PENGUIN The Darkness: If you like Saga Noren from The Bridge, then you'll love Hulda Hermannsdottir

I quite enjoyed the Dark Iceland series and was looking forward to reading more crime-unraveling in that snow-bound setting. Well, there was snow, for sure and quite a lot of weather, but sadly I found this tale too depressing and repetitive. Too much 'tell, not show' and we are told far too many times how Hulda feels about her imminent retirement, her negative treatment and lack of respect from younger male colleagues etc. I really got it the second, third and fourth time...! There are no rounded or likeable characters and the kind, wealthy, handsome doctor in Hulda's life doesn't feel real. My respect to the author for aspects of the ending I did not see coming, but I will not be reading more of this series. I found the writing very uneven (simple fine, but simplistic - not), and it made me feel low. I guess that means he's effective in some ways.

I read this a while back after seeing a kindle daily deal offer for another of the books and thought that I'd read this first as it appears to be first in the series. I won't be reading any more.So the blurb above already gives you the gist, so here follows why I felt it really disappointed, but do mind the spoilers....Our main character Hulda, finds herself suddenly being shuffled out for retirement. She's shocked, she's upset, she's really thrown by the news. Although it does appear she's only a few months or so short of retirement anyway, which seems to blunt the sharpness of that particular cut. Is it really that bad to have retirement shifted forward a few months? She's not being fired, or having her reputation sullied. But then, the dreadfully contrived reason also jars - they want to replace her with some hot new prospect and it has to be now! OK. They can't overlap? NO!!! That doesn't help with introducing a sudden element of urgency to the plot!!All her colleagues are lazy incompetent male chauvinists and she's never had any credit for anything. Except she's the best cop there. Except nobody realises this, least of all her boss who's an idiot, who does at one stage acknowledge she's great, even whilst pushing her out the door early. Sigh.You've got a month left, all your cases are up to date, or being taken off you, or something, who cares, let's not get too bogged down in that sort of exposition. The point is, you can amuse yourself by picking any cold case you like. NOT THAT ONE!! The boss didn't actually think she'd actually pick an actual cold case and actually investigate it! He's so inexplicably furious that he shortens her notice period. Now she's only got a week!! No, she's not to stop investigating entirely, or to pack up and go on gardening leave, just arbitrarily told to finish in a week. You know, to introduce more urgency.So much urgency in fact, that our hero goes out that very night, gets wasted and oversleeps half the next day, wandering round in a daze for the rest of it. Silly thing to do what with the stakes getting raised all of a sudden but she's not about to make that mistake again.Oh she does, the very next night. The exact same thing again.Still though, it's an important case that seems to involve some corruption, or a cover up, maybe within the police department or higher up? After all it's maybe a murder case. They are so rare around these parts that people don't even notice when they happen. Wait, that sounds wrong. A murder is so uncommon, that it goes unnoticed? Surely it's the other way round? Nope, not according to this.By the end, she's doggedly investigated it, rolled up leads, chased down suspects (I'll admit, I started to skim a little) and then here we are in a final showdown with the culprit, cold and ruthless. She's at his mercy, she's staring death in the face. What will she do??She dies.Yep, sorry for the biggest spoiler of all but that's it. Just as we get to the 'how will our hero escape' moment, the twist is; she doesn't.I think I heard that there are follow up books that go back earlier into her career, but this really strikes me as a poorly executed way of getting you into the series. Thin characters, undeveloped motives, unconvincing and unsatisfying plotlines. The various quotes from newspaper reviews are baffling to this reader. We're all willing to overlook something that doesn't seem to work, some shonky dialogue here, a half-baked idea there, we all willingly suspend disbelief, but that relies on not having to suspend it so much, so often, to overlook so many things that don't work.I'm really sorry to have skewered the author's work this way, but they'll never see this and they've shifted many copies of this and other titles so won't care either way, and I felt compelled to share, perhaps to spare others from wasting time or money. Have a look at Force of Nature by Jane Harper, or Scrublands by Chris Hammer to pick two noirish crime thrillers I've recently enjoyed and can recommend. But steer clear of this phoned-in, first-draft drabness.

This is the first book in the author's Dark Iceland series.It features an aging, world weary Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdottir just a few weeks from retirement, being relegated to work on a cold case. The case involves a dead Russia asylum seeker found on a remote beach drowned but with a head injury, previously being considered as a suicide. Hulda sets out to show she was in fact murdered and the case is more complex than originally thought.This is a thriller with a slightly unusual denouement, but I can't more without a spoiler. The novel is easy to read, has some pace, and because of the print size and brief chapters is quite short. Looking at the positives, the author is good at evoking the atmosphere and description of the cold and desolate Icelandic landscape. Hulda is also a complex and flawed character with a full backstory. However, the supporting characters, especially her police colleagues are a bit shallow. The plot is really quite straightforward and lacks any complexity. The ending has created a difference in opinions, with some reviewers describing it as an original twist. Personally I thought it was a bit lazy, but it is an unusual denouement. Strange to find it is Book 1 of a series.

This has to be one of the best books I've read this year. It was the first book I had read by Ragnar Jonasson and I was gripped by his descriptions of the Icelandic countryside. The book is truly atmospheric. On finishing, I couldn't wait to read his Dark Iceland series and began to read Snowblind on Kindle, followed by Blackout. Snowblind was excellent and I was captivated by the descriptions of the most northerly town in Iceland in mid winter and how claustrophobic it made our hero, newcomer policeman Ari Thor, feel. Unfortunately, my enjoyment of Blackout was marred by several editing errors, which I found annoying and was less gripped by the story than the first two. Somehow, the main character, a journalist, was completely unbelievable and one dimensional and the love story between Ari Thor and Kristin quite ridiculous. But I will be reading everything that Ragnar Jonasson writes from now on, as, if The Darkness is anything to go by, his writing style has obviously improved. I also far preferred the translation of The Darkness by Victoria Crabb than the translation of the Dark Iceland series.

I loved this book and read it all in one day. Detective Inspector Hulda Hermansdottir is on the brink of retirement. During her last few days at work she decides to solve a cold case involving the possible murder (or was it suicide?) of a Russian asylum seeker.Hulda isn't a particularly likeable character, having some hidden demons of her own, but she is dogged and absolutely determined to discover what happened to the young Russian woman. There are plenty of nice twists and turns and I certainly didn't guess the ending. Oh my!The author tells the story plainly with no frills or embellishment, which seems to suit the stark scenery of Iceland and Hulda's somewhat dour personality. Readers should be aware that this book is most definitely dark Nordic Noir. It will not appeal to people who like pretty detectives in pretty landscapes and where the ending is all nicely tied up in a pretty bow. This book is about darkness - within and without.I'm looking forward to reading the next book in this series, The Island.