The Girl Who Died

A slow burning thriller that gradually evolves into fast paced. Atmospheric with developed realistic characters, I highly recommend this one.

4.5 stars. I wish to extend my sincere thanks to NetGalley and St.Martins Press for this eerie, atmospheric stand-alone thriller by Ragnar Jonasson. I was delighted to receive this ARC by my favourite Nordic (Icelandic) Noir writer. I have read and enjoyed all books in both his series.

His writing evokes a claustrophobic feeling to the isolation and remoteness of small settlements in Iceland's northern parts. The nearby ocean, long hours of winter darkness, and bleak weather makes one feel the chill and the loneliness. Ragnar's previous books have been police procedurals. The setting here is too remote to have any police presence or a hospital. The story takes place in the 1980s without our present-day technology. Serious crime is unknown in this tiny settlement.

30-year-old Una is a teacher from Reykjavik. She has never recovered from her father's tragic suicide near both her birthday and Christmas time. She fears she may have inherited a predisposition for suicide and drinks too much to calm her nerves. She answers an advertisement for a teacher in the tiny settlement of Skalar on the stormy north-east coast of Iceland with its population of 10 inhabitants and only two students, and she feels this would be an opportunity to escape city life.

On arrival, she finds that the villagers do not accept newcomers kindly. She is met by suspicion, rejection and hostility. Her landlady has provided her with a creaky attic apartment in an old home. She has a delightful young daughter who will be one of Una's pupils. The other student is an introverted, sullen girl, and Una finds it difficult to relate to her. While boarding in the home, Una is disturbed by a creepy, ominous feeling. She starts to be disturbed by a piano's sound in a room below and a child singing a lullaby. She believes this is the ghost of a child who died mysteriously in the house almost 60 years earlier. Does she think she has even seen the apparition of the young girl or was her imagination running wild? When she attempts to discuss the possible haunting with anyone, they dismiss the vision and the music due to Una consuming too much wine. The ghost story is well-known folklore in the community.

This element of the supernatural gives the story a menacing, macabre atmosphere. I am not a fan of paranormal is stories, but the author had me believing that ghosts may exist. After being disturbed and frightened, Una has become convinced that the ghost is the result of her imagination and caused by drinking.
There is a sudden, inexplicable, shocking death just before Christmas.


Una is attracted to a pleasant bearded man employed at a farm by an unfriendly, dour older woman. He informs her that a romantic relationship is impossible. She suspects that he may be more than just an employee to the farm owner. A strange man appears at the house, looking for directions to the farm and its female owner. This opens up a criminal subplot that doesn't seem relevant to the story, but it has a major effect on Una and her intent always to follow the correct legal and moral path. Una learns something about the visitor that prompts her to call the city police. Her landlady dismisses the policeman, saying Una's information is a mistake and probably the result of her drinking. Who was the mysterious stranger, and why was he so intent on visiting the remote farm in mid-winter?

Una realizes the villagers harbour deep secrets and have banded together to keep any crimes to themselves. They hold these secrets and keep the awareness of crimes and scandals from unwelcome outsiders and police. This makes the community seem free from any wrongdoings and unpleasantness. Una wants to do the right thing and is increasingly unwelcome and rejected by the villagers. She is distraught and wants to return home and never see Skalar again or its unwelcoming inhabitants. The more she learns, she is caught in a moral dilemma. She begins to feel part of the community and must keep their secrets. And what about the ghost in the house? There are now two of them. How will Una react?

Recommended to anyone who enjoys Nordic Noir containing a mixture of crime and supernatural.

I am a sucker for an Icelandic mystery, especially one written by Ragnar Jonasson. The setting is the real star of this book for me, an isolated village of ten inhabitants. I love learning about how people cope in these remote settings, and I like how the isolation really brings the reader’s focus to the inhabitants of this town. The story was compelling because I cared about the main character and was interested to see how the parallel story of two murder victims would play into the narrative. I will say the last page was a bit of a disappointment; it was a little,too maudlin for my taste. However, the mystery was satisfying and indulged my fantasy of living in a little pocket of Iceland.

I was expecting Icelandic Noir – you know bleak and gritty crime fiction. Instead, I got Icelandic Modern Gothic. Now, this may not have been a thing, but it certainly is now and it works!

