Quentin Bates Books In Order

Publication Order of Officer Gunnhildur Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Quentin Bates was born in southern England right around the Cuban missile crisis. At one point in life, he made a decision to work in Iceland for a year, but wound up staying for an entire decade. He used this experience, plus some time he took a writing course at a university to work on his fiction writing. Although British, Bates’s writing is more in line with Scandinavian crime fiction authors.

His debut novel “Frozen Out” (also called “Frozen Assets”) was released in 2011. Besides writing mystery crime novels, he has also released non-fiction work and works as a full time journalist as well writes feature pieces for a nautical trade magazine that is quite obscure.. He is the author of the “Officer Gunhildur series.

“Frozen Assets” is the first novel in the “Officer Gunnhildur” series. In the harbor of a Icelandic fishing harbor, a body is found. The first question everyone wants to know is, how did that body get there? Accident or foul play? Officer Gunnhildur, a female cop, to figure it out. Gunnhildur is a big girl, tough to the bone, down-to-earth, and calls her colleagues lad; her husband died in an accident. Throughout the course of her investigation, she finds that there was something very corrupt going on in the banking and business parts of Iceland. There is a fresh crime journalist who starts to follow her around, looking for a scoop in the case. There is also a blogger looking to make trouble. Everything is taken up another notch when there is a second body. This novel looks into the corruption in Iceland that led to economic devastation that it has not yet recovered from.

Fans of the novel like Gunnhildur, finding her to be a very realistic character who is likeable and has a past. They like how you get a taste of what happened to her in her past, without revealing a whole lot about it. Bates puts the atmosphere of Iceland right up at the front of things for readers, making the town itself a character in the novel. They liked how developed both the main character was and the villain. Some found that the novel was not a run of the mill deal with detectives that could have come from any other writer out there. Instead you get a detective that is about real life things.

Some readers did not like how the plot was not very credible that involved the ins and outs of the case. There was also writing that seemed flat and without a whole lot of life to it. Some found that it did not live up to the blurb on the cover of the book and only finished it because it was their book club’s choice to read the book.

“Cold Comfort” is the second novel in the “Officer Gunnhildur” series. Officer Gunnhildur has been moved from her post to Reykjavik’s Serious Crime Unit; her current job is to track down an escaped convict named Long Ommi, who has gone on a violent journey. At the same time, she is investigating a fitness guru’s murder that happened in her very own apartment. As she dives into the cases, she finds some very big secrets and that both the convict and the guru had some friends with a lot of influence. She has to realize the crisis financially that is taking the country over and that when there is this much corruption, it will lead to murder.

Fans of the novel continue to enjoy reading about Gunna, who is great at her job and a good boss; there is also more about her home life, both her boyfriend and a daughter and a son, in this one. Some enjoyed the author’s use of dry humor was hilarious, and that it really spiced things up for them. Some found themselves, after reading this one, to want more from this author and about this character. They enjoyed it that much. Bates knows police procedure very well, and shows just how exhausting it can be at times with all of the things the police have to do in their investigating.

Some readers did not like the fact the plot was a little too slow and repetitive, without a lot of variation. Some also found that the novel has too many people in it, both alive and dead, finding that it was hard to remember just who each person was. They also felt that they wanted to learn more from this book than they did as far as the environment of things is concerned. Some found the novel made such a small impression on them, that they had forgotten that they had already read the novel before.

“Chilled to the Bone” is the third book in the “Officer Gunnhilder” series. In one of the swankiest hotels that Reykjavik has to offer, is a shipowner who has been tied to a bed and is dead. Sergeant Gunnhildur does not see any evidence of foul play at all, but she believes that things are more complicated than they appear. So she digs into the man himself to try and find out what happened to him and why he did in such an embarrassingly and untimely way. She finds that there is a bondage society who were being both exploited as well as blackmailed. There are some other things connected to the case, that only Sergeant Gunnhildur can piece together to catch whoever is out there, taking advantage (and killing) these people.

Fans of the novel still enjoy reading about Gunnhildur, and will continue to do so as long as Bates continues to write more books. She is the thing that keeps the novels going and makes them as good as they are. It helps too that the novel has a well woven plot with interesting and well drawn characters. Readers love the series for the way the author allows readers to see from the villain’s point of view as well as the hero’s.

Some readers did not like the way the novel felt as though the series was digressing, and the writing feels flat and does not hold the attention very well. Some felt they were better off reading other things.