Reykjavík

<p><b>Ragnar Jónasson</b> is an international number one bestselling author who has sold over three million books in thirty-four countries worldwide. He was born in Reykjavík Iceland where he also works as an investment banker and teaches copyright law at Reykjavík University.<br><br>He has previously worked on radio and television including as a TV news reporter for the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service and from the age of seventeen has translated fourteen of Agatha Christie's novels. His critically acclaimed international bestseller <i>The Darkness</i> is soon to be a major TV series and Ridley Scott will be producing <i>Outside </i>as a feature film.<br><br><b>KATRÍN JAKOBSDÓTTIR</b> has been Prime Minster of Iceland since 2017. Katrín has been a member of the Icelandic Parliament since 2007 but before that she worked in publishing and education. She served as the minister for education research and culture from 2009 to 2013. She lives with her husband and three sons in Reykjavík. Hailing from a family of prominent Icelandic poets and academics she wrote her Master's dissertation on Icelandic crime writing. She and Jónasson are long-time friends who first worked together nearly ten years ago as part of the jury for an award for best crime fiction in translation in Iceland.</p> <p><b>What happened to Lara?</b><br><br>Iceland 1956. Fourteen-year-old Lara spends the summer on the small island of Videy just off the coast of Reykjavík.<br><br>In early August the girl disappears without a trace.<br><br>The mystery becomes Iceland's greatest unsolved case. What happened to the young girl? Is she still alive? Did she leave the island or did something happen to her there?<br><br>Thirty years later journalist Valur Robertsson begins his own investigation into Lara's case. But as he draws closer to discovering the secret it's soon clear that this is a mystery someone will stop at nothing to keep unsolved...</p> Nordic noir at its most authoritative. <b>A crime novel with a difference</b> <b>A beautifully constructed mystery by two super smart partners in crime</b> A slow-burning spellbinding whodunit. Agatha Christie to whom it's dedicated would be proud <b>I read all 349 pages in one go and enjoyed every second</b> . . . A <b>gripping</b> story . . . extremely well written . . . <b>superbly plotted</b> . . . <b>The twist at the halfway point of the book hits the reader like a wave of the ice cold Atlantic Ocean.</b> One reader at my home was almost in shock. <b>It is an art to create such a deep connection with fictional characters.</b> Even though the story is first and foremost entertaining it also serves as the mirror of a nation and has many layers <b>Brilliant. Very exciting great fun good characterization </b>and the atmosphere of the 80s is described in an enjoyable way. <b>One of the best crime novels I've read in a long time</b> Praise for Ragnar Jónasson Jónasson is a connoisseur of 'unrelenting darkness'; t<b>he atmosphere of paranoid claustrophobia [Jónasson] creates is so intense you can't help gripping the book as tightly as possible</b> <b>A superb page-turner . . . breathes fresh and unsettling life into the classic locked room mystery</b> <b>Stunningly original . . . Tense. Very tense.</b> <b>Jónasson's twisting elegantly crafted story will keep you hooked till the very last page</b> <b>Ragnar Jónasson is so skilled in depicting the environment where the story takes place</b> it becomes one of the characters. It is <b>so atmospheric I am immediately transported to the Icelandic moors </b>feeling the cold all the way to the bones.<b> I read with bated breath my heart pounding with the looming knowledge that soon something bad is about to happen</b> <b>Jonasson offers an intense standalone taking to new heights his unrivalled skill for using winter as an unpredictable plot-twister . . . </b>There is so much to like here: the complexity of the quartet's relationships <b>Jonasson's powerful streamlined writing </b>and the parallels between an unforgiving setting and the characters' seething grudges. <b>Readers will be drawn into Jonasson's forbidding Iceland landscape where it's anyone's guess who will make it out alive</b> <b>Entertaining suspenseful and twisty. Overall highly recommended for fans of Ragnar Jonasson and suspense thrillers in general</b> <b>Chilling thriller by the king of Icelandic noir . . . so gripping I can't put it down</b> <b>A shivery delight</b> <b>Jónasson's spare prose and brisk pacing make for an immersive read . . . <i>Outside</i> is an intriguing study of isolation claustrophobia and the particular menace to be found in beautiful yet unforgiving terrain</b> <b>Jonasson is a master at two aspects of Icelandic noir: one is the description of his country's withering weather; the other is the handling of murderous plots that are tangled beyond all expectations. He's in top form in both specialties this time out</b> <b>Jónasson is an automatic must-read for me . . . possibly the best Scandi writer working today</b> <b>Triumphant . . . Chilling creepy perceptive almost unbearably tense</b> <b>Dark chilling and utterly gripping</b> <b>Such a tense gripping read</b> A<b> world-class</b> crime writer. One of the<b> most astonishing plots of modern crime fiction. </b> <b>A master of the Icelandic thriller.</b> <i>A compelling voice in crime fiction</i> <b>Mysterious tense and deeply atmospheric </b>