Death at the Sanatorium

A Mystery

By: Ragnar Jónasson

Narrated by: Sam Woolf

Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2024 Ragnar Jónasson (P)2024 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Another meticulously plotted whodunit worthy of Agatha Christie . . . 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.”—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“Another brilliant who dunnit from the master of Agatha Christie type suspense . . . [Jónasson] once again has himself another bestseller.”—Leslie Zemeckis

“Ragnar Jonasson must have had terrific fun creating this brilliant gem of an homage to the best of Golden Age whodunit mysteries. I loved Death at the Sanatorium and am certain his millions of other fans shall as well.”—Jeffrey Siger, international bestselling author of the Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis series