Samhengi hlutanna

[1] It is a thriller set in the aftermath of the 2008 Icelandic financial crisis, focusing on the efforts of the protagonist, Arnar Finnsson, to complete the last book and, eventually, solve the murder of his dead partner Hulda.

Samhengi hlutanna is a first-person crime thriller, written in the voice of Arnar Finnsson, an Icelander who has abandoned a career as a lawyer to move to London and become an artist and illustrator.

To a large extent their interviews form a series of set-piece case studies of different sections of Iceland's boom-time business community, each reflecting on the Crash from their own perspective.

It has been suggested that Sigrún's writing is strongest when portraying Arnar's inner life and the colourful characters he encounters, but becomes rather stilted when dealing with financial detail.

[4][5] In the analysis of Jón Karl Helgason, 'as a thriller, the narrative gets going rather slowly, but for those who have an interest in and a general acquaintance with developments in Icelandic business life in recent years, on the other hand, it is intriguing to note how closely the author sticks to reality in her writing'.

[7] The same perspectives have been suggested by Sigrún's own commentary on writing the novel,[8] though she has emphasised the fictionality of the work,[9] and that evidence of money laundering in the Icelandic banks has not come to light, with the relevant suspicious behaviour being attributable to 'abysmally bad management'.

[10] On 14 December 2009, Arnar's partner Hulda, a journalist, is killed in what is at first thought to be a road accident, while writing an investigative book about shady dealings behind the 2008 Icelandic financial crisis.

As the novel goes on, it emerges that Óttar was involved in establishing a factory in post-Soviet Saint Petersburg, before becoming an investor in the Bulgarian telecoms sector, backed by a German bank.

Their explorations involve a number of British contacts and tagging along on the drug-fuelled binge of a Latvia-based Icelandic entrepreneur called Óli Örvar Magnússon.

Rafn's job in London is to deliver the €600,000 and he realises that it is going into the hands of Juris Kalnis (the Latvian criminal who has been following Arnar), Sævar Bjarni Halldórsson (an Icelander who is based in Latvia) and Peteris Ozolins.

Mara directs them to a private investigator, Xavier, who helps them assemble their evidence to convince Scotland Yard to reopen the case.