Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin UK, Michael Joseph and Ragnar Jonasson for the chance to read this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I’m afraid this book wasn’t for me. The synopsis sounded gripping and sinister and I’d read some reviews saying how much people had enjoyed this book so went into it thinking I would find the same.

When I read the prologue I had been left with chills at the last few sentences. It was eerie and ominous and the first few chapters seemed to be setting the scene for an interesting story. But unfortunately it fell apart quickly. The pacing felt disjointed and messy, chapters seemed rushed, the story would jump forward massively all of a sudden leaving me feeling confused instead of full of anticipation. I found that there were too many characters and we didn’t really know who they were. I know this is a sequel but this didn’t just apply to the Detective but all characters. I didn’t feel like the characters were developed sufficiently and I found it a chore to finish as I had zero investment in any of it. I hoped that when the characters reached the island it might pick up but again it felt like things were rushed and all over the place.

I know not everyone can enjoy every book but I always feel terrible when I don’t enjoy an ARC as I know the author will have poured their heart into the book and try to find what I did like about it. For me as well as the eerie start I enjoyed the first few chapters and the promise of an element of witchcraft and the supernatural in this book. But the most enjoyable part for me was the vivid detail in the descriptions of the beautiful Icelandic scenery. It made me want to visit the country and see it for myself.

So while I sign my membership to #blacksheepofbookstagram with this review, I encourage you to read other reviews and decide for yourself about this book. I’m in the small minority in not being gripped by it and you may find that you are.

'The Island' is the second in the #HiddenIceland series of noir crime novels. I haven't read the first book, but this reads well as a standalone. Hulda is a troubled detective and her personality and emotional pain, make her perfect for the ethos of this series. The story is sinister and suspenseful, but rather than relying on action scenes for its interest and impetus, it delves deep into the characters and their secrets to reveal the plot's twists and turns.

Hulda is haunted by her past and elements of the crime resonate with her, making her more personally involved with the events at the island and its players than is wise.

The story flicks between different timelines, which demands concentration. You need to enjoy this deep, slow-paced, dark storytelling to get something from this book, but it is authentic and a good example of its genre.

I received a copy of this book from Penguin UK - Michael Joseph via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Excellent story which starts off disjointed and quickly begins to gel together. The main detective is believable and the reader can empathize with her. The story takes many twists and turns and the last chapter was a complete surprise. My copy of the book had the first chapter of the next novel with the same detective - good ploy!

I found this underwhelming even thought the premise for this in the first 20% was gripping. My interest for this drained the further I got into this. It's an interesting book but not for me.

I have not read the first book in this series so I am not sure whether it has spoilt it by doing it this way round. However, enough background was provided so I had a good handle on the various characters. I loved the setting. It had me googling holidays to Scandinavia as from the authors descriptions you really got a sense of the rugged beauty of the country. My criticism would be that the story was quite predictable and it was clear from the outset what had happened, I didn't think there were enough red herrings or suspects. However, I would go back and read the first book and there was a chapter from the forthcoming book at the end and I would look forward to reading this book also,

I love this type of book - slow burning, understated, atmospheric, set in amazing scenery with characters who sneakily grow on you. I love Hulda - I haven't read the first in the Hidden Iceland series but will now immediately go and get it. For anyone who liked this - Ragnar Jonasson's other series, Dark Iceland, is great, too!

The Island is the second novel in the Scandinavian noir series Hidden Iceland, set in the stunning, isolated Icelandic landscape. The descriptions are evocative and really set the scene with the scenery being beautiful but very unforgiving, and it's intelligently plotted, however, it takes a while to adapt to the ever-changing timeline and perspective, but once you have this is a gripping, immersive reading experience. Our protagonist Hulda is rather enigmatic and we know little about her. She can be quite spiky but her stubbornness comes in handy in the investigative pursuit of justice.

