The Mist is one of the four books I have planned to read over the next four weeks. I knew it was part of a different series from Ragnar Jonnason Rupture the last of Jonasson books that I’ve read. Rupture is part of Ragnar’s Dark Iceland series, while The Mist is part of the Hidden Iceland series.
.What I didn’t do before I checked The Mist out of the library was check what number it was in the series. When I did check I discovered It’s book number three.
A while back I had checked out the electronic version of The Darkness, which is book one of the series. However, It went back unread. First because I got caught up reading other books and secondly because ebooks can not be renewed.
Anyway, about a week ago, I decided to read both The Darkness and book 2 in the series The Island before dipping into The Mist.
The Darkness (Book 3 of 2021)
So does how that all relates to this post? Yesterday I finished The Darkness (Book 4 of 2021) by Ragnar Jonnason
The Darkness features Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir of the Reykjavík police. A 64 year-old widow she is waiting out her time until she can retire at 65. However, her employers have other ideas and soon Hulda is forced into an early retirement. She is given two weeks to go home and wait until her official retirement begins
Rather than being allowed to continue to work on her caseload, she is told she can work on a cold case of her choice.
Hulda chooses the case of a young Russian woman whose body had washed up on an Icelandic shore a year earlier. A cursory investigation was completed. The death was declared a suicide and the case is quietly closed.
As Hulda starts to dig into the case, she quickly realizes it may not have been a suicide but rather a murder.
As the novel progresses the reader is provided two parallel story lines told in flashbacks
One story line involves a mother who had to place her illegitimate baby daughter in a care facility because she couldn’t afford to take care of her. And their struggles throughout the child’s life.
The other story is about a young women who is taken on a trip to an isolated and dangerous valley in the Icelandic mountains.
All three converge to provide a very dramatic ending to The Darkness.
Gregg Hurwitz’s writes on the cover of The Darkness ..” I dare you not to be shocked” and I do too !!
Final Thoughts
The bottom line – I really liked the book. I thought Hulda’s character the was both interesting and well developed. Additionally, I also know that I had some of the same feelings as I approached and moved into retirement. Now, I can’t wait to move onto The Island and The Mist
Links for the Further Exploration of the Books of Ragnar Jonnason
Author’s Website
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