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  • Published: 3 December 2019
  • ISBN: 9781405930826
  • Imprint: Michael Joseph
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $22.99

The Island

Hidden Iceland Series, Book Two




The second heart-stopping book in the Hidden Iceland series from the Icelandic crime-writing sensation

The island of Elliðaey sits off the Icelandic coast. Accessible only by boat its isolation makes it the perfect place to vanish.

During a long, hot summer four friends visit the island. Only three will return.

They each share a past, and a dark secret that could harm them all. As the days pass, tensions rise and loyalties are shed, one of them will commit murder.

Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir is sent to investigate and soon finds echoes with the case of a young woman found murdered ten years previously in the nearby West Fjords. Is there a patient killer stalking these barren outposts?

As Hulda navigates a sinister game constructed of smoke and mirrors, she is convinced that no one is telling the truth, including those closest to her. But who will crack first?

Haunting, suspenseful and as chilling as the Icelandic winter The Island follows one woman's journey to find the truth hidden in the darkest shadows, and shine a light on her own dark past.

  • Published: 3 December 2019
  • ISBN: 9781405930826
  • Imprint: Michael Joseph
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

Ragnar Jónasson

Ragnar Jonasson is an international number one bestselling author who has sold over one and a half million books worldwide. He was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, where he also works as an investment banker and teaches copyright law at Reykjavík University. He has previously worked on radio and television, including as a TV news reporter for the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, and, from the age of seventeen, has translated fourteen of Agatha Christie's novels. His critically acclaimed international bestseller The Darkness is soon to be a major TV series.

Also by Ragnar Jónasson

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Praise for The Island

Ragnar's best written book, filled with psychological horror and underlying rage. Hulda Hermannsdottir is a welcome addition to the selection of Icelandic crime fiction protagonists . . . It is almost impossible to put the book down until the last word has been read

Fréttablaðið

Ragnar's best book yet

Kiljan, literary TV show

The threads lie in various places, the plot is well woven and the pieces in the puzzle come together well in the end. The structure is good, the main characters are believable, the story flows well, everyone is a suspect á la Agatha Christie and the solution unveils the mystery and leads the readers to the truth. But not all the truth, as some things are better left hidden

Morgunbladid

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. I can't wait to read the rest of the Hulda series!

Shari Lapena, bestselling author of The Couple Next Door

Few writers at work today conjure atmosphere with such power, or plot their mysteries with such craft. The Island is his 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, bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

No one does isolation better than Ragnar Jonasson, who is superb at portraying Iceland's stark landscape and savage beauty . . . [Hulda Hermannsdottir is] an excellent addition to the growing band of top-class women detectives

The Times

Prepare to be swept away to the beautiful yet unforgiving island of Elliðaey in Jónasson's latest Icelandic noir. Atmospheric and creepy, Jónasson successfully keeps you guessing till the bittersweet end

Heat

Ragnar Jonasson is the Stephen King of Icelandic thrillers

Reader Review

We heart the melancholy Hulda

Sunday Times Crime Club

A chilling novel about people with dark secrets, protecting themselves without a thought for the consequences.

Sunday Times

Inventive and original, atmospheric and chilling . . . Fans of Christie's work will feel right at home; fans of Nordic Noir will similarly find the atmosphere right up their alley

5 ***** Reader Review

A strikingly evoked picture of Iceland's forbidding beauty...Hulda Hermansdottir is a striking character - both gloomy and tenacious - and she is a key reason for the success of this atmospheric novel

Barry Forshaw

This kept me guessing right up until the final pages. I loved the vivid landscapes, brilliant characterisation and intricate plotting. Bravo!

Liz Nugent, bestselling author of Skin Deep

Consider this one of the author's best plots, layered with that dour Scandinavian atmosphere we love

New York Times

Riveting

Sunday Times

Jónasson is an automatic must-read for me . . . possibly the best Scandi writer working today

Lee Child

Praise for Ragnar Jónasson

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Extraordinary, the three books in that series are all amazing . . . very moving all the way through

Ian Rankin

Praise for The Darkness

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Crime fiction has never seen a character quite like Hulda Hermannsdóittir; nor a series launch so entirely willing to take risks and obliterate long-standing tropes . . . There is no doubt that The Darkness will rank as one of the most popular and powerful reading experiences of the year.

BOLO Books Review

Expertly plotted, with an ending that's a true shocker, The Darkness is the first book in a trilogy featuring this engaging investigator, which is good news

The Guardian

It will get your pulse racing and keep you hooked to the last page

Simon Kernick of The Bone Field series

I've ONLY recently discovered the extraordinary Icelandic writer who adds several shades of darkness to Nordic noir . . . it builds to a deeply shocking climax

Daily Mail, Ten Thrillers to Die For, Anthony Horowitz

Magnificently dark and twisted! That ending - blimey!

C. J. Tudor, bestselling author of The Chalk Man

Superb. . . chilling . . . This is the first volume in Jonasson's Hidden Iceland trilogy, which tells Hulda's story in reverse chronological order and establishes her as one of the great tragic heroines of contemporary detective fiction

Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month