Death At The Sanatorium by Ragnar Jonasson
- JetBlackDragonfly
- Apr 14
- 2 min read
Ragnar Jonasson once again creates a mysterious web of murder amongst a tight group of characters. Jonasson has honed his skills as translator of Agatha Christie's novels into Icelandic and his novels are classically solid.
Helgi Reydal lives in Reykjavik with his angry wife, Bergthora, wondering why they stay together. Their flat is lined from floor to ceiling with translated classic mysteries handed down from his father, an antiquarian bookseller. He savours reading the Golden Age novelists, finding nothing better than sitting down to a detective story.
Helgi is writing a criminology dissertation on a notorious unsolved case at a children's TB sanatorium where two people died. In 1983, it was a closed research facility with minimal staff. Tinna arrived at work to find Yrsa strangled, her bloody fingers amputated before she died. The only people with access to the building were a doctor, the director, nurses Tinna, Yrsa and Elisabet, and the caretaker Broddi.
Inspector Sverrir of Reykjavik police arrives with Detective Hulda Hermannsdottir to interview the staff, all wary of exposing their personal secrets. Tinna loves to embellish her stories, and based on her comments, Sverrir make a rash arrest, unthinkable he may wrong. When another corpse is found, they assume it is suicide by the killer, and the investigation is shut down.
Now in 2012, Helgi accesses the thirty year-old case to write his academic analysis. The players are all still present, including Sverrir and Detective Hulda, on the eve of retirement. Helgi becomes obsessed with finding the truth, to the detriment of his marriage, and officially joins Reykjavik CID. With all the information at hand, he finds suspicion at every turn, as he tries to finally solve the case.
Mysteries by Jonasson are highly recommended, and this modern thriller combining a Nordic sensibility with Golden Age detective novels is a reader's delight.
Here we get a cameo by Hulda Hermannsdottir (the star of Jonasson's Hidden Iceland trilogy: The Darkness, The Island and The Mist) - living with her daughter and husband.
A classic mystery aficionado, Helgi reads Agatha Christie, Patrick Quentin, and Ngaio Marsh - even translating Ellery Queen's The Dutch Shoe Mystery for enjoyment. Ragnar himself translated Agatha Christie novels in his youth, adapting one a year into Icelandic through college. To have Helgi read a translated Christie in this novel is a neat trick. "He'd read it so often before, but the moment he saw the first line on the first page, he was transpoirted into the world of the story, where nothing bad could happen to him."
2019 (translated 2024) /Hardcover / 320 pages
My reviews of Ragnar Jonasson:
My reviews of Ellery Queen:
In honour of Ragnar, my reviews of Agatha Christie:
I am not fond of nordic noir. Too much violence and sexual savagery but after your recommendation will try this author.