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    Whiteout
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    Whiteout
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    Whiteout
    Ebook273 pages4 hours

    Whiteout

    By Ragnar Jónasson

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    THE FOURTH INSTALMENT IN THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING DARK ICELAND SERIES

    OVER A MILLION COPIES SOLD

    When the body of a young woman is found dead beneath the cliffs of the deserted Icelandic village of Kálfshamarvík, police officer Ari Thór Arason uncovers a startling and terrifying connection to an earlier series of deaths, as the killer remains on the loose…

    ‘Jónasson’s books have breathed new life into Nordic noir’     Sunday Express

    ‘Jónasson skilfully alternates points of view and shifts of time … The action builds to a shattering climax’ Publishers Weekly

    ________________

    Two days before Christmas, a young woman is found dead beneath the cliffs of the deserted village of Kálfshamarvík.

    Did she jump, or did something more sinister take place beneath the lighthouse and the abandoned old house on the remote rocky outcrop?
    With winter closing in and the snow falling relentlessly, Ari Thór Arason discovers that the victim’s mother and young sister also lost their lives in this same spot, twenty-five years earlier.

    As the dark history and its secrets of the village are unveiled, and the death toll begins to rise, the Siglufjordur detectives must race against the clock to find the killer, before another tragedy takes place.

    Dark, chilling and complex, Whiteout is a haunting, atmospheric and stunningly plotted thriller from one of Iceland’s bestselling crime writers.

    ________________

    ‘Traditional and beautifully finessed …morally more equivocal than most traditional whodunnits, and it offers alluring glimpses of darker, and infinitely more threatening horizons’     Andrew Taylor, Independent

    ‘Jónasson has come up with a bleak plot and characters, but his evocation of Iceland’s chilly landscape is hard to put down’ Sunday Times 

    ‘A distinctive blend of Nordic Noir and Golden Age detective fiction … masterful’ Laura Wilson, Guardian

    ‘Required reading’ New York Post

    ‘Puts a lively, sophisticated spin on the Agatha Christie model, taking it down intriguing dark alleys’ Kirkus Reviews

    ‘The best sort of gloomy storytelling’ Chicago Tribune

    ‘The prose is stark and minimal, the mood dank and frost-tipped. It’s also bleakly brilliant, although perhaps best read with a warming shot of whisky by your side’ Metro

    ‘A classic crime story seen through a uniquely Icelandic lens … first rate and highly recommended’ Lee Child

    ‘Ragnar Jónasson writes with a chilling, poetic beauty - a must-read’ Peter James

    ‘A modern take on an Agatha Christie-style mystery, as twisty as any slalom’ Ian Rankin

    ‘Seductive … Ragnar does claustrophobia beautifully’ Ann Cleeves

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherORENDA BOOKS
    Release dateSep 1, 2017
    ISBN9781910633908
    Unavailable
    Whiteout
    Author

    Ragnar Jónasson

    RAGNAR JÓNASSON is an international number one award-winning and bestselling author who has sold over four million books in thirty-six territories worldwide. He is the only Icelandic author to have entered the Wall Street Journal bestseller list. Jónasson was born in Reykjavik, where he also teaches copyright law at Reyk­javík University. He has previously worked on radio and television, including as a TV news reporter, and, since the age of seventeen, has translated fourteen of Agatha Christie’s novels into Icelandic. He is the co-founder of the Reykjavík internation­al crime writing festival Iceland Noir. His critically ac­claimed international bestseller The Darkness is soon to be a major CBS Studios TV series, starring Lena Olin as Hulda, directed by Lasse Hallstrom. Ragnar's novel, Outside, is in development as a feature film by Ridley Scott's production company.