Okay, someone may @ me to tell me how this isn’t Gothic, but it totally is. Young woman takes a job in a desolate location teaching two mysterious children. The town is sparsely populated and full of grim people who seems somehow mysteriously wrong. There’s a haunted, dark-haired man who seems to have his own secrets. And, oh, there’s a ghost story attached to the place where she’s staying.

Yep. Totally Gothic.

To be fair, there is a crime, but it’s not the focus of most of the novel.

I loved the book. It was extremely mysterious and chilling. The town is perfectly bleak and there’s something inherently dangerous that seems to seep into every page.

Not noir, but a wonderful story.

*ARC via Net Galley

Teacher Wanted At the Edge of the World.
Una wants nothing more than to teach, but she has been unable to secure steady employment in Reykjavík. Her savings are depleted, her love life is nonexistent, and she cannot face another winter staring at the four walls of her shabby apartment. Celebrating Christmas and ringing in 1986 in the remote fishing hamlet of Skálar seems like a small price to pay for a chance to earn some teaching credentials and get her life back on track. And so begins another totally compelling mystery by one of my authors. This moves more slowly than other mysteries but it succeeds in building suspense that way and this was a wholly satisfying, well plotted story with some very interesting characters in a very interesting locale. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced readers copy for review.

Talk about a book hangover! The Girl Who Died was so amazing that I did not want it to end! I quickly fell in love with the setting and the characters and I wish this was the beginning to a series rather than a standalone. I will, without a doubt, be buying this book when it is released as I already know that it is one of those books that I will revisit over and over again.

This character and setting driven novel takes place in the village of Skalar, Iceland ... population 10! Una, the protagonist, leaves her troubled life in Reykjavic behind to move to this small village and teach just two students. However, it doesn't seem to be the wonderful fresh start she was hoping for. This tight-knit community views her as an outsider and treats her like one. No open-arm welcome here! Not to mention, the attic apartment she's been staying in may be haunted!

Now, I am not usually one for any mystery novels that are gothic or have any ghostly vibes, but Jonasson wrote this SO well! I loved everything about it. The Girl Who Died is an astounding slow-burn novel that was chilling and atmospheric and I found the ending to be both shocking and heart-breaking.

I highly recommend this one to those who love a good, slow-burn, atmospheric, Nordic Noir mystery with a bit of a gothic vibe.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Minotaur books for the e-arc in exchange for my honest opinion!

Ragnar Jonasson's The Girl Who Died has a startling title, perhaps a little too direct for me. However, I found the storyline to be compelling, beginning with the main character, Una, who chooses to leave Reykjavik to take a teaching position in a small village far away on the northern tip of the Langanes peninsula, called Skalar. (Jonasson's novel is translated from Icelandic by Victoria Cribb.) The village has ten adults and two children to be taught. That's all. In winter. In the middle of nowhere, and Una knows no one when she arrives. We learn a a lot about Una through her viewpoint; she expects to soon make friends with the people there and is glad to be away from the dull life as a part-time Reykjavik teacher.

But her life is more isolated than she expected, and I couldn't help feeling how daunting that move had been. I would never have even remotely considered putting myself in a new place with limited resources, few people, and no one I knew, spending my days mostly with myself, taking solitary walks in the snow. And I, of course, wouldn't have known that there would be a reputed haunted house, sightings of a ghost girl in an attic, and an aloof, curt population there. Had I any hint of that, I would be cowering under the covers of my bed! As you might expect, there is much of the “Don't go in there! Leave, leave!” suspense-movie thrill filling this novel.

It is a suspenseful, mysterious narrative with some characters who seem to be friendly, but possibly have dubious hidden motives. Whew! I was very glad when I arrived at the satisfying close of this hypnotic novel.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this ARC.
5 Stars!
My first thriller by Ragnar Jonasson and plan to read more by Ragnar.
I loved this creepy, supernatural thriller that kept my guessing. Fast paced suspense and and quality writing. Did I say I loved this book?!

