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My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Many thanks to Sriya Varadharajan at Michael Joseph Penguin Random House UK and the author Ragnar Jonasson for a chance at this blog tour for THE MIST, book # 3 in the Hidden Iceland series. All opinions are expressed voluntarily.
Snow…. blinding snow…. blizzard…storm…. a mountain of white that obscures vision, the only choice to stay put inside, be it anywhere and try to survive.
Ragnaor Jonasson’s The Mist takes the reader on a brutal journey inside the snow in a harsh and bleak place in the eastern parts of Iceland. The story begins 2 months after Christmas in 1987 where we see a grief-stricken Detective Hulda Hermannsdottir of the Reykjavik Police Department struggling to stay afloat at work. Designated to investigate a murder, the reader is forced to stumble in blind with no awareness of what lies ahead. We have no clue of the number of victims as the story unfolds in alternating chapters showing us the personal tragedy that would affect Hulda and the stranger that comes calling to a desolate farmland in the midst of nowhere.
Einar and Erla have been struggling to make it work in the isolated farm that has been in the family for generations but the utter loneliness and the savage and relentless winter has begun to take its toll and Erla finds solace in only the books to keep her company. It is just days before Christmas but the merciless weather offers no respite and then,
THERE’S A KNOCK AT THE DOOR.
(OK I am reading this book in scorching heat here in India but honestly that knock just gave me a thumping heart😹😹😹)
The stark atmosphere that the author has created is formidable so much that the reader is immersed into this gripping and riveting thriller from get-go. The parallel storyline of Hulda and Erla brings forth a sense of impending doom as the mystery of the stranger gets unraveled. There is not much detective work for Hulda as we get to see the POV’s of principal characters in question but just like the blizzard that reduces the visibility to NIL, I was blindsided by the threads that wove together to form the motive.
The Hidden Iceland series has been published in the reverse order which I think is a brilliant tactic, book #3 is the final book or the first book depending on how you see it in the trilogy. I haven’t read any of the other books in the series but this can surely be read as a stand-alone.
Intriguing, atmospheric and haunting, THE MIST is guaranteed to make you feel the chill, both from the story and the brutal cold. Highly Recommended!
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 will be haunted forever.
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This review is published in my blog https://rainnbooks.com/ , Medium.com, Goodreads, Amazon India and twitter.