Release: May 4th, 2021
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Source: Netgalley
Find it at Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, B&N, Kobo.
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Teacher Wanted At the Edge of the World
Una wants nothing more than to teach, but she has been unable to secure steady employment in Reykjavík. Her savings are depleted. Her love life is nonexistent. And she cannot face another winter staring at the four walls of her shabby apartment. Celebrating Christmas and ringing in 1986 in the remote fishing hamlet of Skálar seems like a small price to pay for a chance to earn some teaching credentials. And she wants to get her life back on track.
But Skálar isn’t just one of Iceland’s most isolated villages; it is home to just ten people. Moreover, Una’s only students are two girls aged seven and nine. Teaching them only occupies so many hours in a day. And the few adults she interacts with are civil but distant. She only seems to connect with Thór, a man she shares an attraction with. But Thór determines to keep her at arm’s length.
As darkness descends throughout the bleak winter, Una finds herself more often than not in her rented attic space. It is the site of a local legendary haunting, drinking her loneliness away. She has nightmares of a little girl in a white dress singing a lullaby. And when a sudden tragedy echoes an event long-buried in Skálar’s past, the villagers become even more guarded, leaving a suspicious Una seeking to uncover a shocking truth that’s been kept secret for generations.
About the Author:
Ragnar Jonasson is the author of the award-winning and international bestselling Dark Iceland series.
His debut Snowblind, first in the Dark Iceland series, went to number one in the Amazon Kindle charts shortly after publication and has been a paperback bestseller in France.
Nightblind won the Dead Good Reader Award 2016 for Most Captivating Crime in Translation.
Ragnar was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he works as a writer and a lawyer. Also, he teaches copyright law at Reykjavik University and has previously worked on radio and television, including a TV news reporter for the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service.
He is also the co-founder of the Reykjavik international crime writing festival Iceland Noir. From the age of 17, Ragnar translated 14 Agatha Christie novels into Icelandic.
Ragnar has also had short stories published internationally, including in the distinguished Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine in the US, the first stories by an Icelandic author in that magazine.
He has appeared on festival panels worldwide and lives in Reykjavik.
The Girl Who Died Review:
I love stories eerie, slow-burn mystery-thrillers that keep me guessing, and “The Girl Who Died” did not disappoint.
I read “Winterkill” by the author and knew what to expect in his writing style. However, I enjoyed this book much more than Winterkill! The author does a lovely job of making the story atmospheric. The author beautifully incorporates many sub-plots, and you wonder how it will all connect. A girl dies mysteriously, a man disappears after entering the town, a ghost haunts Una’s room, and there is a parallel storyline where a woman gets wrongfully imprisoned for murder.
Una shines in the role as she enters the Skálar. Confusion and fear creep on her as she encounters the strange events that happen in the town. There are only less than a dozen residents, and many of them are hostile towards her. You find yourself engrossed with Una as she starts uncovering the town’s secrets. I loved how all the storylines came together towards the end.
However, speaking of the climax, I felt the ending was a bit anti-climatic. I expected the story to end with a bang, but instead, it went with a sizzle. A part of the plot also concludes in an open-ended manner, which I felt did not work very well in the storyline.
Apart from that, I enjoyed reading “The Girl Who Died” and would love to read more of the author’s works!
