Arctic Noir -- you saw it here first!

LONDON - Nov. 19, 2014 - PRLog -- When author Brian John was contemplating his options concerning his new novel entitled "Acts of God", he had no problems regarding the content of the story, but major difficulty in deciding where and how to promote it.  The story is a dark one set in an Arctic wilderness, but is it a thriller, a mystery or conspiracy story, or an action adventure, or a crime novel? Or even a piece of literary fiction, given its unusual structure?   It could - at a push - be any one of those, or even a "chiller thriller" if there had been such a category.  There are hardly any previous novels set in Greenland, so guidance was and is hard to come by.

Then inspiration came to him.  The story is the first in a new literary category -- Arctic Noir.  That has a nice ring to it, since most people associate the Arctic with snow, ice and whiteness.  The idea of blackness up there is a slightly bizarre one, although it should be remembered that for two thirds of the year there is very little daylight in the High Arctic, and around midwinter there are several months of continuous darkness.

In this novel, there are no disfunctional and troubled detectives and no deranged murderers who leave a trail of blood and gore behind them as they lead the forces of law and order a convoluted dance through the miserable winter landscapes of the Copenhagen suburbs.  But there are some rather nasty villains, and there is a major international conspiracy in which various groups of innocent people get caught up.  And yes, there is brutality, and many people die..........

But what distinguishes Arctic Noir from Scandinavian Noir is the landscape.  The action takes place almost entirely in the Arctic wilderness of snow, ice, tundra, glaciers and mountains.  And the animals that appear in the story are not dogs and cats, but wolves and polar bears!

Brian's novel "Acts of God" is now published by Greencroft Books, and can be obtained from the publisher or from Amazon in both Kindle and paperback editions.