Thank you Minotaur Books, #partner, for the advanced copy of Reykjavik in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Published: September 5, 2023
Summary:
With over three million copies sold worldwide, Ragnar Jónasson, along with Katrín Jakobsdóttir, brings us a gripping and chilling new thriller, Reykjavík.
What happened to Lára?
Iceland, 1956. Fourteen-year-old Lára decides to spend the summer working for a couple on the small island of Videy, just off the coast of Reykjavík. In early August, the girl disappears without a trace. Time passes, and the mystery becomes Iceland‘s most infamous unsolved case. What happened to the young girl? Is she still alive? Did she leave the island, or did something happen to her there?
Thirty years later, as the city of Reykjavík celebrates its 200th anniversary, journalist Valur Robertsson begins his own investigation into Lára’s case. But as he draws closer to discovering the secret, and with the eyes of Reykjavík upon him, it soon becomes clear that Lára’s disappearance is a mystery that someone will stop at nothing to keep unsolved . . .
My thoughts:
I have long been a fan of Ragnar Jonasson’s crime fiction novels and as soon as I saw that he had co-written a crime fiction novel with the Icelandic Prime Minister, I knew I had to read it…and I’m so glad I did. I think this was a great partnership and I hope to see more books from these two in the future!
This book was such a clever take on a missing girl and a cold case that eventually gets solved. While it is a bit of a slow burn at first, taking time to really set the scene of the story of the girl who goes missing and introducing all the players involved, once the introduction of the journalist comes into play thirty years later, things start moving a bit faster, especially as secrets start coming to light. And then, a major plot twist happens, and things really take off and I could not put the book down!
I found myself completely engaged in this story right from the start, even with the slower beginning. I loved how it all unraveled, really keeping me guessing all the way until the very end. And I really loved that while this is a crime fiction novel, there is no actual violence within this story. It’s just a mystery being solved, and along the way, we get a little history of Iceland and the people, which I loved.
I also loved the nods to Agatha Christie that we see throughout the book. Both Jonasson and Jakobsdottir are big fans of the author, so it’s only natural to see this influence their writing. This is seen in the isolation of the small island of Videy, where the young girl goes missing, to the ramping of suspense at just the right moments and the limited number of suspects. In fact, they enjoy her work enough to have dedicated the book to her!
This was such a great book and I definitely recommend picking it up! I really do hope that we see another collaboration from these two authors again, and there is talk there might be another one in the works…I attended an author event with them last night at the Scandinavian House in NYC with a few friends and this was of course asked.
They also talked about how the book came about in the first place and this was quite interesting. Ragnar, as I mentioned above, is a well-established author, but this is Katrin’s first book. He is the one that suggested they collaborate, knowing that she wanted to write a crime book, and he even came up with the general idea of the girl going missing, which is something that a lot of Icelanders can relate to. There is not a lot of crime in Iceland, but people disappearing is a big issue due to the nature of the climate, the geography and so that is what they used as a backdrop. When they finally decided to write, it was during the pandemic, and they wrote separately, sending parts of chapters back and forth to each other. As someone who has read many collaborations to date, I found this to be quite a seamless writing piece – if I didn’t know better, I would never know it was by two separate authors.
I love attending author events and this one was quite an enjoyable, yet informative evening.