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    Reviews for Whiteout

    4/5

    59 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Best for: People who enjoyed his first three books.In a nutshell: A young woman has fallen off (or jumped? Or been pushed from?) cliffs in the north of Iceland. The twist? Her sister and mother died at those same cliffs 25 years ago. So … what happened?Why I chose it: I clearly have found a genre I love — Icelandic mysteries. And since something like 10% of the population of Iceland will write a book at some point, my guess is once I finish with his last book (sadness), I can move on to another similar author.Review:Asta has decided to return to the home she lived in when she was younger, when her father managed the lighthouse. When she was seven, her mother fell from the cliffs. Or perhaps was pushed? Then soon after, Asta’s sister falls from the same cliffs at only five years old. Asta’s father ends up in psychiatric care, and she is raised by an aunt. At the home near the lighthouse, two older folks live, having kept the house for over 40 years, since their own mother was housekeeper there. The owner is a prominent businessman who inherited it from his father. A neighbor helps out as well, and all are together when it is revealed that Asta has died.Was it an accident? Did she jump, following in her mother’s and sister’s footsteps? Was she pushed for what she may have known? Police officer Ari Thor and his wife travel to the town just before Christmas at the request of Ari’s former boss down in Reykjavik, as he needs help, and Ari doesn’t want to leave his pregnant girlfriend behind right at the holidays.Really the only thing I didn’t enjoy in this book was the absence of Isrun, the journalist who has featured fairly prominently in the previous two books. But even with her missing, the book was a quick and enjoyable read.
    • 4/5
      Ari Thor and his boss, Tomas, are police officers in charge of investigating the death of a young woman in Kálfshamrvik, Iceland. The body of a local woman named Asta was found beneath steep cliffs and the two must determine if it was an accident, suicide, or murder. It is two days before Christmas, and both are under pressure to return to their homes for the holidays. Ari is troubled when he learns that Asta’s mother and sister both lost their lives in a similar fashion. The investigation requires interviewing four people from the small village. Each person interviewed reveals secrets and insights to Asta and her family’s past. With strong alibis, Ari has problems narrowing down his list of suspects and establishing a motive. The more he delves into each person’s past, the more he becomes convinced that they know more about Asta then they are revealing. This crime book by Ragnar Jonasson is another addition to his Dark Island series. It can be read as a stand alone without issue. I enjoyed this chilling, fast paced book, which is available in multiple languages.
    • 4/5
      I think that this is the fourth in the Ari Arason series, but the fifth published in English.Having read the first three books, I knew what to expect in terms of beautiful descriptions of Iceland, snippets of Icelandic history and the ongoing character development, all of which were excellent and up to this author's normal good standard, where thanks must also go to the translator.In terms of the crime, this story felt far less gripping, and in part this is due to the small pool of potential culprits. I appreciate that these stories in some ways hark back to the closed room style mysteries of Agatha Christie and others, and I like this aspect of the stories, but it was just too restricted this time.A very enjoyable read, but you want to read the others first, and if you like them, then this is a welcome addition to the series.I wonder how long I will be able to hold out before reading the fifth and at the moment final volume of this series?
    • 5/5
      White Out – Icelandic Noir at its BestRagnar Jónasson has returned with one of the best Icelandic Noir of recent times, with White Out. What Jónasson delivers is a classic crime story a real whodunnit, that keeps you gripped right to the end. Jónasson brings out the claustrophobic cold dark winters that help to give the darkness that delivers a chiller of a thriller. Like the Queen of the Murder Mystery, Agatha Christies, Jónasson gives a modern twist, to the rollercoaster ride of whodunnits.Two days before Christmas, a young woman is found dead beneath the cliffs of the deserted village of Kálfshamarvík. The police are called in to determine if this was murder or suicide, and with the added twist that her mother and younger sister dying on the same cliffs, questions are asked.Tomas is now a detective Superintendent in Reykjavik, and asks Ari Thór Arason if he would like to join him in the investigation as it may help his career in the long term. With Christmas closing in, the darkness and the snow is overwhelming, they begin to uncover a dark and sinister history, and as much as the few people involved try to hide the truth, the stones get turned over, and the truth will out.What the reader gets is Icelandic Noir at its best, something that is dark, chilling and complex, and it is that which gives it the claustrophobic, tautness. This really is required reading for all lovers of Nordic Noir, and it is the best way to see snow, through the pages of a book!
    • 5/5
      Asta Karadottir has returned to the scene of a terrible event that she witnessed. She hasn't been there for 25 years. So why has she returned? She says that she is writing a thesis about her father who had survived the deaths of her mother and her sister twenty five years earlier.Asta has written to the owner of the house, a well known media personality, asking if she may stay for a few days, and she is given her old childhood room. The people in the house are those who were there 25 years earlier. Within two days Asta herself is dead, suffering the same fate as her mother and sister.Did Asta return to commit suicide, or is the same killer still at large? There is a limited cast of suspects, and fairly quickly another person dies.Detectives have already arrived to investigate Asta's death and each of the suspects is scrutinised carefully. DNA evidence provides clues but is the finger pointing at the right person?One of the detectives, Ari Thor, brings his very pregnant girlfriend to the locality with him, as it seems unlikely he will make it home for Christmas. Icelandic crime fiction has a different flavour, and is truly noir.
    • 3/5
      Whiteout. Ragnar Jonasson. 2013. Ari Thor is asked by his old boss Tomas to go with him to investigate a suspicious death of a young woman in a remote area near a lighthouse. The woman’s mother and had died there years before. The setting is certainly a major factor in this book: winter in Iceland. It is almost Christmas and bitterly cold. Much is made of the Icelandic custom of giving books as Christmas gifts. An interesting book and one of a series.
    • 5/5
      The 4th novel in the series (which was translated and published 5th in English) fills in the gap left in the English translations (and continues from the first 3 if you are reading them in the proper order). Kristín and Ari Thór Arason are together again and are awaiting a child (knowing what happens in the 5th book makes you see where the story is leading...). Christmas is coming in the cold fjords of the north and everyone is looking forward at it. Except for one young woman in the village of Kálfshamarvík who appears to have jumped from the cliffs which crowd the villages. Ari Thór goes to investigate (with Kristín traveling with him) after his old boss, Tomas, asks him to assist. What follows is essentially a locked room mystery - there is a very limited number of characters (it is a small village and with the snow coming down, most of them never leave their house). It looks like a suicide and everyone wants it to be - so they can have Christmas if nothing else. Except that things do not add up and it is not the first woman from that family to die in the same way. So Ari Thór investigates - and almost gets in trouble (as usual). The story works because we see it through Ari Thór's eyes - no omniscient narrator to clarify some connections - we learn about them when the detectives do. Past secrets end up being important for the solution of the case. And as much as one likes our detective, he is not always the fastest mind out there - which makes the series even better in some ways.A solid entry in a solid series. It was supposed to be a 5 books series but in 2020 Jónasson returned to Ari Thór's story with a 6th book so there is one more left for me to read.
    • 4/5
      Another fascinating novel by Ragnar. It's hard to wait for the next installment.

      Very good translation by Quentin Bates