Two days before Christmas, a young woman is found dead beneath the cliffs of the deserted village of Kálfshamarvík. Did she jump, or did something more sinister take place beneath the lighthouse and the abandoned old house on the remote rocky outcrop?
With winter closing in and the snow falling relentlessly, Ari Thór Arason discovers that the victim’s mother and young sister also lost their lives in this same spot, twenty-five years earlier. As the dark history and its secrets of the village are unveiled, and the death toll begins to rise, the Siglufjordur detectives must race against the clock to find the killer, before another tragedy takes place.
Dark, chilling and complex, Whiteout is a haunting, atmospheric and stunningly plotted thriller from one of Iceland’s bestselling crime writers.


‘Traditional and beautifully finessed …morally more equivocal than most traditional whodunnits, and it offers alluring glimpses of darker, and infinitely more threatening horizons’ Andrew Taylor, Independent

‘Jonasson’s books have breathed new life into Nordic noir’ Sunday Express

‘British aficionados of Nordic Noir are familiar with two excellent Icelandic writers, Arnaldur Indridason and Yrsa Sigurdardottir. Here’s a third: Ragnar Jónasson … the darkness and cold are palpable’ Marcel Berlins, Times

‘Economical and evocative’ Laura Wilson, Guardian

‘A chiller of a thriller’ Carol Memmott, Washington Post

‘Jónasson skillfully alternates points of view and shifts of time … The action builds to a shattering climax’ Publishers Weekly

‘Required reading’ New York Post

‘Puts a lively, sophisticated spin on the Agatha Christie model, taking it down intriguing dark alleys’ Kirkus

‘The best sort of gloomy storytelling’ Chicago Tribune

The prose is stark and minimal, the mood dank and frost-tipped. It’s also bleakly brilliant, although perhaps best read with a warming shot of whisky by your side’ Claire Allfree, Metro

‘A classic crime story seen through a uniquely Icelandic lens … first rate and highly recommended’ Lee Child

‘Ragnar Jónasson writes with a chilling, poetic beauty - a must-read’ Peter James

‘A modern take on an Agatha Christie-style mystery, as twisty as any slalom’ Ian Rankin

‘Seductive … Ragnar does claustrophobia beautifully’ Ann Cleaves