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  • Published: 4 May 2021
  • ISBN: 9780241400135
  • Imprint: Michael Joseph
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $37.00

The Girl Who Died

The chilling Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year 2021




The 'world class crime writer' (Sunday Times) returns with his very first standalone novel - his darkest and most atmospheric mystery yet . . .

Una is devastated after the suicide of her father. So when she sees an advert seeking a teacher for two girls in Skálar on the storm-battered north coast of the island, she sees it as a chance to escape.
But once she arrives, Una quickly realises nothing in city life has prepared her for this. The villagers are unfriendly. The weather is bleak. And, from the creaky attic bedroom in the old house she's living, she's convinced she hears the ghostly sound of singing.
Una worries that she's losing her mind. And then, just before Christmas, there's a murder . . .

  • Published: 4 May 2021
  • ISBN: 9780241400135
  • Imprint: Michael Joseph
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $37.00

About the author

Ragnar Jónasson

Ragnar Jonasson is an international number one bestselling author who has sold over one and a half million books 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. His critically acclaimed international bestseller The Darkness is soon to be a major TV series.

Also by Ragnar Jónasson

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Praise for The Girl Who Died

Triumphant . . . Chilling, creepy, perceptive, almost unbearably tense

Ian Rankin

It is nothing less than a landmark in modern crime fiction

The Times

A world-class crime writer. One of the most astonishing plots of modern crime fiction. A triumphant conclusion to the trilogy [that] makes Iceland's pre-eminence in the crime genre even more marked

The Sunday Times

Praise for Ragnar Jónasson

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Jónasson is an automatic must-read for me . . . possibly the best Scandi writer working today

Lee Child

Is this the best crime writer in the world today? . . . He's truly a master of his genre

The Times Online

A creepy tale

The Times

A master of the Icelandic thriller

New York Post

Invigorating Iceland-set slice of Nordic Noir

Daily Mail

Fiendishy clever trilogy

Financial Times

Triumphant conclusion to the trilogy. Only Ragnar Jónasson has rendered hindsight so heartbreaking.

Sunday Times (on the Hidden Iceland trilogy)

The Icelandic king of crime

Göteborgsposten

A mist-shrouded blend of horror and psychological thriller . . . works in every way. The isolated village and the pre-smartphone 1980s setting create a sense of claustrophobia that combines with the villagers' secrecy and the hint of supernatural elements to infuse strong foreboding throughout what is ultimately revealed to be a story about trust

Booklist

Few among the country's authors match Jonasson in conveying insular abandonment . . . excellent

Toronto Star

Ragnar Jonasson's impeccable plotting is really a wonder of the crime genre . . . a masterfully conceived horror novel

Dayton Daily News

Spooky, sophisticated. Jonasson is strong on atmosphere

Sunday Times

An intensely gripping mystery, Ragnar Jonasson is a poet of the "dark, wet and cold", of the "gloom, cold and rain". The climactic revelations are credible and moving

The Times, BOOK OF THE MONTH

Lean, compulsive. Great stories that combine traditional puzzle-solving of the golden age crime fiction with a moody expansive psychology

The Times

The red hot crime writer from the frozen north . . . One of the most important voices on the international crime scene

The Times

With his trademark elegant prose and atmospheric sense of place, Jónasson weaves a slow-burning, haunting tale with a chilling ending

Sunday Express

A deeply atmospheric mystery

Choice Magazine

With his trademark elegant prose and atmospheric sense of place, Jonasson weaves a slow-burning, haunting tale with a chilling ending

Daily Record

A chilling psychological thriller with an unexpected ending that will haunt the reader

The Canberra Times

With the bleakest of landscapes and some supernatural undertones, this is one creepy thriller that'll have you leaving ALL the lights on

Vogue Scandinavia

Haunting psychological novel tinged with the supernatural

Daily Record

Perfect for anyone who loves Nordic crime noir, the colder the better. The writing really brings alive a bleak, cold environment in which Una is struggling to survive and maintain her sanity

CADs Magazine

Intriguing . . . This spooky novel draws on Icelandic sagas to create an atmosphere of growing menace.

The Times, CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR

A demonic piece of horror

Dayton Daily News

Invigorating Iceland-set slice of Nordic Noir.

Daily Mail

Fiendishy clever trilogy

Financial Times

Triumphant conclusion to the trilogy. Only Ragnar Jónasson has rendered hindsight so heartbreaking.

Sunday Times (on the Hidden Iceland trilogy)

A master of the Icelandic thriller.

New York Post