Another excellent find from my local library. Told from two perspectives, it follows the story of a journalist and his sister as they unravel a cold case of a missing girl. Set in and around the city of Reykjavik, in 1956 a young girl named Lára goes missing after working the summer for a couple on an island near Iceland’s capital. The case becomes infamous and on its 30th anniversary (which happens to be the same year as city of Reykjavík’s 200th anniversary) a journalist decides to profile the case. It’s a great choice for selling papers, but as he uncovers more of the story, it becomes clear that it might not be a great choice for his health and safety.

Ragnar Jónasson’s story structures have a bit of Agatha Christie about them and they also have the noir vibe of really digging into the pain and cruelty and darkness of human existence. I thought the ending was clever, but it did raise some questions for me but earlier investigations which have been fun to think about.

So, if you like noir or mystery or political thrillers or, like me, you’re just obsessed with thinking about Iceland (in my defense, I live in the desert so it could not be further from my everyday environment), I recommend this.

Oh, also one last thing, Katrín Jakobsdóttir is a former prime minister of Iceland and that tickles me. I love it.