A huge bestseller in England, France, and Australia, the third book in the Dark Iceland series from a spectacular new crime writer. ”Easily the best yet. Beautifully written and elegantly paced with a plot that only gradually becomes visible, as if the reader had been staring into the freezing fog waiting for shapes to emerge.”–The Guardian, UK (Readers’ Books of the Year 2016) “A chiller of a … Year 2016)
“A chiller of a thriller whose style and pace are influenced by Jonasson’s admiration for Agatha Christie. It’s good enough to share shelf space with the works of Yrsa Sigurdardottir and Arnaldur Indridason, Iceland’s crime novel royalty.”–The Washington Post
Hailed for combining the darkness of Nordic Noir with classic mystery writing in the tradition of Agatha Christie, author Ragnar Jonasson’s books are haunting, atmospheric, and complex. Blackout, the latest Ari Thór thriller, delivers another dark mystery that is chillingly stunning with its complexity and fluidity.
On the shores of a tranquil fjord in Northern Iceland, a man is brutally beaten to death on a bright summer’s night. As the 24-hour light of the arctic summer is transformed into darkness by an ash cloud from a recent volcanic eruption, a young reporter leaves Reykajvik to investigate on her own, unaware that an innocent person’s life hangs in the balance. Ari Thor Arason and his colleagues on the tiny police force in Siglufjordur struggle with an increasingly perplexing case, while their own serious personal problems push them to the limit. What secrets does the dead man harbour, and what is the young reporter hiding? As silent, unspoken horrors from the past threaten them all, and the darkness deepens, it’s a race against time to find the killer before someone else dies.
more
i am quite a fan of nordic thrillers and noir. but this one i found boring, nice descriptions of Icelandic nature but hardly any tension. too much of repetitive information. it seems sloppy in editing. a nice cutting could do a lot to the book. how many times can we read that Hlynur getting threatening emails and Ari Thor broke with Kristin. what i am sure is nature is great in Iceland but for this normally i travel no need to read.
This book was a bit of a disappointment after having read Snowblind and the Hulda series. The plot is all over the place and comes together poorly at the end. It felt like Jonasson took a paint gun and splattered the book with characters that have no real purpose other than for a tiny hint of a red herring, which could have been handled more concisely with fewer characters.
Overall, I’ll continue with the series, but I really hope no one makes this their first Jonasson read because it’s a poor example of his usually stealer work that, so far, has been toughly plotted and pure page turners.
This is the third book in Ragnar Jonasson’s Dark Iceland series and I really do love this series. I’ve decided that this year I am determined to finish this series as it has been sitting on my shelf for far too long.
One of my favorite aspects of this series is just how atmospheric and tense the writing is and Ragnar really uses that to his advantage. The ash from the recent volcanic eruption that was darkening what should be a time of 24-hour light really added a dark layer to this story on top of the murder and the secrets that Ari Thor found himself investigating. And the storyline involving the journalist added an extra layer of intrigue. I loved the way it all wrapped up together, winding back and forth to keep you on your toes so that you weren’t quite sure where it was heading. I had no idea who the guilty party was and it kept me flipping the pages to find out.
Because the order of these books is somewhat confused in the English translation, there seems to be some discrepancy in how they have been marketed over here in the states. And so book 2, which is set 5 years after book 1 gives a bit of a spoiler, if you will, to some of the events that happen in this book, which happens quite soon after the events of book 1. I don’t think in the end it’s necessarily a bad thing, as you can see the evolution of things leading up to where they ended up now, but it does require a little bit of resetting if you read them back to back.
This is such a dark, twisted story that is layered and filled with twists to keep you flipping those pages. It is complex and filled with secrets. I had my guesses but never ended up with the right one.
I cannot recommend this series enough and I excited to continue on with the next book. Have you given this series a try?
This is the 3rd book in the Dark Iceland series and the best so far. The plot is intricate and the author masterfully weaves together many varied characters–from the young reporter investigating the murder, the police in the isolated Iceland city, and characters with a dark interwoven past. Brilliant.