There are a good few twists in the tale and the continuing plot line exploring the police wrongdoing is an interesting additive. Hulda will need her wits about her as the three friends who survived their remote island adventure are clearly lying through their teeth about their friend's untimely demise, but Hulda must get to the bottom of what happened to achieve justice for the victims family. The author creates an oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere continued from book one, which was probably my favourite aspect of this story and once again was impressive. Because of the lack of character development, this reads perfectly as a standalone. I look forward to the third instalment.

Many thanks to Michael Joseph for an ARC.

I've never read Ragnar Jonasson before so I wasn't sure what to expect from The Island. I'm pleased to say it's a really enjoyable thriller featuring a detective a bit different from the norm. Hilda Hermannsdottir is heading towards 50 and has never truly received the recognition she deserves for her hard work and skills. Police Iceland certainly in the 80's seems to be a man's world. On a whim mainly because she's bored Hulda attends the scene of a accident/suicide cliff fall in which a more junior officer would have sufficed. Something doesn't feel right to her though so she delves more deeply into the circumstances. She realises that the people involved in the fall were also involved in the violent death of another woman 10 years previously. A coincidence? Well worth reading.

The Island is the second book in the Hidden Iceland Series and, having read the first book The Darkness, I was delighted to receive a copy of The Island from Penguin UK – Michael Joseph via NetGalley.

The series is written going back in time from the first book with this second in the series being mainly set in 1997 it also returns to 1987/8. It is very clearly set out what take place and when although the characters are intentionally and necessarily a little more ambiguous within those times. I wasn’t sure whether I like this ‘back to front’ style but I do think it can be an interesting way to handle a story. The story contained within The Island is a really good read. Hulda has a dark tale of her own but I really like her as a character.

We are getting more of Hulda’s personal life her search for her father, which takes her on a trip to the USA, as well as her relationship with her mother, now dead, and how she has been affected by the deaths of her daughter and her husband. Life isn’t easy by herself, with only her nightmares to keep her company.

It is just as she returns from her trip to the US that she gets a call from an officer in the Westman Islands their detective is off sick and they need someone to look at a fatal incident. Hilda decides to go herself and, after travelling to this remote area, seeing the spot where the death happened, speaking with the three young witnesses she is left with a niggling doubt but cannot see that this is anything other than terrible accident. That is until she gets a call from Sæmundur who is about to carry out the post-mortem. It is now clearly a murder investigation.

Hulda is a good detective, thorough, intuitive and with an ability to make connections which lead her to the right resolutions. However, she has been overlooked over the years and her progression has been slower than for officers with less experience like her boss. She assumes it’s because she’s a women and when she began in the Police female officers were not considered as resilient as their male counterparts. Well her record now stands for itself, she has built a reputation for tackling the difficult cases.

The story here is sorting out who did kill and did they kill twice? It’s Hulda being thorough and persistent that gets her the information she needs to work out what happened and why. She also uncovers some very disreputable, even illegal shenanigans in an old case which had it not happened would have saved so much heartache and loss.

The Icelandic setting is beautifully portrayed and, as is so often the case in Ragnar Jónasson books, plays an intrinsic part to the story. Two remote places, with the island being entirely cut off, enables the tension to build and provides an almost ‘locked room’ scenario.

Once again Ragnar Jónasson has written a dark, satisfying and rather perplexing tale which I am happy to recommend.

I hadn't realised that this book was part two of a trilogy, but it can be read as a stand alone book, without too much confusion. I found it to be very good at describing the wonder, the darkness and the sheer majesty of Iceland,whilst acknowledging the sense of isolation that prevails.
It was very hot on police procedural work, the interviewing of suspects, the doubts about work colleagues and the nagging suspicion that nobody was telling the truth,but everybody was involved. At times it was like pulling teeth, but it accurately portrayed the frustrations of the police forces.
The story is that a young couple spend a romantic weekend away in an isolated summer house in the bleak countryside. She is later found dead. A man, convicted of her murder is later found hanged in police cells.
Ten years later, her closest friends reunite,and visit the scene, to commemorate her death. Unfortunately, one of these friends dies. The question is, is this just an unlucky coincidence or is the original murderer still around, which means an innocent man died.
Hulda Hermansdottir ,a CID Inspector looks for a link between the two deaths. She is ambitious but has been overlooked for promotion,and if she solves this complex case,it will do her reputation a power of good. We are then treated to corrupt police officers giving false evidence, and a totally unconnected and irrelevant search for Hulda's wartime father, perhaps that part makes more sense if I had read part one first.
I enjoy Nordic thrillers,they are written very differently to British murders. The Nordic books absolutely overwhelm with detail, you have to take notes on the wide variety of characters that come tumbling out of the woodwork. I adore the patronymic naming system!! An exciting story that holds ones attention throughout.

