Where the Shadows Lie by Michael Ridpath

Boston Sergeant Detective Magnus Jonson is wanted dead by a gang so he's shipped off to his birth country of Iceland to provide assistance for homicide investigations. Inspector Baldur Jakobsson of the Reykjavik CID isn't thrilled with the addition of Magnus, but he has no choice but to include him as part of his team. When professor Agnar Haraldsson is murdered, Magnus is plunged into the world of Icelandic sagas, folkore, and Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings in order to find the murderer. On the other side of the Atlantic, however, the gang is not about to give up their aim of eliminating Magnus. In Where the Shadows Lie, Ridpath (a British author of many other novels) begins a series that has some similarities to the other Icelandic mystery authors, Arnaldur Indridason and Yrsa Sigurdardottir, but carves out a niche with his descriptions of contemporary Icelandic society and nature. Magnus is also an interesting character with his American/Icelandic perspective. It will be interesting to see how the series develops.