I am thrilled to feature Ragnar Jonasson's The Mist on the blog today. The third in
the Hidden Iceland series, we get to find out more about Hulda Hermannsdóttir's story. This is a trilogy which starts with the most recent part of Hilda's story and goes back through time. The Mist therefore takes you back to the beginning of Hulda's career as a police officer. You can read my reviews of the first two stories in the trilogy here: The Darkness | The Island.
1987. An isolated farm house in the east of Iceland.
The
snowstorm should have shut everybody out. But it didn't.
The couple should
never have let him in. But they did.
An unexpected guest, a liar, a killer. Not
all will survive the night.
And Detective Hulda Hermannsdóttir will be haunted
forever.
THE MIST is the nail-biting conclusion to the internationally
bestselling, critically acclaimed HIDDEN ICELAND series, told in reverse
chronology.
My Thoughts
What a brilliant ending to the Hidden Iceland trilogy. I particularly liked the way the setting, characters and plot are all so interlinked. The truth is opaque and everything in the story seems closed off and hidden. The truth is always there, hiding in plain sight. The isolated farm where Erla and Einar live is compared to a prison. The past family history is a tie which can't be broken away from. The truth is also imprisoning them. Hulda finds herself in a similar position. Silence hangs between herself and her husband, Jon. For them, there is no escaping the truth.
The three strands of the book seem to echo each other. Hulda's story, Erla and Einar's lives and the case of the missing people which Hulda is working on are cleverly woven throughout the book. You realise how ordinary people can find themselves drawn into extraordinary circumstances. As ever, it is the biting cold, the darkness and the silence of the environment which comes to dominate the novel, as it constricts people's lives. It is a powerful image of the pressures which are pressing down on them all. What a marvellous ending to the trilogy- or is it a beginning?
In short: brilliant!
About the Author
RAGNAR JÓNASSON was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he
works as a writer and a lawyer. He also teaches copyright law at Reykjavik
University, and has worked as a TV news reporter for Icelandic National
Broadcasting Service. He is the author of the DARK ICELAND series (Snowblind,
Nightblind, Blackout, Rupture and Whiteout) and the HIDDEN ICELAND series (The
Darkness, The Island).
Ragnar is the co-founder of Iceland Noir, Iceland’s first
crime fiction festival. From the age of 17, Ragnar translated 14 Agatha
Christie novels into Icelandic; a practice that has inspired his own writing.
Thanks to Ragnar Jónasson, and Sriya Varadharajan of Penguin Books for a copy of the book and a place on the tour.
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