The Island

December 1, 2018

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 25, 2019
Jónasson’s masterly sequel to 2018’s The Darkness opens with a cryptic prologue set in a town just south of Reykjavík in 1988. A seven-year-old girl puzzles her parents after they return home one night by saying that both of her babysitters were kind, though only one babysitter had been with her. Flash back to a year earlier, when an unnamed 20-year-old woman takes her boyfriend, Benedikt, to her family’s summer home on the island of Ellidaey down the coast from Reykjavík, where she tells him stories about Iceland’s history of witch-burning in the 17th century. That outing ends in murder, and corruption mars the subsequent police inquiry. A decade later, Insp. Hulda Hermannsdóttir, who was passed over for promotion at the time of that flawed investigation, takes charge when another dead body turns up on Ellidaey with a connection to the previous murder. The link between the babysitter’s mysterious companion and the murders gradually becomes clear as the plot builds to a shiver-inducing conclusion. Jónasson delivers a mind-bending look into human darkness that earns its twists. Agent: David Headley, DHH Literary (U.K.).

April 1, 2019
A prequel to The Darkness (2018) that picks up Inspector Hulda Hermansdóttir in 1997, 15 years before her unplanned retirement, and finds her already just as lonely, resentful, and driven to succeed against all odds. Ten years after the death of Katla, a young woman who was murdered on Ellidaey Island, an uninhabited scrap of rock off the remote southwest coast of Iceland, four friends of hers return to the island. It's not entirely clear why securities trader Dagur, farmer's daughter Alexandra, or perennially unemployed Klara, who mostly aren't close to each other, have accepted the invitation of software company founder Benedikt to the scene of Katla's murder. But it's soon very clear that the reunion was a seriously bad idea. When one of the four not-quite-friends ends up at the bottom of a cliff, the others make appropriately mournful sounds. But the discovery of marks on the victim's throat indicates that this new death is another murder and raises the uncomfortable question of which of the three survivors--there's literally no one else on the island--is the killer. Hulda, who's been off in America seeking her birth father from among a short list of GIs named Robert who could possibly have impregnated her mother during a tour of duty in Reykjavik, returns in time to grab the case from under the nose of Lýdur, the former professional rival who's now her boss after having risen swiftly through the ranks, his rise propelled in no small part by his work 10 years ago in identifying Katla's killer, who suddenly doesn't look so guilty after all. 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.

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April 15, 2019
Ten years ago, Katla's body was found at her family's Westfjords vacation house, and her father was arrested for her murder. Now, on the tenth anniversary of the crime, Katla's brother, Dagur, and their childhood friends Klara, Alexandra, and Benedikt have reunited for a weekend on a scenic but isolated island. Despite the idyllic location, painful reminders of Katla's death overshadow their gathering, and they are grateful to depart. On the morning of their departure, however, Klara goes missing, and their frantic search reveals her body beneath a cliff. Reykjavik CID Inspector Hulda Hermannsd�ttir (introduced in The Darkness, 2018) is immediately suspicious that Klara's death wasn't an accident. Hulda is certain that the four friends are lying to her about why they've reunited, and Klala's autopsy reveals she was strangled. It's short work for Hulda to uncover the connection to Katla's murder and to find disturbing inconsistencies in her colleagues' case against her father. Another suspense-laden Icelandic gem: J�nasson's confidential, intimate prose evokes both Iceland's harsh, beautiful solitude and the deep connections Icelanders forge.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)