This Icelandic crime novel features Hulda Hermannsdottir, which I learnt in this book can mean "daughter of Herman" or "daughter of a soldier" - Hulda was born to an Icelandic woman and a US soldier. Now a detective near the end of her career, she investigates the death of a young woman on an isolated island, and its links to a historic case ten years before, of another young woman. This book was very bleak indeed, Hulda's life is awful even by literary detective standards. I didn't guess who had done it right up until the big reveal though, so...

(A netgalley book)

Although I enjoyed the first book in the Hidden Iceland series, The Darkness, it was rather bleak at times.

I found The Island less bleak and for me it was more enjoyable.

It's the same police detective Hulda Hermannsdottir but the action takes place some years earlier. (The series is apparently being written in reverse). I found this quite strange but I still enjoyed the book. You get to know Hulda a little bit better and perhaps understand a little more why she is the way she is in Book 1.

Hulda is sent to investigate a death on a remote island where four friends were staying. Accident or murder? If not an accident, one of the three remaining has to be a killer. Hulda finds similarities (and a connection) to a murder that happened 10 years previously.. Could there have been cover up regarding the earlier murder?

The characters are well drawn. We learn quite a lot of their backstory. You get to know a little more of Hulda - she starts to look for the father she never knew. You get glimpses of a slightly softer side.

The author also captures the bleakness of the remote Icelandic landscape.

This is a ‘prequel’ to The Darkness and set 10 years earlier..

It follows DI Hulda, her personal life and it’s tragedies, and her fight to be respected in a male dominated work environment .

She is investigating recent murders amongst a group of friends and she is ever dogged in her determination to find the truth.

A nice twisty thriller, with great descriptive writing, not particularly fast paced, but gives a lot of background to the marvellous Hulda, a bit grumpy and dour, but with what she has going on in her life, I’m not surprised. Brilliant.

My thanks to the publishers, the author and NetGalley for a free copy of the ebook. This is my honest and unbiased review.

Spooky and dark as an Icelandic winter, yet set in summer ! Strange tale that pulls you in quickly and doesn’t let go until you find out exactly what happened. The body count quickly rises as past and present collide. I enjoyed the characters an Hulda, in particular.

There is a previous book by this author which I am encouraged to buy and read due to my enjoyment of this one. If you like Scandic Noir you will like this - enjoy !!!

Those who follow the blog will be aware of how much I have enjoyed the previous books by the author, so I was delighted to finally dig into The Island while on holiday.
With The Island Ragnar Jónasson once again shows that he is one of the masters of location. If you thought that Iceland felt like a cold and inhospitable place in the previous books, you haven't seen anything yet. The Island brings us to an uninhabited island on the coast, that is home to millions of birds, but not much more. It draws the reader in, and gives a real sense of isolation. Some of the descriptions here had me shivering, despite the fact I was sitting in over 30 degree heat while reading.
The return of Hulda is a welcome one, this book being set some years prior to the events of The Darkeness it is more a prequel than a sequel, but we get some great insight into how the character became who she is in book one (a badass) who had to deal with some real shitheads during her life. I felt a real admiration for her, I'd love to get a cup of coffee with her.

Not my favourite book to date this yest but by no means my least favourite.
Reasonable enough story and would probably read others by same author.

An enjoyable read - having had it on my Kindle for some time, I had no idea what the story line was and it was a pleasant surprise - a quick read with interesting characters and a surprising outcome. Recommended.

I read, and thoroughly enjoyed The Darkness, so when I received the copy of this book I anticipated a good read. I was not disappointed. The author has a way with description, Iceland is unfamiliar to most and I enjoyed reading the descriptive parts which, in my opinion, added to the context of the story. The story unfolds gently. It is not a fast paced read. The characters are developed slowly and are well drawn. There is a level of detail which makes the book interesting, small things become important. The ending does not disappoint, the denouement is satisfying. I look forward to the next book.

I love Ragnar Jónasson's style of writing. He draws you in and keeps you there until the end. This book is no exception- I failed in not reading his first in this series ( I plan to correct this Immediately!) but you don't need to have read the first book to enjoy this story. The book starts off with a romance, a murder, a group of friends and an island The story slowly gives each characters background story and interweaves it into the present. I loved finding out about each character in turn and the description of each place makes me feel as though I'm there. I became invested in the characters and this story. I loved Hulda and her whole interestingly unique melancholy life. I'm excited to play catch up with this series and cannot wait for the next installment.

Chilling and thrilling from page 1.
I seriously wondered whether I should read this book by daylight but dove under my duvet instead! I loved how the story took us from one character to another and from present to past as it wove it’s dark and mysterious tale.

5 friends become 4 and years later the 4 meet up. What happens is dark and sinister story telling at its very best. When Klara screamed, my blood curdled.

Hulda, the investigating officer, also has her own story. A background so sad that work has become her all. Will solving this mystery give her any more peace in her own life?

A must read.

I found that this book okay but it didn’t float my boat in some areas. I thought the characters were a little dull and I didn’t warm to them, the unfamiliar names of people and places didn’t help me either and yet having said that the narrative was good.

This book is perfect example of Nordic Noir. Set in Iceland Hulda is a police detective who picks up an unusual case of a suspicious death on a uninhabited island. It has to be one four friends as no one else was on the island or was there. The writing is very smooth and easy to follow building the tension as it goes without giving any major clues. Yes it is just a glorified "who done it" but it combines it with the problems of life in Iceland, long days or nights and the struggle with mental health. Unfortunately I expected more thrills hence only three stars but it was entertaining nonetheless.

