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Death at the Sanatorium

A Mystery

Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
0 of 1 copy available

This program is read by actor Sam Woolf, known for his roles on Call the Midwife, Humans, The Crown, and The Witcher. He currently stars in the World War II drama We Were The Lucky Ones.
Fresh off his career-changing standalone co-written with Icelandic PM, Reykjavík, #1 Icelandic bestseller Jonasson presents a riveting new thriller spinoff from The Darkness, soon to be a TV series.

1983
At a former sanatorium in the north of Iceland, now a hospital ward, an old nurse, Yrsa, is found murdered. Detective Hulda Hermannsdottir and her boss, Sverrir, are sent to investigate her death. There, they discover five suspects: the chief physician, two junior nurses, a young doctor, and the caretaker, who is arrested following false testimony from one of the nurses, but subsequently released.
Less than a week after the murder, the chief physician, is also found dead, having apparently fallen from a balcony. Sverrir, rules his death as suicide and assumes that he was guilty of the murder as well. The case is closed.
2012
Almost thirty years later, Helgi Reykdal, a young police officer, has been studying criminology in the UK, but decides to return to Iceland when he is offered a job at the Reykjavik police department—the job which detective Hulda Hermannsdottir is about to retire from.
He is also a collector of golden age detective stories, and is writing his thesis on the 1983 murders in the north. As Helgi delves deeper into the past, and starts his new job, he decides to try to meet with the original suspects. But soon he finds silence and suspicion at every turn, as he tries to finally solve the mystery from years before.
A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from July 15, 2024
      Jónasson follows up Reykjavik with a meticulously plotted whodunit worthy of Agatha Christie, whose work he translates into Icelandic. In 2012 Reykjavik, 30-something Helgi Reykadi is finishing his criminology dissertation on an unsolved homicide in a tuberculosis sanatorium turned research facility. Flashbacks fill in details about Helgi’s subject: in 1983, someone tortured and murdered Ysra, a nurse at the facility, and a few days later the institution’s director suffered a suspicious fall from the balcony. Police arrested the building’s janitor on a false tip from nurse Tinna—who threw the janitor under the bus to distract from her own suspicious behavior—then let him go. After that, the case went cold. In 2012, Tinna turns up dead, so Helgi tracks down her and Ysra’s old coworkers in hopes of solving both murders. When his interview subjects turn out to be strangely tight-lipped, he launches into a twisty investigation that culminates in a volcanic finale. With scrupulously fair-play plotting, Helgi’s tumultuous relationship with his live-in girlfriend as an emotional anchor, and a worthy payoff, this is another winner from Jónasson. Readers will be rapt.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Sam Woolf creates a foreboding atmosphere in this disturbing mystery with strong Christie vibes, set in 1952, 1983, and 2012 Iceland. Listeners enter a tuberculosis sanitorium repurposed from the 1940-50s and meet likable Helgi, who is reopening an investigation into earlier unsolved murders. His well-rendered questions to the caretaker, nurses, and doctors unearth old lies, secrets, and resentments. Wolff maintains a consistent atmosphere of dread while flawlessly segueing from ordinary to terrifying situations. Highlights include: the appearance of Hulda from earlier times and Helgi's disturbed, violent girlfriend. Audio is ideal for the slowly unfolding police procedural and its abrupt, disturbing conclusion. The relaxed afterword reveals Ragnar Jonasson's great love of old mysteries and his clever use of their classic elements in his contemporary writing. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

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