Thank-you to NetGalley, publisher and Ragnar Jonasson for the advanced copy of "The Girl Who Died" in exchange for my honest review. I have read Jonasson's Dark Icelandic series and was very excited to read this stand-alone. I was not disappointed. Although not a fan of the supernatural genre, it was a small part of the story and intricately woven into the plot. Una, a young teacher living in Reykjavik is down on her luck. Alone and bored she decides to accept a teaching position in the remote village of Skallar in Langanes peninsula. Una's attempts to make positive connections with the villagers is met with responses as cold and remote as the freezing weather and winter darkness of coastal Iceland. .Is she having nightmares, seeing ghosts or drinking too much wine? What are the secrets of the past and present that keep her alone and fearful? What will it take for her to be accepted into the small community?  As the story unfolds, the suspense increases .Once again, Ragnar Jonasson expresses the feel of Iceland. the geography, climate and culture, but also the people by telling a really good story. The character development includes Iceland itself, and that is "Iceland" on the cake. This is an easy 5 stars for me and for those readers who enjoy international books, give this and other Ragnar Jonasson books a try.

4.5 Stars to The Girl Who Died, written by my favorite Icelandic writer, Ragnar Jonasson. I have read books from his other two series and I was eager to read this stand alone mystery!

A newspaper advert for "A Teacher wanted at the edge of the world" entices Una, who is currently unemployed in Reykjavik and fairly friendless. She reckons that a year at this job could help her pay off debts, and be a bit of an adventure at the same time! Besides, who is there to miss her? Not her one friend who now has a husband and child, or her mother who has remarried. The tiny village Skalar, in the far north of Iceland, consists of only ten people and they are looking for a teacher for the two children that live in the village. Una decides to go for it and departs with some trepidation, but mostly optimism. That feeling is soon quelled when she finds herself in a town that looks like time forgot. She is rooming in the home of one of her pupils, and her friendly landlady shows her to an attic apartment that has all the comforts of home. So why does Una feel so uncomfortable here and why is sleep hard to come by and disturbed by dreams of a young girl standing by her bed?

Her landlady is the only friendly face in the village. The rest of the handful of residents are not very welcoming. The town is claustrophobic in it's size, and with only one small store, everyone knows your business, including the fact that Una likes red wine with dinner every night, and maybe some after that too. The author expertly plants us in this foreboding, featureless village and we feel Una's discomfiture. Several times I just wanted to say to Una, "Get out of there!" This feeling of isolation is further intensified because the story is set in the 1980s, before cell phones and internet, so a shared land line phone is Una's only connection with her past in Reykjavik.

This is definitely a slow burner. Not a lot of twists and turns; the brooding gothic atmosphere is a big part of the story. And then there's the ghost, a young girl who used to live in the attic and appears to Una sometimes at night. This is part ghost story, part real life murder, although that part of the story is a small segment of the book. I devoured this book in one sitting and really enjoyed it. If you are a fan of the Nordic noir genre, love creepy or gothic settings, and enjoy a little supernatural in your stories then I think you will enjoy this book. I wasn't sure about the ending at first, but then I realized that one only had to look at Una's life and backstory to figure out how the ending comes to be.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and the author for allowing me to read this ARC.

Without telling the background or parts of the story, I want to say this is the type of mystery I love. It is set in an unusual setting with a bit of history of the town included in the story, which I always enjoy history and background in the plot of any book. Mr. Johnasson really knows how to create intricate, unusual, mysteries. I really recommend this book!

"TEACHER WANTED AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD". That headline would probably turn most people away, but for some reason Una thought it sounded great. So she packs up her bags and moves to the middle of nowhere. Well she moves to Skálar, with a population of 10, so it's basically the same thing. As soon as Una arrives, she instantly knows she doesn't fit it and the longer she is there, the worse it gets.
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Grab a hot cup of coffee, a nice cozy blanket, and enjoy this chilling atmospheric read. Ragnar is a master when it comes to setting the perfect chilly scene. I found myself utterly freezing, and I could feel the loneliness that Una felt. Ragnar is one of my favorite authors, he has this way of making you feel like you're a character in his books. Speaking of characters, the characters throughout this tight-knit community are soo fascinating. I loved learning more about them, and learning just how far they would go to protect one another and their secrets. For those who enjoy a slow-burn, yet engrossing novel, with a side of supernatural activity, I highly recommend you check this one out! Ragnar has done it again, with another five star read for me!