Double Blind is Sara Winokur's debut novel. Although she lives in California, this story takes place in Iceland during the 1990s. We have a young boy here, Lukas, who disappears in North Iceland. Twenty years later a mysterious poem lands on the desk of his twin sister Brynja, a forensic geneticist. The poem hints that Lukas may have never died. Brynja job is to work with the police using DNA research to catch criminals. The finding of the poem rekindles her hopes that her brother might be found and found alive. As Brynja unravels the clues, more poems arrive, each bearing dire consequences.
Double Blind has many different components. We read about old manuscripts, Icelandic myths, DNA forensics, Icelandic birds, farming, fishing, recipes and a touch of megalomiania. There is even some romance as Brynja is engaged to Ari, Iceland's prime minister. The medieval Icelandic Sagas are also part of this story as one of them is scheduled to be displayed for the country's independence celebration. It seems like everything but the kitchen sink is part of the plot. However, these parts all blend well together.
Being interested in medieval manuscripts, this story was right up my alley. Iron gall ink was used to make the ink that the words were handwritten with. In one of my classes on ancient manuscripts we had to make ink the old fashioned way and stirred up our own iron gall ink. It's amazing to me that it was used by ancient scribes as well as modern scribes up until the early twentieth century. A few other components of ancient manuscripts were discussed in the story, which thrilled me. Another aspect to the investigation was the specific style of writing that Icelandic poets used. The poems that Brynja received were different though, adding more to the mystery. Ancient recipes for poisons add yet another layer to the mystery.
In the beginning of the story it seemed like the death of Lukas and the manuscript plotlines could not be intertwined. However, they were and the author also showed her expertise in RNA and DNA matching. The reader learns more about RNA but the information was written in layman's terms. I found it all fascinating. As the plot progresses we see Brinja's co-workers poisoned from eating sweets that are delivered to the office. Clues to the location of her brother are written on the paper used to wrap the sweets in.
Double Blind is unputdownable. I highly recommend it for mystery fans. 5 out of 5 stars.
