The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer by Ragnar Jónasson

 

First Line: Today sees the publication of Deadline, the latest novel by bestselling author, Elín S. 

Jónsdóttir.

Young police officer Helgi Reykdal's life is looking up. He's in a new, happy relationship with Aníta and is enjoying the simple pleasures of being with her and immersing himself in his favorite crime novels. When he's assigned to look into the disappearance of a bestselling novelist, he can't wait to prove himself.

His superior officer tasks him with finding out where the missing woman is before her disappearance is leaked to the press, but there are absolutely no clues, and Helgi has to begin at the beginning by interviewing all the people who know her best.

But as his interviews progress, Helgi learns that the novelist's life wasn't what it seemed. In fact, it's even stranger than the bestselling mysteries she wrote.

~

The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer is Helgi Reykdal's second appearance (after Death at the Sanatorium). The young police officer is the replacement for Hulda Hermannsdóttir, who is the main character in Jónasson's superb Hidden Iceland trilogy. Helgi is intrigued by Hulda, a difficult woman who seems to have vanished into thin air, but he's thrilled to be given the task of finding Iceland's bestselling author, Elín Jónsdóttir. His greatest pleasure in life-- besides his burgeoning relationship with Aníta is to bury himself in his favorite mystery novels, and Jónsdóttir is one of his favorite authors.

This book is written in the style of Golden Age mysteries, combining Helgi's investigation with segments of a taped interview with the missing woman. That investigation on its own kept me fully engaged, but what brings The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer to the next level is the inclusion of Helgi's personal life. In many ways, Helgi is better suited to being an armchair detective. He is extremely non-confrontational and naive, qualities which can be dangerous in a police officer's life and oftentimes bad in personal relationships. Jónasson takes a page from Alfred Hitchcock's playbook by letting readers know more about what's actually happening around Helgi. As I read, my feeling of dread continued to build, and by the book's conclusion, I now have to know two things: (1) what happens to Helgi now, and (2) will he ever discover what happened to Hulda? 

The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer by Ragnar Jónasson 

Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb

eISBN: 9781250408273

Minotaur Books © 2025

eBook, 282 pages

Police Procedural, #2 Helgi Reykdal

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley

Death at the Sanatorium by Ragnar Jónasson

 

First Lines: 2012. Helgi. The despairing silence was broken.

1983. Two deaths in a former sanatorium rock a community in northern Iceland. A nurse, Yrsa, is murdered. Detective Hulda Hermannsdóttir and her boss, Sverrir, are the investigators. There are plenty of suspects: the chief physician, two junior nurses, a young doctor, and the caretaker, who is arrested but subsequently released. 

Less than a week after the murder, the chief physician is found dead, apparently from a fall from a sanatorium balcony. Sverrir rules his death as suicide, assumes he was guilty of the nurse's murder, and closes the case.

2012. Young police officer Helgi Reykdal has been studying criminology in the UK but returns to Iceland to accept a job at the Reykjavik police department-- the job Hulda Hermannsdóttir is about to retire from. Helgi is also a collector of Golden Age detective stories and is writing his thesis on the 1983 murders in the north. Deciding to meet with the original suspects, he soon finds silence and suspicion at every turn as he works to solve the thirty-year-old mystery.

~

Ragnar Jónasson's Hidden Iceland trilogy (The Darkness, The Island, The Mist) featuring Hulda Hermannsdóttir is one of my all-time favorites, so I was pleased to see that Hulda would make an appearance in Death at the Sanatorium. Granted, it's more of a cameo, but she does make an impact, and her appearance is bittersweet for those readers who have read the Hidden Iceland trilogy. (Do you need to read that trilogy before reading this book? Absolutely not.)

 

Jónasson has translated Agatha Christie into Icelandic, and his familiarity with her work is obvious in his meticulous plotting. When it comes to plots, this man is a master weaver. But Death at the Sanatorium isn't all about the story. Jónasson is also a master at atmospheric settings, and you can't get much better than setting a murder mystery in an old tuberculosis sanatorium. I have a special sympathy for this setting because my mother was a patient in one when I was a baby. I'm very familiar with the photographs taken there-- especially the one of my grandfather holding me up to the window, me reaching futilely for my mother, and the look on my mother's face on the other side of the glass.

Plot? Check. Setting? Check. What about the characters?

It didn't take me long to want to throttle the young nurse, Linna. She enjoyed being an important witness, and she wasn't above stretching the truth. "The truth was that life was easier if you tweaked the facts a little in your favor." See what I mean?

Helgi is the star here. His father was an antiquarian bookseller, and Helgi has a fantastic library of detective fiction, in particular translated detective fiction, that was lovingly collected by both his grandfather and father. Those books-- as well as his investigation into the 1983 deaths at the sanatorium-- are his escape, and he does need one, as readers soon learn.

The ending of Death at the Sanatorium made me smile in appreciation of the author's skill. It also made me want to see Helgi again because I hope that he can solve yet another murder.

Death at the Sanatorium by Ragnar Jónasson

Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb.

eISBN: 9781250770776

Minotaur Books © 2024

eBook, 320 pages

 

Standalone Thriller

Rating: A+

Source: Net Galley