Quick Thoughts – Take 1

Hello and welcome to some Quick Thoughts on books I have read but haven’t time to do a full review on.

The Darkness by Ragnar Jonasson

I quite enjoyed this one it was darker than his other series and went off in a direction I wasn’t expecting. I really liked Hulda, she is misunderstood and stubborn but determined to the end.

“At sixty-four, Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdottir of the Reykjavik Police is about to take on her last case before she retires: A young woman, an asylum seeker from Russia, found murdered on the seaweed covered rocks of the Vatnsleysuströnd in Iceland.
When Hulda starts to ask questions it isn’t long before she realizes that no one can be trusted, and that no one is telling the whole truth. Spanning Reykjavik, the Icelandic highlands and the cold, isolated fjords, The Darkness is a thrilling new crime thriller from one of the biggest new names in Scandi noir.”

The Island by Ragnar Jonasson

I read this straight after The Darkness and while I was glad to have more of Hulda I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as it was a bit slower to get into but I still look forward to book 3.

“Elliðaey is an isolated island off the coast of Iceland. It is has a beautiful, unforgiving terrain and is an easy place to vanish.
The Island is the second thrilling book in Ragnar Jonasson’s Hidden Iceland trilogy. This time Hulda is at the peak of her career and is sent to investigate what happened on Elliðaey after a group of friends visited but one failed to return.
Could this have links to the disappearance of a couple ten years previously out on the Westfjords? Is there a killer stalking these barren outposts?”

Pet Sematary by Stephen King

I listened to this on audible and I really enjoyed it. Stephen King is so good at creating atmospheres, half the time I was so absorbed in the story I forgot what else I was trying to do!

“SOMETIMES…DEAD IS BETTER

The house looked right, felt right to Dr Louis Creed.

Rambling, old, unsmart and comfortable. A place where the family could settle; the children grow and play and explore. The rolling hills and meadows of Maine seemed a world away from the fume-choked dangers of Chicago.

Only the occasional big truck out on the two-lane highway, grinding up through the gears, hammering down the long gradients, growled out an intrusive threat.

But behind the house and far away from the road: that was safe. Just a carefully cleared path up into the woods where generations of local children have processed with the solemn innocence of the young, taking with them their dear departed pets for burial.

A sad place maybe, but safe. Surely a safe place. Not a place to seep into your dreams, to wake you, sweating with fear and foreboding.”

That’s it for my first take on quick thoughts, I think its something I will keep up for sharing books I have read but don’t have time to go full on with, that way you’re not missing out on any good reads.