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Published May 2019
352 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
The newest superstar on the Icelandic crime fiction scene has arrived with a superb followup to The Darkness.
Autumn of 1987 takes a young couple on a romantic trip in the Westfjords holiday―a trip that gets an unexpected ending and has catastrophic consequences.
Ten years later a small group of friends go for a weekend in an old hunting lodge in Elliðaey. A place completely cut off from the outside world, to reconnect. But one of them isn't going to make it out alive. And Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir is determined to find the truth in the darkness.
Ragnar Jonasson burst onto the American scene with Snowblind and Nightblind, the first two novels in the Ari Thor thriller series, and the praise was overwhelming. With The Darkness, he launched a new series featuring a completely new sleuth, Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdottir of the Reykjavik Police department. The Island is the second book in this series.
Shortlisted for the Crime Novel of the Year Award in Iceland.
Third Place, Novel of the Year Award 2016 in Iceland, selected by booksellers
"Jónasson delivers a mind-bending look into human darkness that earns its twists." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Jónasson, who could give lessons on how to sustain a chilly atmosphere, sprinkles just enough hints of ghostly agents to make you wonder if he's going to fall back on a paranormal resolution to the mystery. Don't worry: The solution is both uncanny and all-too-human." - Kirkus Reviews
"Another suspense-laden Icelandic gem: Jónasson's confidential, intimate prose evokes both Iceland's harsh, beautiful solitude and the deep connections Icelanders forge." - Booklist
"Dark, chilling and utterly gripping, The Island is Nordic noir at its best, and is destined to become a classic of the genre. I couldn't put it down." - Shari Lapena, author of An Unwanted Guest
"The Island is [Jónasson's] best book yet, an unflinching thriller that braids past and present, good and evil, love and loss. I can't wait for Hulda Hermannsdóttir's next case." - A.J. Finn, author of The Woman in the Window
This information about The Island was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Bill Waters
Ragnar Jonasson was born in Iceland and works as an Attorney at Law and writer in Reykjavik. Before embarking on a writing career, Ragnar translated fourteen Agatha Christie novels into Icelandic. Ragnar is the co-founder of the Reykjavik international crime writing festival Iceland Noir. He has appeared on panels at various crime fiction festivals, including Bouchercon and Left Coast Crime in the US. Ragnar lives in Reykjavik with his wife and two daughters.
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