Reykjavík: A Crime Story

by Ragnar Jónasson, Katrín Jakobsdóttir

Overview

With over four 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 . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250907332
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/05/2023
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	51,656
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

RAGNAR JÓNASSON is an international number one bestselling author who has sold over three million books in thirty-six countries worldwide. His books include the Dark Iceland series and the Hulda series. Jónasson was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he also works as an investment banker and teaches copyright law at Reykjavik University. He has previously worked on radio and television, including as a TV news reporter for the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, and, since the age of seventeen, has translated fourteen of Agatha Christie's novels. Jónasson is the co-founder of the Reykjavik international crime writing festival Iceland Noir. His critically acclaimed international bestseller The Darkness is soon to be a major TV series, and Outside is soon to be a feature film. Jónasson lives in Reykjavik with his wife and two daughters.

KATRÍN JAKOBSDÓTTIR is the prime minister of Iceland. Reykjavík is her first novel. Katrín holds a master’s degree in Icelandic literature and wrote her master’s thesis on Icelandic crime fiction author Arnaldur Indriðason. She taught Icelandic literature, and worked for media and publishing houses, before becoming a member of the Icelandic parliament in 2007. She served as the minister for education, research and culture from 2009-2013 and became the chair of her political party, the Left-Green Movement, in 2013. She has been the prime minister since 2017, and lives with her husband and three sons in Reykjavík.

Editorial Reviews

★ 07/31/2023

Jónasson, a translator of Agatha Christie mysteries, teams up with Icelandic prime minister Jakobsdóttir for a thrilling Scandinavian noir inspired by a real-life cold case. In 1956, a 15-year-old housemaid named Lára vanishes from the only inhabited house on Videy, a small island off the coast of Reykjavík. Infrequent media inquires into her disappearance prove fruitless until 1986, when Valur Róbertsson, an ambitious young journalist, sees Lára’s case as a potentially career-making story. Just after Valur receives a compelling scoop, he’s pushed in front of a bus and dies, and his grief-stricken younger sister, Sunna, takes over the investigation. Building on her brother’s reporting, she discovers that a cabal including a judge, a real estate developer, a councilman, and a newspaper editor has been concealing a terrible secret central to Lára’s disappearance. Jónasson has clearly learned a thing or two from Christie’s trademark tight plotting and penetrating characterizations, and Jakobsdóttir’s insider knowledge of Iceland’s halls of power lend the proceedings an air of authenticity. Fans of Jo Nesbø’s Harry Hole series will be rapt. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Tamaryn Payne and Bert Seymour seamlessly present this mystery, cowritten by Iceland's prime minister, Katrin Jakobsdottir. Listeners learn of 15-year-old Lara's 1956 murder and the 1986 reopening of the case. Payne and Seymour aptly convey Iceland's 200th Anniversary celebration, the Gorbachev-Reagan Summit, and the country's expanding media. Colorful descriptions of the locales, diverse residents, and flashbacks are atmospheric. Young journalist Valur--egged on by his editor--believes he's onto a breakthrough in the murder case. Most touching is meeting police officer Kristjal, who was forbidden to work on the original case. A heartrending tragedy results in Sunna, Valur's sister, taking over his news article. Listeners will be mesmerized as audio captures 30 years of changes in the Icelandic lifestyle and speech patterns--as well as a shocking conclusion. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2024 - AudioFile

★ 2023-07-13
The search for answers about a missing schoolgirl takes 30 years to pay off.

Fifteen-year-old Lára Marteinsdóttir, who’d contracted to work the summer of 1956 as a domestic helper for former Supreme Court of Iceland barrister Óttar Óskarsson and his wife, Ólöf Blöndal, in their retreat on the little island of Videy, announces one morning that she’s packed her bags and is leaving early to rejoin her parents in Reykjavík. The couple are jolted by her early departure, but her parents are far more jolted when she never shows up. Since not many young women go missing in Iceland, the case, first investigated by police officer Kristján Kristjánsson, swiftly becomes a cause célèbre, but that doesn’t lead to a solution—not in 1956, not in 1966, not in 1976. It’s not until 1986, on the eve of Reykjavík’s 200th anniversary, that Valur Róbertsson, a promising reporter for the struggling weekly Vikubladid, gets a phone call from someone calling herself Julía that so whets his interest in the case that he keeps overpromising developments to editor Dagbjartur Steinsson, who in turn pushes him harder and harder and even leaks a wildly premature announcement of his upcoming scoop to other news outlets. Valur focuses on a quartet of old friends—Óskarsson himself, city councillor Páll Jóhannesson, developer Högni Eyfjörd, and wholesaler Finnur Stephensen, whose dying words to his actress wife were “You have to go to Videy”—who regularly met on the island. When Valur is unable to deliver the goods, his sister, Sunna Róbertsdóttir, puts her dissertation in comparative literature on hold and takes over the investigation just as Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev announce their plans to meet in Reykjavík for their historic summit.

A slow-burning, spellbinding whodunit. Agatha Christie, to whom it’s dedicated, would be proud.

Kirkus Reviews

One of The New York Times’ Best Crime Novels of 2023
An Editors’ Choice/Staff Pick from The New York Times Book Review
An Amazon Editors’ Pick for Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

“A slow-burning, spellbinding whodunit. Agatha Christie, to whom it’s dedicated, would be proud.”—Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

"Jónasson has clearly learned a thing or two from Christie’s trademark tight plotting and penetrating characterizations, and Jakobsdóttir’s insider knowledge of Iceland’s halls of power lend the proceedings an air of authenticity. Fans of Jo Nesbø’s Harry Hole series will be rapt."—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“Reykjavik . . . qualifies as a breakout: seamlessly plotted, with terrific characters and plenty of surprising, earned twists.”—The New York Times

“A beautifully constructed mystery by two super smart partners in crime.”—Anthony Horowitz, New York Times bestselling author of Magpie Murders

"A classic mystery . . . Reykjavik provides tremendous insight into Iceland at a time of change, expansion, and corruption. Sure to appeal to a broad swath of crime-fiction readers."—First Clue

“This is Nordic noir at its most authoritative.”—Financial Times

“A classic crime novel . . . as tense as anything Jonasson has previously written.”—The Sunday Times

“Just one terrific crime novel.”—Daily News

“Fans of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Millennium series will fall in love with Ragnar Jonasson’s Icelandic crime novel, Reykjavík”—Mystery & Suspense

“This writing duo more than satisfies … Reykjavík is both a well-crafted piece of crime fiction as well as a look back at the history of a country that is often misunderstood and overlooked.”—BOLO Books

“If you’re a fan of Nordic noir, you’re gonna love Reykjavík. Both writers are in top form, and their tale is deftly plotted and skillfully rendered”—BookPage

“[Reykjavik] chills the bones and freezes the blood as the unusual partnership between a reporter and a prime minister results in an absorbing whodunit.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch

From the Publisher