Please note this is a hybrid event - you have the option to attend in person or virtually. Registrations are required for all attendees. For in-person attendees, the event will run from 11:15 am - 1 pm and will start with coffee/tea/juice, tea sandwiches and cookies. The live stream will begin at 12 pm (virtual attendees will be sent a link for the event via email).
Join DACOR for a conversation with Eliza Reid, author and former first lady of Iceland, about her recently published debut novel Death on the Island, an instant bestseller in Iceland and Canada. A whodunit featuring a group of diplomats including the ambassador's wife as sleuth, Death on the Island has received rave reviews and has already been optioned for television in a preempt deal.
Trapped on a remote island by a howling storm, nine people sit down to dinner. One of them is about to die.
A group of international players has gathered in a tiny village off the coast of Iceland for a diplomatic dinner. There’s Kristján, the mayor reeling from a personal tragedy. Graeme, the ambassador with an agenda to push. Jane, his wife, along for the ride on another one of her husband’s many business trips. And several others, from Iceland and from abroad, each with their own reason for being there, their own loyalties and grievances. By the end of the night, one of them will be dead. And it will be up to the ambassador’s wife, Jane, to figure out how―and why.
What Jane soon comes to realize is that small communities can be the most dangerous of them all… and no one in their group is safe. With secrets around every corner and violent weather trapping the finite list of suspects together on the island, this locked-room mystery by internationally bestselling author Eliza Reid brings Agatha Christie and Nordic noir together in a brand-new twist.
Eliza Reid is a bestselling writer, public speaker, gender equality advocate, cofounder of the acclaimed Iceland Writers Retreat and former first lady of Iceland. She was born and raised in Canada but has lived in Iceland for over twenty years. Eliza’s first book, Secrets of the Sprakkar: Iceland’s Extraordinary Women and How They Are Changing the World, was an instant bestseller in Canada and Iceland, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Pick, and translated into numerous languages. Her first novel, an Iceland-set mystery called Death on the Island(Death of a Diplomat in the UK) was an instant bestseller in Canada and topped the bestseller list in Iceland for several weeks.
From 2016 to 2024, Eliza served in the unofficial role of First Lady while her husband was President of Iceland, during which time she served as patron of numerous organizations and was named a United Nations Special Ambassador for Tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals. Passionate about inclusion, belonging, and equality, she wielded her influence through poignant op-eds, a compelling TEDx talk, and dozens of keynote addresses to audiences of hundreds around the world, including presidents and royalty.
Eliza has degrees from the University of Toronto (Trinity College) and Oxford University (St. Antony’s College). She lives in the outskirts of Reykjavík with her husband and four children.
Location
Setting: Hybrid DACOR Bacon House OR Online 1801 F Street, NW Washington, DC 20006 UNITED STATES
