Nordic noir at its most authoritative. - Financial Times

A crime novel with a difference - Guardian

A beautifully constructed mystery by two super smart partners in crime -- ANTHONY HOROWITZ

A slow-burning, spellbinding whodunit. Agatha Christie, to whom it's dedicated, would be proud - Kirkus

I read all 349 pages in one go and enjoyed every second . . . A gripping story . . . extremely well written . . . superbly plotted . . . The twist at the halfway point of the book hits the reader like a wave of the ice cold Atlantic Ocean. One reader at my home was almost in shock. It is an art to create such a deep connection with fictional characters. Even though the story is first and foremost entertaining, it also serves as the mirror of a nation and has many layers - Fréttablaðið Newspaper

Brilliant. Very exciting, great fun, good characterization, and the atmosphere of the 80s is described in an enjoyable way. One of the best crime novels I've read in a long time -- Gisli Marteinn Baldursson

Praise for Ragnar Jónasson - -

Jónasson is a connoisseur of 'unrelenting darkness'; the atmosphere of paranoid claustrophobia [Jónasson] creates is so intense you can't help gripping the book as tightly as possible - The Times

A superb page-turner . . . breathes fresh and unsettling life into the classic locked room mystery -- Kevin Wignall - -

Stunningly original . . . Tense. Very tense. -- Michael Ridpath - -

Jónasson's twisting, elegantly crafted story will keep you hooked till the very last page -- William Ryan - -

Ragnar Jónasson is so skilled in depicting the environment where the story takes place, it becomes one of the characters. It is so atmospheric, I am immediately transported to the Icelandic moors, feeling the cold all the way to the bones. I read with bated breath, my heart pounding with the looming knowledge that soon something bad is about to happen -- Sara Blædel - -

Jonasson offers an intense standalone, taking to new heights his unrivalled skill for using winter as an unpredictable plot-twister . . . There is so much to like here: the complexity of the quartet's relationships, Jonasson's powerful, streamlined writing, and the parallels between an unforgiving setting and the characters' seething grudges. Readers will be drawn into Jonasson's forbidding Iceland landscape, where it's anyone's guess who will make it out alive - Booklist

Entertaining, suspenseful and twisty. Overall, highly recommended for fans of Ragnar Jonasson and suspense thrillers in general - Mystery Tribune

Chilling thriller by the king of Icelandic noir . . . so gripping I can't put it down -- Fiona Cummings - -

A shivery delight - Kirkus Reviews

Ragnar Jónasson is an international number one bestselling author who has sold over three million books in thirty-four countries worldwide. He was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, where he also works as an investment banker and teaches copyright law at Reykjavík University.

He has previously worked on radio and television, including as a TV news reporter for the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, and, from the age of seventeen, has translated fourteen of Agatha Christie's novels. He is currently writing a novel with the Icelandic Prime Minister, Katrín Jakobsdóttir. His critically acclaimed international bestseller The Darkness is soon to be a major TV series, and Ridley Scott will be producing Outside as a feature film.

KATRÍN JAKOBSDÓTTIR has been Prime Minster of Iceland since 2017. Katrín has been a member of the Icelandic Parliament since 2007 but before that she worked in publishing and education. She served as the minister for education, research and culture from 2009 to 2013. She lives with her husband and three sons in Reykjavík. Hailing from a family of prominent Icelandic poets and academics, she wrote her Master's dissertation on Icelandic crime writing. She and Jónasson are long-time friends, who first worked together nearly ten years ago as part of the jury for an award for best crime fiction in translation in Iceland.