Whiteout

When the body of a young woman is found dead beneath the cliffs of the deserted Icelandic village of Kálfshamarvík, Ari Thór Arason uncovers a startling and terrifying connection to an earlier series of deaths, as the killer remains on the loose . . . 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, 25 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 best crime writers.

"Jónasson skillfully alternates points of view and shifts of time . . . The action builds to a shattering climax." —Publishers Weekly

"Traditional and beautifully finessed . . . morally more equivocal than most traditional whodunnits, and it offers alluring glimpses of darker, and infinitely more threatening horizons." —Independent

"Jonasson has come up with a bleak plot and characters, but his evocation of Iceland’s chilly landscape is hard to put down." —Guardian

"A chiller of a thriller." —Washington Post

"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

Ragnar Jónasson is an Icelandic crime writer who currently works as a lawyer while teaching copyright law at the Reykjavík University Law School. Ragnar has translated 14 Agatha Christie novels into Icelandic, and has had several short stories published in German, English, and Icelandic literary magazines. Ragnar set up the first overseas chapter of the CWA (Crime Writers’ Association) in Reykjavík, and is co-founder of the International crime-writing festival Iceland Noir. He is the author of Snowblind, Nightblind (winner of the Dead Good Reads Most Captivating Crime in Translation Award), Blackout, and Rupture.