Enigma
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Flatey Enigma

    Written by Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson

    Narrated by Jeff Crawford and Kate Rudd

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Near a deserted island off the western coast of Iceland in 1960, the dawning of spring brings new life for the local wildlife. But for the body discovered by three seal hunters, winter is a matter of permanence. After it is found to be a Danish cryptographer missing for months, the ensuing investigation uncovers a mysterious link between him and a medieval manuscript known as The Book of Flatey.

    Before long another body is found on the tiny islands off of Iceland. This time, in the ancient Viking tradition, the victim’s back has been mutilated with the so-called blood eagle. Kjartan, the district magistrate’s representative sent to investigate the crime, soon finds himself descending into the dark, dangerous world of ancient legends, symbology, and secret societies to find a killer.

    Nominated for the prestigious Glass Key award for Nordic crime fiction, The Flatey Enigma will keep you guessing until Kjartan has cracked the code.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    TranslatorBrian FitzGibbon
    Release dateMar 20, 2012
    ISBN9781455855094
    The Flatey Enigma
    Author

    Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson

    Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson is the author of several books, including Daybreak, which was the basis for the 2008 Icelandic television series Hunting Men. House of Evidence, his third novel, was nominated for the Glass Key Award, given by the Crime Writers Association of Scandinavia, in 2001, and The Flatey Enigma was nominated for the same prize in 2004.

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    Reviews for The Flatey Enigma

    3.5/5

    78 ratings9 reviews

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    • 3/5
      A good idea to base a book on disputed ownership and conflicting interests regarding a historical artifact of Iceland, but plot is disrupted by too many references to the enigma - did we need to hear all 40 questions? And their super-gory answers? Not my jam.
    • 3/5
      This was an interesting book. The descriptions of the food was interesting and I think it is a snapshot of life on the islands around Iceland circa the mid 1950’s.

