66 North (Fire & Ice 2)

66ยบ North (Fire and Ice #2) - Michael Ridpath A political crisis sweeps over Iceland, banks and lifetime savings vanishing into thin air and a deficit so much as to cause incredible dismay. The blame of the economic disaster is rested on the politician's shoulders. A group of disgruntled citizens are willing to unlawfully bring down the 'responsible' politicians through other means which doesn't mean the usual Icelandic protest but through gun violence?

Until page 250, 66 North was lacking in tension. There was little suspense and all that was of suspense was exerted through a an overenthusiastic questioning policeman that harassed citizens. Up until this point the novel was really frustrating as there were noticeably missed opportunities to add suspense and points of interest.

Most of everything was explained as the novel kept veering off to lots of perspectives. Didn't really leave much room for guessing and when the ending of the novel prevailed, the character that did all the harm, had barely a connection to what was happening previously in the novel. Essentially it was equivalent to reading Little Red Riding Hood and finding out that a tapir was behind it all. Not surprising, vapid.

Characters in the book were mundane. It was as if the author had no interest in the characters he created. The characters didn't have much of a personality and also very difficult to imagine as to how they would be in your head. Little description of them.

The Author describes the place once or twice, adds an Icelandic name to the location and every further mention of the place seems expected for the reader to remember everything that was mentioned earlier. Surely the author could've explained the locations better. After a while I found that all the Icelandic names were muddling into one and all the places appeared to be the same.

On a whole, the book was frustrating. In fact, If I could rename the novel it would be more suitably entitled 'Struggles of a frustrated policeman.' 66 North failed to take me on a ride.