I enjoyed this once the four friends got to the island. I found the beginning hard to follow as it jumped around characters. However, it was worth persevering!

This is the second book in Ragnar Jonasson's Hidden Iceland trilogy. The story is based before the first book which is a bit confusing, but somehow works.
This time Hulda is sent to investigate what happened on Elliðaey after a group of four friends visited but one failed to return.
The book starts with a murder ten years previously but what Hulda has to work out is, are they related.
This is a fast paced book which grabs you from the first few pages, and doesn’t let go.
I like Hulda and look forward to reading the third book next year.
Thanks to Penguin UK Michael Joseph and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Dark and gritty thriller set in magical Iceland. I was gripped the whole way through. The atmospheric setting and the writing style make this a really good read.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

I haven’t read many Nordic thrillers, and I found this book ok but not thrilling. Saying that, I didn’t suspect who the killer was, that was a surprise, and it had me reading as much as I could to get to the end.

Exactly a year ago I reviewed The Darkness by Ragner Jonasson. The publishers have very kindly sent me a copy of his next book, The Island.

The main character is Hulda Gunnarson, who [SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE DARKNESS] died in the first book. It’s a bit disconcerting and it took me a while to appreciate that I was reading a prequel. I appreciated the chance to learn more about Hulda, though, as I had found her a fascinating character in The Darkness.

In many ways The Island is more a story about Hulda than it is a detective story. The ‘whodunnit’ element is quite thin, though it does hold together as a mystery and the characters are interesting enough to make the read feel worthwhile. It’s the little details of characterisation that I love about Jonasson’s writing. Here he is writing about a couple who are such minor characters that they never appear in the story again, but this catches exactly the mood of so many people who are just beginning to realise that their youth is behind them.

"In the end, they set off home a little earlier than planned, just after eleven. The three-course dinner was over by then, and, to be honest, it had been a bit underwhelming. The main course, which was lamb, had been bland at best and, after dinner, people had piled on to the crowded dance floor. To begin with, the DJ had played popular oldies, but then he moved on to more recent chart hits, which weren’t really the couple’s sort of thing, although they still liked to think of themselves as young. After all, they weren’t middle-aged yet."

The eye for character and telling details of daily life is a joy, but it can get in the way of the story, making for a somewhat “bitty” narrative. A trip Hulda makes to the USA in an attempt to track down her father, in particular, is completely detached from the rest of the story. It’s almost as if Jonasson really wants to write a literary novel about contemporary life in Iceland but has been forced by commercial pressure to write a detective story. The result is almost two separate books that don’t quite make a cohesive whole.

The Island is more mainstream than the full-on Scandi-noir of The Darkness. It centres on the investigation of a single murder in the Icelandic version of a classic country house mystery: four people spend a weekend on an isolated island and one is killed. The murderer has to be one of the remaining three. After the Grand Guignol of The Darkness I was amused by the constant reassurance that murder is extremely unusual in Iceland. Perhaps after The Darkness increased Iceland’s murder rate by several hundred percent the Reykjavik tourist board pressured Jonasson to ease off this time.

Flawed as it is, I enjoyed reading The Island. Jonasson has an easy style that kept me up late reading on and I enjoyed learning more about Hulda. It isn’t one for hard-core fans of detective fiction, but it’s definitely worth a look if you want character-driven stories in unfamiliar settings.

