A criminologist writing a dissertation unwittingly reopens an old murder case at a repurposed sanatorium.

This closed circle mystery has a classic vibe. Helgi the criminologist is a fan of golden age mysteries, and there are references to several, with tidbits about their Icelandic translations in the text and the afterword.

Hulda from the author’s Hidden Iceland series makes a brief appearance (right before her disappearance) and leaves a note that provides Helgi with a lead. While the primary mystery is resolved, Helgi’s unusual domestic situation provides a further twist that adds a question mark to the ending.

Well Ragnar Jonasson has another winner book. The plot is intriguing right from the beginning and keeps you guessing right till the end. The characters are interesting. I hope this book will become a series.

ScandinavianNoir mixed with the golden age of detecting!
Ragnar Jónasson focuses primarily on a youngish police officer rising through the ranks. He has left the UK and is determining whether he will make a life in his homeland of Iceland while he completes his doctoral dissertation. The officer is combing through information related to deaths at a sanitorium while he muses over a job offer. When the two converge, so do the time periods. The deaths in '83 and his studies in 2012. Even better, for Jonasson fans, this is the precursor to the Hulda series and we see what transpired before "The Darkness."

I really enjoyed it and when I read the afterword and learned that Jonasson transcribed Agatha Christie novels it became even more endearing. The end is a shock, and you will love every bit of it!
#stmartins #deathatthesanitorium #ragnerjonasson

I love Ragnar Jonasson's writing and was thrilled to get this ARC. A fairly quick read but a tense and atmospheric thriller with unsolved murder cases at a sanatorium being revisited 25 years later by a criminologist with his own issues. The excitement and tension builds and I greatly enjoyed the ride.

4 and 1 / 2 stars

This is a very good story. It began in 1983 with the death of a nurse at the old tuberculosis sanatorium. Detective Hulda ( a seasoned investigator) is paired with Sverrir who is young and relatively new. Oddly enough Sverrir is the senior detective.

There are only a few suspects for the sanatorium is closed except for a few researchers. There are no patients. The murdered woman is Yrsa who was an elderly nurse. She is found by a co-worker.

The investigation is barely underway when another death occurs. The director of the facility is found. It appears he has jumped from a window.

Sverrir hastily closes the case believing that the director murdered the nurse and then committed suicide. Hulda cautions him to look more closely, but Sverrir doesn’t listen. He arrests the caretaker/grounds man and considers the case closed.

Meanwhile, a young and relatively inexperienced nurse found both victims. She talks constantly about her involvement in the discoveries and has a rather loose version of the truth.

The book shifts to 2012 and to Helgi. He has been studying in the UK and is finishing his masters degree. He is looking into the mystery at the old sanatorium. He interviews those who are still alive from 1983. It is a relief to be out and about talking to people because his personal life and his marriage is a nightmare. The incident is still very traumatic to many of the survivors.

There are surprises and twists in this story. Mr. Jonasson is a very good writer. I have read him before and enjoyed his stories. They are original. While I didn’t learn very much more about Iceland this time, I still enjoyed the book a great deal. The novel is easy to read. The translator has done a fine job!

I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for forwarding to me a copy of this book for me to read, enjoy and review. The opinions expressed in this review are solely my own.

Like other books in this genre the writing is sparse and the landscape bleak. You can feel the cold through the pages and the starkness of the characters. It's a good story and that last sentence...like what?!

3.5 stars, rounded down. While "Nordic Noir" is not a genre I usually dapple in, I was very interested in reading this title due to two things: 1) It's partial time period of 1983, which I remember quite fondly and 2) It's set in Iceland, (Reykjavik and Akureyri) .where I have visited and really loved. And on those two things it did deliver. I also enjoyed the call backs to the "Golden Age" of mystery. But perhaps it was somewhat "lost in translation" as I felt the cold-case mystery was a bit flat, itself. Still glad I read it. My thanks to both Net Galley and the publisher for my review copy - opinions my own

I wound up reading this in one night. The pages just flew by!
Told in two timelines, one in 1983 when a woman is murdered. The second one, takes place 30 years later when a police officer (Helgi) working on his dissertation takes another look at the case. This was one of those times when I enjoyed both timelines equally.
I was sure I had the current plot figured out and wow, was I wrong. As for the old case, the author got me there too.
Two - author One – me. I really enjoyed the writing and the translation by Victoria Cribb, was excellent.

