Akureyri, Northern Iceland, 1983.
High up in the most northern part of Iceland stands The Akureyri Sanatorium. Once a hospital dedicated to treating tuberculosis, it now sits haunted by the ghosts of its past.
One wing of the hospital remains open and houses six employees: the caretaker, two doctors, two nurses and a young research assistant.
Despite the wards closing decades ago they remain at the hospital to conduct research. But the cold corridors, draughty windows and echoey halls are constant reminders of the building’s dark history.
When one of the nurses, Yrsa, is found brutally murdered, they discover that death has never left this place – and neither did its secrets. None can escape this terrifying legacy.
Despite just five suspects the case is never solved and remains open for two decades. Until a young criminologist named Helgi Reykdal attempts to finally lay the ghosts of the hospital’s past to rest . . .

This was a slightly odd novel. According to the Author’s note at the end, Ragnar Jónasson sees it as being heavily influenced by Agatha Christie, whose work he has been reading and translating since childhood. I see some similarities: a remote setting, a limited suspect pool, and closely held secrets that don’t necessarily point towards the killer. To my mind though, this story is too bleak to be a Golden Age Mystery. The harm done cuts deeper than polite, almost bloodless murders in the library. The almost abandoned sanatorium with the pain-soaked history was more like something from a Gothic horror story. Although, I found it more chilling than most horror stories because it was so firmly rooted in reality.

I found the writing a little dry. It felt as though the characters were being displayed behind glass, like butterflies pinned to a board for me to examine. 

The two timelines the story was told on worked well. The 1983 murder investigation seemed convincingly slapdash. The 2012 story seemed to me a bloodless thing. I couldn’t connect with Helgi, the main character. I found it hard to believe that the police would see him as a star candidate to hire as a senior detective investigating serious crimes. He struck me as one of those eternal students who plods through academia by never fully engaging with real life. I found I didn’t trust any of his observations Which may, of course, have been the point. 

Puzzling out how the two timelines would eventually connect carried me through most of the story. The plot was both dark and twisty. I again failed to work out who the murderer was. 

The ending was abrupt and strange. I don’t think either the abruptness or the strangeness improved the book. 

I enjoyed the inclusion of Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir from the Dark Iceland series in both timelines. I liked seeing her when she was at the start of her career as a detective. The way her retirement was handled was sad but not surprising. 

Sam Woolf’s narration was easy on the ear. Although this worked fine as an audiobook, it wasn’t improved by being one. Click on the YouTube link to hear a sample.