"Elliðaey is an isolated island off the coast of Iceland. It is has a beautiful, unforgiving terrain and is an easy place to vanish.
The Island is the second thrilling book in Ragnar Jonasson's Hidden Iceland trilogy. This time Hulda is at the peak of her career and is sent to investigate what happened on Elliðaey after a group of friends visited but one failed to return.
Could this have links to the disappearance of a couple ten years previously out on the Westfjords? Is there a killer stalking these barren outposts?"
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A slow burn mystery that didn't quite land for me
It’s always a bit of a relief to finally tick a book off the TBR pile, especially when it’s been sitting there since 2018! I’ve finally sat down with The Island by Ragnar Jónasson, which is the second book in the Hidden Iceland series.
The story starts off so well and the opening really grabbed my attention. It’s set across two different timelines, focusing on a cold case from the 1980s and then moving forward to a reunion on a remote island ten years later where things go wrong. It has all the ingredients for a classic locked-room mystery.
However, after that strong start, the middle sections just didn't grab me as I'd hoped they would. I found the pacing quite slow, and it felt like more of a police procedural or a slow-burn mystery than the gripping thriller I was expecting. I know many people love the atmosphere of Scandi-noir, but I think I've decided it's just not for me. I often feel like the tone or the flow gets a bit lost in translation, and having tried a few now without much success, I think I’ll be giving the genre a miss from now on.
If you enjoy a very methodical, atmospheric mystery where the setting is a character in itself, you might get more out of this than I did. For me, it was okay, but it didn't quite hit the mark.
Many thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy to read and share my honest thoughts.
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