Ragnar Jonasson: The Darkness

Octavia Bright talks to Ragnar Jónasson about his shocking thriller, The Darkness.

When Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir is unceremoniously told she is being forced into early retirement, she is given the chance to work on one last Cold Case, anything she likes. The case she chooses to revive is centred on the death of a Russian asylum seeker, a 27-year-old woman who had been found dead on the icy shore a year before.

As Hulda reopens the case, she discovers that another young woman disappeared at the same time - and that crucial facts have been withheld. Witnesses are evasive, records incomplete, and even her fellow officers appear determined to stall her investigation. With only two weeks to uncover the truth, Hulda must uncover what really happened, even at the risk of her own life.

Ragnar answers listeners questions such as - how he created his detective, Hulda? How the Icelandic landscape shapes his characters and stories? And if he realised the ending of the novel would shock so many of his readers?