I liked The Island and would recommend it to those who love Nordic noir. The Icelandic setting was beautifully drawn, as were the lead characters. The central figure, Hulda, evoked a sense of compassion for her trials and tribulations, and the denouement of the book provided a strong sense of justice.

I read the Darkness (the first book in this trilogy) almost exactly a year ago, giving it 5 stars so I was eagerly delving into this one and it didn't disappoint for me.
I similarly loved the different setting in Iceland. Perhaps not so much atmosphere was created/used that I remember from the first book, but I was still hooked.
In the first book you see Hulda as a retiring police detective whereas in this one she's basically in the middle of her police career.
You follow four friends on a trip to a remote island and the fall out when one of them turns up dead.
My only gripe was having two of the main characters having such similar names - Klara and Katla, which did have me confused at times!
Otherwise I loved this and if you enjoyed the first one you'll similarly lap this one up again.
5 stars again from me.
Many thanks again for the preview copy from NetGalley on which this review is based.
Look forward to the finale of the trilogy next year.

Ragnar Jonasson's second instalment of his reverse trilogy is as engaging and entertaining as ever. The reader is transported effortlessly to the grim volcanic landscapes of Iceland and is teased with just about enough information to hazard a guess at the identity of the killer or killers involved in the violent deaths that occur in the story. The writing and translation are elegant and fluent so the reader is easily drawn in to the 'just one more chapter tonight' decision, before sneakily managing a second - even as the clock slips past midnight! The reverse trilogy is an interesting dimension that adds a certain novelty to the book, but readers unfamiliar with the final instalment should still enjoy the book and need not feel at a disadvantage. It will be interesting to see, once the full set is published, whether readers choose to read in the sequence the author intended or the conventional order. As with the third book in the trilogy this is a highly recommended read.

I read this in one sitting. I found it to be quite gripping and I actually read every word, which is unusual - I tend to skim. The characters were interesting and the setting was atmospheric. I love the Icelandc names. However, i believe that this is part of a series and that the author has written other sets of books in the same genre. I am not keen on crime series as they tend to be a little repetitive and predictable, and I do not really care about the detectives who invariably have past secrets or sorows to be revealed. So although I enjoyed this it will be a one off for me.

Murder is very civilised in Iceland unless of course you’re the victim, or so it seems in The Island by Ragnar Jónasson. This was a captivating read, mainly because it was so different from what one might expect from a detective thriller. Human nature though is universal and we find jealousy, lying, love, ambition and corruption plus of course Hulda, a lady with a very unusual interrogation technique.
When all the facts came to light it was as clear as day who was responsible for the latest death and by implication the former one. However, it’s a bit more nuanced than that because a flawed initial investigation led to the suicide of a father and the destruction of a family.
Minor niggles….the investigation in to Katla’s death, abused by her father and a jumper at the scene being the only ‘evidence’? There were no signs of abuse so we’re left with a jumper! Hardly grounds for a conviction. The two faces of Dagur, a screaming claustrophobic and yet compliant to the point of wanting to be taken back in to custody!
Overall, a very entertaining novel.

Benedikt is invited to a reunion with three friends on The Island where ten years ago his girlfriend Katla was murdered while they visited her parents cottage. A second tragedy occurs when one of the four is killed after falling off a cliff, or so it seems! The post mortem tells a different story and the police are now investigating a second murder. Coincidence or is this a serial.killer and Katla's.father has been wrongly imprisoned for her murder. The officer investigating this second murder is Hulda, who has a personal.investigation going on as she endeavours to find the father she never knew in America, a.soldier that doesn't know she exists.
A good whodunit but I found the writing a little awkward and at times long winded, maybe due to.it being a translation. Well worth a read though.

Superb Atmospheric Murder Thriller:
Set to be one of 2019's best thrillers "The Island" by Ragnar Jonasson is one of those books which you can't put down once you start. Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdottir, returning in the second novel in the Hidden Iceland Series, has to investigate the mysterious death of one of four friends on a weekend jaunt to a secluded island. The trip was a reunion of friends to celebrate an anniversary. But an Anniversary of what? An autopsy suggests foul play and as Hulda investigates she uncovers strong links with a murder which occurred ten years earlier in a similar isolated location. The earlier murder was solved to the satisfaction of the judiciary at the time, but this latest crime suggests that the wrong person may have been blamed. Reputations are on the line, and Hulda finds herself up against interference from her police colleagues which she has to circumvent in order to get at the truth. A truth which might not be popular with her police superiors.
With only a very limited number of characters from which to pick the culprit, Ragnar Jonasson manages to throw in enough red herrings to keep the reader guessing until the very end. (And even then I got it wrong.)
As good a thriller as the first novel in the series "The Darkness", I look forward to the next instalment in this exceptional series. A must read novel.

Rating 3.5

Four friends visit an isolated island for the weekend, but only three return.
Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir is called in to investigate and soon finds links with a previous case - a young woman found murdered ten years ago whom the four friends all knew.

As Hulda questions the friends she is convinced that no one is telling the truth, about this or the previous case.

Having read Dimma (book 1) of this series and thoroughly enjoyed it, I was more than happy to read the next book. I'm a fan of Nordic Noir for sure!

Once again the author threw a curve ball at the ending, so that tickled me pink. Now unusually it's set before book 1 and whilst the story is good and intriguing, I'm not sure working backwards through Huldas life and career quite works for me, something just felt off kilter. It's like I know too much, but then again not enough so I'm left frustrated. Still something about the character and setting in Iceland I like, so I'm pretty sure I'll be reading the next one sometime soon.

I received this book from netgalley in return for a honest review.