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Review: the darkness

the darkness by Ragnar Jónasson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Firstly I would like to thank Michael Joseph for the opportunity to give a true and honest review of this book.

This is my first experience of a Nordic Noir Thriller and I have to say I am so glad I started with Ragnar Jonasson. He is a well-respected author from Reykjavik and began his career at the age of 17 translating the works of Agatha Christie into Icelandic. This particular novel was the runner-up of the Novel of the Year Award 2015 in Iceland.

This is a start of a new trilogy based around Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdottir a member of the Reykjavik police force who is being forced into early retirement by her commanding officer. Hulda uses this conversation to utilise her final days investigating the cold case of a young female asylum seeker found dead in the remote countryside.

Her death was ruled as a suicide after a short investigation, but it soon becomes clear to Hulda that there is a more sinister twist to this case and all is not what it seems. Hulda soon finds that Elena is not the only asylum seeker to have gone missing and her investigation distances herself from her own colleagues as she tries to identify the truth.

This book for me was a great starting point to Nordic Noir as a genre, the writing was easy to read and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the strong and private character of Hulda. The nature of the plot meant that you were led by the hand not only down the path of the investigation but also into the inner most emotions of Hulda as she deals with the personal turmoil of her early retirement and events from her own past.

If you enjoy a thriller, I would definitely say that this is a book for you, not only is Hulda relatable but the end is something I have not previously experienced in a thriller and left me interest to see what will happen in the next instalment called The Island due for release in 2019 by Michael Joseph.


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