The Mist - Ragnar Jónasson

The Mist is the third book in Ragnar Jónasson’s “Hulda series,” a trilogy consisting of The Darkness, The Island, and The Mist. Each of the books features police detective Hulda Hermannsdottir at various stages of her career with the Reykjavik police department. What makes the series unusual is that Hulda’s story is told in reverse, with each succeeding book focussing on a younger version of Hulda than the book that precedes it. Please note that Jónasson took this approach for a reason, and that in order to experience the Hulda Hermannsdottir story the way the author wants you to experience it, the books need to be read in the order they were published. 

As The Mist opens Hulda is just returning to work after being out on compassionate leave for several weeks. Her bosses suspect that it is still too soon for Hulda to be coming back, and they encourage her to take more time off if she feels that she needs it. Hulda, however, believes that losing herself inside a police investigation is exactly what she needs right now if she is ever to regain her emotional stability, so her bosses reluctantly put her back to work. What no one, including Hulda, counts on is how closely the investigations assigned to Hulda will mimic the recent tragedy in her own life. 

A young woman, just out of school, who is traveling around Iceland on her own with the permission of her parents suddenly disappears without a trace. Because murder is still relatively rare in 1987 Iceland, no one wants to believe that she has become the victim of a crime. Hulda, though, begins to lose hope that the girl will be found alive. Then the bodies of a man and woman, apparently dead since December (it is now February), are found in their old farmhouse in one of the country’s most sparsely populated areas. Hulda is reluctantly assigned to lead that investigation, too, because it demands more skill and experience than the locals have. 

Then, as the investigations progress, Hulda learns as much about herself as she learns about the crimes she’s investigating.

Bottom Line: The Mist is constructed in such a way that the two cases Hulda is working progress in real time while the earlier tragedy from her life progresses at the same pace in a flashback that alternates with the real time investigations. Because readers of the earlier books already know how Hulda’s tragedy ultimately unfolds, having both the flashback and the present-time plots simultaneously build toward their horrific climaxes makes for an intense reading experience. Fans of crime fiction series will not want to miss the Hulda series. 

Ragnar Jónasson