My main problem with this short murder mystery was that I simply didn’t care what had happened to the victim, nor did I care who was the most unreliable narrator amongst a whole group of unreliable narrators. The crime at its heart is the disappearance, probably murder of Julia, a pretentious and admittedly very irritating poet, who walks out on the man who is obsessed with her – although to be fair he does become disillusioned after living with her for a while. Desperate enough to kill her? Possibly. It’s clear from early on in the novel that Julia is dead, so there’s no tension there. The story is told through the perspectives of those involved with Raul and Julia, and Julia speaks to us from beyond the grave, which was one step too far for me. Lots of fog and damp and murky conditions, and lots of obfuscation in the narrative, with a constant shift between POVs, which all leads to too much fragmentation. Not a bad book, by any means, in fact quite intriguing up to a point, but it didn’t really engage me.

'Fog At Noon' is about falling in love with a person that is so completely different from you that you know it has to end one day, and that it is going to be painful.

Raúl is a designer who leads an almost secluded life at his ranch in the green and rainy mountains of Northern Colombia. Julia is an extrovert, a poet who lives for success and critical acclaim and searches for experiences only to turn them into poems. They fall in love, build a beautiful house together, and when she leaves him two years later he breaks down.

It becomes clear early on in the book that Julia has disappeared and may no longer be alive. The book consists of short chapters with different POVs that give clues about what happened.... It is by no means a thriller though.

I have mixed feelings about this slim novel. I enjoyed the setting and nature writing, found the characters a bit strange (but there is nothing wrong with that), but I do wonder what it is the writer wants to say with this story...

A beautifully-crafted polyphonic novel, in which the disappearance of the character Julia is teased out through the perspectives of a cast of those who knew her. With each chapter it feels like more is revealed, and the setting - a mountain region with snow and fog - adds to the looming atmosphere of the book.

Definitely something that I want to go back and re-read, because I am sure that there are subtleties that I missed first time around. An interesting and beguiling book form an author who was new to me. Definitely recommended.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

A beautifully written light murder mystery that is immensely atmospheric. We are given multiple points of view of Julia- as well as her own perspective- that speak to her personality and legacy that she left behind after vanishing. The reason it is a light murder mystery is that you can sus out the guilty party rather quickly but this novel really shines in giving us characters that both love and despise Julia in their own right. They feel wholly fleshed out and real- which is a hard thing to do in such a short novel and having to keep it on circling one character.

It was a lovely read. I’ll definitely be picking it up when it is released. Thank you to NetGalley, Archipelago, and the respected author and translator for the advance copy!

A well written mystery that I enjoyed a lot. I wish it had been a bit longer. However I did enjoy the characters and the story as it was. Just wanted a bit more

Fog at Noon gives a multi-perspective account of the disappearance of a woman. The mystery of what happened is kept just a grasp away from the reader throughout the book and the suspense grows with each character providing new insights and observations. Descriptions of place (fog, mountains, snow, etc.) greatly add to the atmosphere.

I enjoy an unreliable narrator (and there were many) but the pacing of switches between the accounts of different people moved too fast for me to build a strong connection/understanding with the characters.

FOG AT NOON by Tomas Gonzalez
4.5 stars

FOG AT NOON follows the story of a missing woman, Julia, as we meet both her and the people in her life after her disappearance. Among these are ex-lovers, a questionable best friend, an ex-husband and a salty sister-in-law. As the book progresses, these voices slowly reveal more about the vanished Julia and where she might have gone.

There's a compelling mix of dark humor, intrigue, and lyrical writing to this novel. You'll get hilarious commentary on Julia's poetry on one page and lovely scene setting of the mountains of Colombia (or snowy New York) on the next. The writing is beautiful but I also found FOG AT NOON easy to read in a day. The final reveals weren't over-the-top or shocking but they were satisfying.

I'd recommend this to readers who enjoy mysteries with a literary bent, and who enjoy reading about the creative life, as many of the characters are writers/artists.