** spoiler alert ** Ragnar Jónasson had me completely with his tale of Death at the Sanatorium. He had two stories going on at the same time. The first was to find the person who killed two people at the sanatorium which they did a good job. Helgi was working on his masters in criminology and was offered a job with the police. Helgi and Bergthóra were lovers with problems that needed to be solved. Helgi finally found out that Broddi killed all the people. But then Bergthóra finally wiped out Helgi with a wine bottle. The story is much more interesting than that, it goes into detail with all the different scenarios. I was completely wiped out when I read the ending.

This was a great story, and while the pictures it painted were a little too bleak to make me want to visit Iceland, the settings definitely came to life and were fun to explore. I was a little nervous going into this book, because the last translated book I read, was not the best translation, but I'm happy to say this one was great. Read very well, and didn't make me feel like I was missing something in the language. I didn't realize the character Hulda is recurring from some of his previous books so there were a couple points where I felt like I was missing something in the character development, but then I figured it out with a little googling. Good book, thanks NetGalley and St. Martin's Press!

This was a solid mystery with interesting characters. I liked the mix of the past and the present because it all tied together in the end. The mystery’s resolution was satisfying, but the last few pages left things too unresolved for me. Still, I’m a sucker for an Icelandic mystery.

4.5 stars for this atmospheric mystery. I have read all of this author’s books that have been translated into English and they never disappoint. For me, the translation makes the story more appealing. I enjoy the spare language and the story moves quickly.

Forgive me for not keeping all of the Icelandic names straight, but a criminology student is writing a dissertation about an unsolved murder from 1983 at a tuberculosis sanatorium. He attempts to interview the survivors and ends up getting drawn into the cold case.

The landscape descriptions echo the story with the dreary rainy and mountainous terrain. I hope there is a sequel to this book. So happy I got to read it. Thanks to Netgalley, St Martin’s and the author for an ARC to review.

What a wonderful story! Read this book in one day. Couldn’t put it down. Great plot/storyline. ending satisfactory. Jonasson must top the list of Scandinavian authors, topping Henkel. He’s very very good.

Research interviews for an academic dissertation turn into the investigation of a thirty-year-old double murder cold case.

Fresh off the standalone Reykjavik, co-written with Icelandic PM Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Ragnar Jonasson presents an absorbing classic whodunit spinoff from the upcoming television series, The Darkness.

Graduate student Helgi Reykdal and his partner Bergthora have returned to Iceland from the UK, where he will finish his dissertation for his post-grad degree in criminology. Helgi’s topic is a pair of thirty-year-old deaths that occurred in the northern Icelandic town of Akureyri in 1983 at a former tuberculosis sanatorium turned research facility. While doing the research for his paper, Helgi wants to interview the surviving staff members who worked at the sanatorium at the time of the suspicious deaths. As the story progresses, Helgi accepts a position with the Reykjavik police and his dissertation research efforts transition into a full-on re-investigation of the deaths that happened at the sanatorium thirty years before. While the police had closed the case in 1983 as a murder-suicide, some were not completely satisfied with the results. When someone murders one of the surviving sanatorium staff members in Reykjavik, thirty years later, Helgi’s new boss at the police assigns him to look again at the old case to determine whether the recent murder has a connection with the old case in Akureyri.

This is a slow burner of a mystery, and it took me some time to get into the flow of the book. The early part of the book sets the backdrop for the present-day story with a look back in time at the deaths of two staff members that occurred at the former tuberculosis sanatorium in 1983. Ragnar takes his time in establishing the circumstances of the thirty-year-old case, which is central to understanding the present one set in 2012. The book covers two major timelines, 1983 and 2012 (present-day), and touches on a third, 1950. And while Helgi is the main character and principal narrator, Jonasson presents the viewpoints of many other characters as the story plays out. Having read many of Jonasson’s books, shifting timelines and multiple points of views are techniques he often incorporates in his writing. Sometimes multiple timelines and narrators can make a story complicated and hard to follow, but Jonasson uses these techniques skillfully. In this instance, the story moves along quite seamlessly without undue complexity.