A prequel to his first book Ragnar Jonasson’s Icelandic thriller The Island is as cold as it is calculating. Four friends - Dagur, Benedikt, Klara and Alexandra - reunite on a trip to a remote island to commemorate the group’s fifth member, Katla, who was found murdered some years previously. The perpetrator of this crime was judged to be her father. Somewhat predictably the reunion goes wrong so detective inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir goes to investigate. Hulda benefits from the best characterisation in this book, an engaging woman who has had much tragedy in her life to contend with and who, in this story, is trying to find her unknown father. Just when you think you have guessed the murderer in this story there are further twists in this tale. Ultimately though I struggled with the dialogue and the sketchiness of the other characters. Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin - Michael Joseph for the ARC.

„The Island“ is a character driven police procedural thriller. It is the second book in a series about police officer Hilda who lives and works in Reykjavík, Iceland. I did not read the first book and you can easily read this one as a standalone because the books are told in reverse. This means that this book is settled earlier than the first book. Here we get to know Hilda who gets involved in an accident that happened on a remote islandic island. A young woman fell from a cliff while on a weekend trip with her friends from schooldays. Soon Hilda finds out that this case is connected to a murder which happened ten years ago. Murder is a rare crime in the sparsely inhabited Iceland and you see how unexperienced the police are.

This book starts very strong. We see a young couple spending a weekend in a summer house in the countryside. The author created a very atmospheric and slightly creepy setting. He really is at his best when he writes about the landscape and how the characters feel about it. Unfortunately he does this only occasionally. There is a lot of police procedure but it is very well crafted and written. There is only one major thing I did not like. When he starts a chapter with a new character you get at first the whole story of their life. That is something I don’t like. It is too much telling and explaining for my taste. It comes all at once. I get so much information but nothing happens concerning the story. That is just a kind of writing thing I don’t enjoy. But when it comes to the landscape, the eerie atmospheric surrounding, then he really got me. I would have preferred more of that. It made me wish to book a trip to Iceland. Just google pictures of the island the four friends are going later on in the book. It’s breathtaking beautiful.

Maybe it is because the book started so brilliant that it felt a bit flat after that. But I did enjoy reading it. The story is good and it is almost impossible to guess what happened in both cases. It is a good police thriller placed in a fascinating landscape. 3,5 Stars rounded up to 4.

An ambitious detective, Hulda doesn't get the promotion she thinks she deserves. A younger man is promoted over her head and solves a bloody murder although Hulda doesn't trust his methods. Ten years later, burdened by her own losses she takes the case of a girl who dies suddenly while on a break with friends on an isolated island. When the autopsy suggests murder there are only three suspects, but it takes time to tease out the threads of intertwining stories. Highly readable police procedural and a glimpse of life in Iceland.

Icelandic noir. A death 10 years ago on an isolated island with a seemingly obvious culprit. Another death in the present involving the same group of friends. One of them MUST be the murderer? And does that mean the police investigation was wrong the first time around?

Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir, frustrated at being looked over for promotion in the past, senses this could be an interesting case and looks into the past to discover the links to the present - clearly against her boss's wishes.

The description is really evocative. While reading you can almost close your eyes and imagine you are there, in splendid isolation under a bright summer's sky. But would you want to be, amid the murder and the lies?

The book is also rather a slow-burn. To my mind it got to about 50% of the way through before the plot really engaged me. It's also not hugely original (who among the small group of friends cannot be trusted?) but saying that, because of the writing it still feels interesting if not truly fresh. Hulda is a fascinating character - more so than the potential suspects - and I would gladly spend another book with her.

An enjoyable read.

What an amazing thriller!
I absolutely loved this thriller. I was hooked from the fist page. Iceland is one of the places I'm very surious to visit, and the descriptions impressed me a lot. I had so much fun reading this book.
Totally recommended if you like gripping thrillers that will keep you awake until the last page. Bonus: Amazing descriptions and beautiful writing.
Totally recommended.
Thanks so much to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.