Jólabókaflóðið

Death at the Sanatorium

A Mystery by Ragnar Jónasson
Translated by Victoria Cribb
Minotaur Books 2024

When last I visited the work of this prolific author he was joined in his writing endeavors by the President of Iceland! No such stunts this time however; this book was actually written in 2018 and only translated into English in 2024.

The main character, Helgi Reykdal, a young policeman who had taken a sabbatical to study forensics in London, has returned to Reykjavík to finish his dissertation and ultimately re-join the police in the CID unit. It is 2012 and Helgi is studying a murder case that took place in Akureyri in 1983  that had never been properly closed. He is getting nowhere in interviewing the surviving people of interest in the old case (for his dissertation) when a startling development forces him to become an investigator for both cases..

There are flashbacks and changing of focus on different characters but is handled well and never becomes confusing. Ragnar is an avowed disciple of Agatha Christie and it shows. The plot-twist at the end is clever. Victoria Cribb is the best translator of Ragnar, the language is direct and never fussy. Recommended as a light read, it would be a perfect Jólabókaflóðið gift.

The one thing that I found most interesting was actually in the acknowledgements: the book  had mostly been written in Kaffihús Vesturbæjar, located near my favorite swimming pool in Reykjavík. The Weaver and I might have actually been in there when he was writing it in 2018!