The smarter a place looks, the darker the secrets it hides…

Book blurb

Guests at one of Reykjavík’s smartest hotels never know what happens behind the scenes – including what brings a group of the city’s homeless to the Bristol Hotel every winter night while the rest of the world sleeps.
When overworked supervisor Torfi finds himself given an unexpected promotion that comes with a respectable pay rise, he takes it as a lucky break – until he’s told to make a murder victim disappear, and that he doesn’t have any choice. That’s when his life rapidly gets a lot more complicated.
What isn’t he being told? Torfi doesn’t know, but when police officers Haukur and Dagný start asking awkward questions, he needs to find answers – even though he knows only half of the story.
Longing desperately to go back to his old, boring life, Torfi finds himself desperately out of his depth as his family are threatened and his problems spiral far out of his control.

Introduction

Erlendur Arason is a fresh voice in Nordic Noir, bringing a sharp, sardonic new take to the genre. The Hotel Manager’s Guide to Murder is the first in a new trilogy set in and around Reykjavík. Translation by Quentin Bates.

I am absolutely delighted to be on this BlogTour and to bring you an extract from The Hotel Manager’s Guide To Murder by Erlendur Arason (t. Quentin Bates).

Extract

Raggi hurtled down the slope instead of taking the usual route out through the garden, along the path and across the road.
He’d have taken the matter of a rickety fence in his stride in his younger days and now a rush of adrenaline helped him vault it almost effortlessly. Amazed for a second at his own agility, he landed on his feet and ran headlong through next door’s garden and out onto the next street.

He didn’t even look behind him to see if he was being pursued. He hadn’t even waited to find out what the man with the cruel black eyes wanted before making for the door of the garage, banging it shut behind him as he went.

The deafening blare of a car horn stopped him in his tracks. He had run straight across the road without looking either way, and a dark blue Polo had slithered to an undignified halt in the slush, its bumper inches from where he stood petrified in the road. He froze, taking in how close he had come to being run down, as he stared first at the car, its wipers squealing against the windscreen, and then back the way he had come, to see the man he had seen in the garage come jogging down the path, heading straight for him.

‘There you are,’ he called out. ‘It’s all right, old pal. I’ve been
looking all over for you.’ He sounded jovial, but his eyes still gleamed with malice as he strode across the road, waving at the car, as if apologising for Raggi’s poor judgement in almost getting run over on what should have been a quiet residential street of over-ornate houses. The man took Raggi’s arm in a grip that squeezed tight. He wasn’t meant to escape a second time. ‘So sorry,’ he called out to the car. The wipers stopped, but in the glare of the headlights and the deepening gloom, the driver’s face couldn’t be made out.

Raggi moaned out loud, feebly tried to shake off the man’s grip, and made an effort to pull away. Instead, the hand holding his wrist tightened its grip still further and forced his hand high up his back. ‘It’s all right, pal. Don’t worry. We’ll get you back to where you belong before you know it,’ he said in a tone that oozed concern, although Raggi could see there was nothing friendly about his expression.

‘What’s the matter? What’s going on?’ The voice came from the car, and the man turned to the window that had been opened a couple of inches. ‘Nothing to worry about. This gentleman’s not well, and he’s bolted from secure accommodation. We’ve been looking for him all over. Now I’ve found him I can take him back to the hostel,’ he said. ‘It’s for his own good.’

‘Nooo,’ Raggi whined. ‘It’s not true!’

The car’s door swung open and a woman in a black coat and a
wool hat pulled down to eyebrow level fixed the man with a baleful stare.

‘As it happens, I know this gentleman well and I’m perfectly aware that he’s not a resident in a hostel.’ Dagný’s voice was sharp and determined. ‘So how about you tell me who you are, and why you appear to be attempting to make Raggi go with you against his will?’ She stepped closer and Raggi could feel the man’s grip on his arm soften.

‘This has to be a mistake, in that case,’ the man said, his hold
relaxing as he took a defensive stance. Raggi quickly shook himself free and took a step back, wrapping his arms around himself. ‘Don’t I know you?’ Dagný asked, fixing the man with a piercing look. As she took a step closer, he backed away, then turned and fled, taking the garden fence in a single leap and running downhill towards the park.

My thoughts

Well, wow! That was a stroke of luck for Raggi, wasn’t it? If Dagný hadn’t been there at just the right moment who knows what would have happened!

What a great thriller this is and if this amazing excerpt has whetted your appetite for it you can find buy links below 👇🏽 and enjoy the whole book.

Thanks & BlogTour

It was great to be a part of this blog tour with many thanks to Ewa Sherman for the invite.

Like to read more? Then check out these wonderful blogs.

Information

Publishers: Blekverk | Ebook & paperback publication 25th July 2026 | ISBN: 978-1-0666239-0-7 | 25 July 2026 | 239 pp

Blekverk is a small but delightful company located in the shadow of the Seer’s Mountain. “We specialise in Icelandic to English translation, of the artisanal AI-free variety.”

The Hotel Manager’s Guide to Murder is first published in English the United Kingdom in 2026 by Blekverk UK, and was originally published in Icelandic by Storytel.

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Author

This debut novel by the enigmatic Erlendur Arason is the first Icelandic crime thriller of the “Reykjavík Shadows” series. It features the likeably naive Torfi Pall Saeversson, a supervisor at the Bristol Hotel [in downtown Reykjavík] who finds himself accidentally at the centre of a murder that may prove to conceal other horrors.

Review: Ali Karim in Shots Crime & Thriller Ezine