The Mist

January 1, 2020

What has D.I. Hulda Hermannsdóttir got to do with a remote farmhouse in eastern Iceland, where a couple shut in by a blizzard has foolishly let in a stranger? Read up to find out, but know that not everyone emerges alive, and this scenario will trouble Hulda for the rest of her career. Iceland's premier crime writer wraps up the "Hidden Iceland" series.

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Starred review from April 13, 2020
Isolation and despair undo the characters in Jónasson’s exceptional third and final novel featuring Reykjavík Det. Insp. Hulda Hermannsdóttir (after 2019’s The Island). In February 1988, Hulda, who has returned to work after time off to deal with an unidentified personal issue, is still struggling to get through the day and perform any meaningful work. She’s forced into action by her boss when multiple corpses are found on a farm, with indications that the bodies have been there since around Christmas. Flash back to a snowy day in December 1987. Einar and Erla Einarsson, who live on a remote farm, answer a knock on the door to an unexpected visitor, who introduces himself as Leó. The couple offer Leó shelter for the night, but Erla becomes suspicious of their guest’s account of how he arrived at their home. Jónasson ratchets up the nail-biting tension gradually, alternating the developments at the farm along with the events in Hulda’s life that led to her traumatic stupor. Fans of dark crime fiction that doesn’t pull punches will be amply rewarded. Agent: David Headley, DHH Literary (U.K.).

April 15, 2020
A trio of interlinked horrors unfold in the days leading up to Iceland's celebration of Christmas 1987. Maybe the following February is too soon for Detective Hulda Hermannsd�ttir to have returned to work at Reykjav�k CID. Assigned to reopen the case of Unnur, a girl from Gardabaet who vanished last autumn during the tour of Iceland she undertook on foot before enrolling in college, Hulda thinks it's the worst possible investigation she could have been handed because she's still reeling from the darkly hinted domestic catastrophe that began with the withdrawn behavior of Dimma, her own teenager, and alienated her from her husband, J�n, over the holidays. As Hulda, who's not "kidding herself that there would be any happy ending," soldiers on in search of the missing Unnur, J�nasson counterpoints her inquiries with excruciatingly paced stages of a flashback to the days before Christmas, when family farmer Einar Einarsson's wife, Erla, opens the door of their house to Le�, a lost stranger who claims to have gotten separated from other members of his hunting party. A wintry storm prevents Le� from leaving, and with every hour that passes, Erla uncovers more discrepancies in his story. Who is he really, why has he come to their isolated home, and what unspeakable plans does he have in mind? J�nasson weaves his suspenseful tales together with remorseless logic up to a climax more nightmarish than the buildup.

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May 1, 2020
The third and final episode of Hidden Iceland (introduced with The Darkness, 2018) reaches back to the winter of 1987 to find Hulda, Reykjavik's lone female police detective, distracting herself from her own family's tragedy with lingering questions about a girl's disappearance and a new investigation of multiple murders. These stories begin coming together in the days before Christmas; Hulda is torn between the temptation of investigative distractions and helplessness against her daughter's deepening depression. She's drawn to the puzzling disappearance of Umma, a free-spirited woman who was backpacking around Iceland, particularly after she learns that the woman's father has also recently disappeared. Meanwhile, at an isolated farmhouse, a stranger's sudden appearance during a blizzard ignites suspicion, fear, and eventual tragedy. Iceland is a small country, which lends credibility to the clever links between the cases, into which J�nasson weaves a haunting thread of parental loss and revenge. Sharp-witted, socially awkward Hulda's story is told in reverse in this series, and readers well acquainted with Hulda will find the backstory of her daughter's death intensely moving.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)