      Well worth the trouble to read.
    • 3/5
      interesting twist on a mystery with lots of Icelandic Saga information
    • 4/5
      Although the professionals from Reykjavik are finally sent for, it's the amateurs who really do the lion's share of the murder investigations in The Flatey Enigma, and I found following them around this remote area of western Iceland to be fascinating. As villagers are interviewed, as they help guide the magistrate's assistant from place to place, the reader learns a lot about the customs and food of Iceland in 1960. I have to admit that I tended to skim over the menus quickly because roast puffin breast and baby seal stew just don't appeal to me, but the food people eat says a lot about them, and it certainly does here.I deduced the killer's identity early on, but I still enjoyed following the investigation because I was learning so much about Iceland. Each chapter in the book ends with information about the Flatey Book (which actually exists), ancient Icelandic legends that are contained within its vellum pages, and finally the forty enigma questions themselves. Sometimes inclusions like these interrupt the narrative and are annoying. They certainly weren't in this case.Sometimes when I read a mystery, what I reap is so much more than solving a crime, and this is what happened when I read The Flatey Enigma. Yes, the mystery is interesting, but I feel as though I learned a great deal about the customs and the people of an area of Iceland far removed from its capital of Reykjavik.
    • 3/5
      This is a very ambitious book. It attempts to mix a murder mystery with a mysterious riddle in an ancient text. The book is set in Iceland on the island of Flatey. When some people go seal hunting they find a body of a man long decayed supposed to have died from exposure. From here starts the investigation first led by the magistrate's assistant but later when the body of a journalist is found in the local graveyard the police get involved. We meet various quirky inhabitants of the island and the investigation proceeds systematically. The end is disappointing after the huge buildup.The writing is good but the pace is a bit slow for a murder mystery. An average read. 2.5/5 stars.
    • 4/5
      I thought at first that this was going to be a tame little mystery, based around a dispute between two historians. I was wrong. The majority of the book ambles along. I enjoyed the portrayals of the islanders, and the asides about the mediaeval manuscript. And then suddenly it all became very gripping as the mystery was unravelled. It's a murder mystery in the old school style of Agatha Christie.
    • 2/5
      Non è l'ambientazione di uno dei gialli più imperdibili della storia. Quarta lettera.Nell'ottica di un viaggio in Islanda in programma ho provato a leggere il prodotto di uno degli scrittori dell'isola; apparentemente un giallo (ci sono i morti ma tutto si risolve in un modo inconsistente che più non si può).In un'isola vicina a Flatey si trova un uomo morto di stenti e iniziano le indagini per capire identità e causa della morte, nel mentre veniamo a conoscenza dell'enigma del libro di Flatey (trentanove domande che risolte aiuteranno alla soluzione della quarantesima e al completamento del libro), rimasto irrisolto (principalmente perchè è malasorte portare fuori dalla biblioteca la chiave per decrittare la soluzione).Il libro si divide in due parti: la prima, di una noia mortale, in cui si fa conoscenza del villaggio e delle prime ipotesi sul morto e la seconda in cui strane coincidenze appaiono come funghi (ma sono coincidenze? Tragicamente sì); insomma i temi più interessanti erano quelli dei miti islandesi.Risposa: Flatey, la quarta lettera è una T. ---It’s not the setting of an engaging crime novel. Fourth letter. Looking forward to a travel to Island I decided to try reading a book from an island writer; apparently a crime (yes, there are corpses but the solution is quite inconsistent).In an island near Flatey a dead man is found and investigation to know his identity and death cause begin; in the meanwhile we are told about the Flatey book mistery (thirty-nine questions that, once solved, will bring the solution of the fortieth and last question and to the last verses of the book) unsolved until now (mainly because the cryptographic key cannot be taken away from the book because of bad luck).The novel can be divided in two parts: the former, very boring, in which the village people are described and the first hypothesis about the dead man are formed and the latter in which there are lots of coincidences (but are they only coincidences? Tragically they are); overall the most interesting parts are the one about island myths.Answer: Flatey, the fourth letter is a T.
    • 5/5
      This is a novel set on two levels - the primary level the investigation into the death of a body found on a remote Icelandic island. The nearest "big" island is Flatey and it appears the body has been dead for some time. So it is not a case of real urgency for the Reijkavik Police Department and so they've assigned Kjartan, who has just started working for the district magistrate in a clerical capacity. Kjartan has to determine who the dead man is and how he died. While he does that he will stay with Grimur, the administrative officer for the district of Flatey.The Book of Flatey is a compilation of various medieval Icelandic sagas. The second level of the story is the Flatey Enigma, a set of 40 questions that have puzzled those studying the Book of Flatey for over 30 years. Those attempting to solve the enigma are meant to answer the questions in library on the island of Flatey using the copy of the manuscript there. They are not meant to take anything away for future reference. The 40 questions appear, with possible solutions, throughout the novel, as a conversation between two of the characters.THE FLATEY ENIGMA is set in June 1960 and provides fascinating descriptions of Icelandic remote island life at that time.Kjartan the investigator has a past he is trying to hide. The island doctor Johanna and her father who is dying of cancer also have hidden pasts. The island of Flatey certainly has its share of strange, even inbred people, one at least who has never left the island, and one who has dreams and sees "little people".So this novel is crime fiction with a difference, a very Icelandic flavour. The extracts from the sagas in the Book of Flatey are gruesome to say the least. There are connections between various characters that are unexpected, even though at least two of them come from Denmark.THE FLATEY ENIGMA was nominated for the Glass Key given by the Crime Writers of Scandinavia in 2004. It was published in English by Amazaon crossing in 2012.
    • 4/5
      Icelandic. Book revolves around a small island, Flatey, in the west of Iceland during the month of June, 1960. A body is discovered on a near-by deserted island and it is determined this is a Danish professor who has been missing for almost a year. The regional parliamentary representative sends his troubled assistant to the island to investigate and a newspaper reporter and two detectives from the Reykjavik police force also arrive. Throughout the narrative there is constant references to the famous Icelandic saga - Flateyarbók as well as a 19th century riddle that was created around the saga characters. Such activity causes all kinds of disruptions to the otherwise peaceful lives of the island dwellers.