Death at the Sanatorium reminded me of Jonasson’s early works, particularly the Dark Island series featuring Ari Thór. While Helgi Reykdal is a unique character with his own set of foibles, he did at times remind me of the Ari Thór character, my favorite Jonasson character creation, and I enjoyed this book more than some of Jonasson’s more recent novels for that reason.

Jonasson isn’t shy about admitting the time he spent translating Agatha Christie’s novels from English to Icelandic before he began writing his own books made Christie a significant influence on his writing style. As a result, like Christie, Jonasson’s works most usually take the form of classically crafted whodunit mystery novels. That is certainly true of Death at the Sanatorium. Like Christie’s novels, Jonasson’s books feature intricate plots, attention to detail, and clever twists, especially at the end. Again, we find that here.

Fans of classically crafted whodunit mysteries will enjoy this book. If you are a fan of Jonasson’s Dark Iceland series, this book will definitely appeal. Jonasson has a direct writing style with no wasted efforts and skillfully weaves the somewhat remote and forbidding Icelandic setting into his books that add great suspense and keep the pages turning.

Many writers over the years have written books in the spirit of Agatha Christie but no one has mastered the art more than Ragnar Jónasson. Death at the Sanatorium is the latest triumph from the author. It is a book which says goodbye to Hulda Hermannsdottir who was the star detective of the Hidden Iceland trilogy. As Hulda readies for her forced retirement, we say hello to Helgi Reykdal. The story involves a crime which took place in 1983 and is revisited in 2012. Jónasson skillfully alternates the two time periods in this engrossing mystery and the investigations of Hulda and Helgi. You won't put this one down until the final page. Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for the advance reading copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

I so enjoy this author’s Icelandic mysteries and this one is no exception.

The past comes back to haunt a young police officer taking time to write his dissertation on an unsolved murder from years ago and how the police handled it. This journey will take him on a path of discovery for himself and the solvability of the case.

Told with flashbacks to the characters involved and tied in to a current murder, the ending will surprise you.

Death at the Sanatorium by Ragnar Jónasson was a fast-paced an somewhat engaging read for me. Jónasson skillfully navigated between characters and timelines and it was extremely easy to follow. The storyline built nicely but I thought the frequent references to the main character’s interest in classic detective fiction and whodunnits throughout was a little overdone. Despite its early promise, I felt the story was a bit flat and didn't quite deliver the unexpected twists and turns or red herrings I typically expect in an exciting thriller.

Jónasson is a solid storyteller and he successfully created the eerie atmosphere of a small town in Northern Iceland. Where this story fell short for me was creating any tension, mystery, or puzzle-solving, and I found the characters to be flat and mostly unlikable. Helgi, the protagonist, was interesting and had potential to become a compelling character but there was something missing and I couldn't get emotionally invested in his story arc or personal struggles. While the novel moved at a steady pace, it lacked a sense of urgency, and I felt more like an observer of the story as it unfolded rather than being fully drawn in. Additionally, some of the dialogue felt stiff and formal, which might be due to the translation rather than Jónasson's writing.

Overall, Death at the Sanatorium is a fast-paced, easy read. Unfortunately, it lacked the complexity and tension I usually expect in Nordic Noir and crime thrillers, and I finished the story feeling like it simply ended without any urgency or surprises.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books, and Ragnar Jónasson for an advance copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.

Oh my goodness I need a sequel! As a fan of Dark Iceland and Hidden Iceland I feel like I was predisposed to love this book. The duel timelines worked so well and I liked the slow reveal of Helgi and Bergthora's relationship. My only small complaint is that I would have liked to have had more chapters from Hulda's pov. I think readers who are a fan of Ragnar Jonasson's work will love this book, though anyone who enjoys dual pov / dual timeline mysteries will probably find this book to be right up their alley. I throughly enjoyed this novel and sincerely hope we get more from this universe.