Thursday, July 16, 2020

The Mist by Ragnar Jónasson

First Line: February 1988. Hulda Hermannsdóttir opened her eyes.

1987. In the midst of a seemingly unending snowstorm, there's someone pounding on a farmhouse door. An extremely remote farmhouse in the scarcely populated east of Iceland. The snowstorm should have kept everyone at home, but it didn't. The couple had no way of realizing what would happen when they opened the door to the stranger, but now it's up to Detective Hulda Hermannsdóttir to put all the pieces together to find out what actually happened.

Before I say anything else, I have to say this: Ragnar Jónasson's Hulda trilogy is brilliant.

I say this knowing that it's definitely not everyone's cup of literary tea. But these three books have grabbed me in a way that few seldom do: The Darkness, The Island, and now The Mist make me want to read them all over again, and I don't reread books. (That's almost a rule carved in stone.)

Jónasson did something with this trilogy that I'd never read before: he told his story in reverse chronological order. The first book, The Darkness, lets us meet Hulda at the end of her career, and each successive book takes us to an earlier chapter in her life.

The opening of The Mist begins with Hulda, who's reeling from tragedy and back to work too soon. She's feeling so lethargic that none of the cases she's working on interests her, even the one concerning a young girl who's gone missing while enjoying a gap year from her studies. From Hulda's prologue, we move to a remote farmhouse in the east of Iceland where the winter snows never stop, and Erla Einarsson is stuck at home for weeks-- if not months-- at a time. Her only company besides her husband Einar is her books. Erla is looking forward to Christmas because she's read her stockpile of books and knows she'll be getting new ones as gifts. This opening with Erla is fantastic as she describes her life during the winter. Cold, completely claustrophobic, and utterly compelling. It's not long, however, until we begin to wonder how reliable Erla is as she tells us about her life.

There are two investigations in The Mist. One concerning the missing girl, and the other concentrating on what happened in that remote farmhouse. How Jónasson ties them both together is a little piece of magic.

Now that I've read the trilogy, I see the significance of the book titles. The title of this book refers to the mist that can come down and cloud your judgment and even your sanity. I definitely will be rereading these books, only in chronological order this time because I want to see how Jónasson slotted all the pieces together.

The Mist is a knockout ending to this trilogy. But be warned: Hulda is a very unhappy, very damaged character. She has good reason to be. Bad things happen in these books, and everything doesn't always come right at their conclusions. If you haven't read any of these books, I strongly urge you to do so, knowing that you have an advantage over those of us who began with The Darkness: you can choose to read the books in chronological order. However, while I'm in Urge Mode, I urge you to read them in the order in which they were published. But hang onto your socks. They just might get knocked off.


The Mist by Ragnar Jónasson
Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb.
eISBN: 9781250768124
Minotaur Books © 2020
eBook, 336 pages

Police Procedural, #3 Hidden Iceland
Rating: A+
Source: Purchased from Amazon.


16 comments:

  1. You know, Cathy, I think it's such an interesting idea to do a series in reverse chronological order. That takes innovation! And sometimes, damaged characters can be very interesting... The fact is, life doesn't always work out right, and bad things do happen; books that reflect that are realistic, and I think Jónasson does that well.

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    1. He does it very well. He's become one of my favorite writers, and I'm so glad I got to see him at The Poisoned Pen!

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  2. OK, you've convinced me that I need to read this trilogy (plus I actually own all 3 of them). Best recommendation - read in publish order or read in chronological order - seriously...and I'll follow your recommend. :-)

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    1. To get the full effect of what he's done, read them in publish order!

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  3. I've read two books with Iceland as a setting and found that the bleakness of the climate put me off in lots of ways!

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    1. I am such a warm climate person. I hate the cold. You'd think I wouldn't like books set in places like Iceland. But the snow and the darkness add such a feeling of claustrophobia to a well-written mystery that they heighten suspense and the reader's feeling of unease.

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  4. I read the final book (or the first book, not sure) and it bothered me for weeks. I can't even look at his name. I think I got mini-PTSD from that book's ending. So I won't read anything by him. In this time of uncontrolled COVID-19, isolation, lack of socialization, I need optimistic and humorous books.

    So that's my two cents. This is no way takes away from this blog's choices, as I usually agree and have read many books I enjoyed from the recommendations here.

    Finished Susie Steiner's "Remain Silent," which I recommend to everyone. It has everything I want in a mystery, including crackling wit.

    And I am about to unwrap my birthday present to myself, "The Lantern Men." I've been saving it like keeping chocolate ice cream in the fridge until the right time.

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    1. When I came to the end of The Darkness (the first book published in the trilogy), I felt as though I'd been sucker punched, but what a brilliant idea to tell a story from the end to the beginning! However, I completely understand your opinion and your reasons for not wanting to read any more of his books. It would be a miracle if we agreed on every single book we read.

      As for that birthday present to yourself? You deserve some spoiling. I know you're going to enjoy The Lantern Men!

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  5. I will, as much as I enjoyed Remain Silent. I may ask a relative for Sara Paretsky's short stories. Or Silver by Chris Hammer or Scott Turow's latest book. A lot of options.

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    1. That reminds me... I think Barbara Peters did a virtual event with Scott Turow. I'll have to check.

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  6. I did watch a podcast with her and Scott Turow on his latest book.

    I just watched a zoom webinar with three Australian women authors. It was great. I think this zoom webinar thing has a future!
    And one writer mentioned two books set in Australia that have mysteries, maybe three.
    I do have to get a kindle.

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  7. Don't you miss pages, turning them, holding a book, putting it next to your bed, looking at your current book(s)? I love to put a book down, nap and get up, read a few more pages and then nap or get up.
    I am reading some old Nero Wolfe stories on Overdrive on my laptop. It's not like a real book.

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    1. No.

      I still have a ton of physical books, so I'm not going to go into withdrawal because I can't see books any time soon. You have to tap the side of the screen to "turn" the page, and that's close enough to the real thing for me, and the "pages" never stick together. I hate to tell you how many times I've fallen asleep while reading my kindle. After a certain period of inactivity, it goes to sleep and doesn't lose your place. I also have a cover that clips over the back of the device with a cover to protect the screen. When I use my kindle, I have to open that cover, and that's an awful lot like opening a real book.

      Reading a book on your laptop wouldn't be anything like reading a book-- and it isn't anything like reading a book on a kindle either.

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  8. Oh.
    I spoke to a reader-friend last night. She reads a lot of mysteries, among other thing. She confessed she likes the Ruth Galloway books. I said I broke down and purchased the recent one, and I would lend it to her.. But no way to get it to her.
    But she said she's picking books to read off her shelves and now she's reading a book by Doestoevski! I was laughing. She likes the writing. Never know about friends' reading taste.

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    1. No, you don't!

      I remember reading Dostoevsky a long time ago and enjoying his writing.

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