Outside

December 1, 2021

In a series starter from the ever-popular Armstrong, homicide detective Mallory is in 2019 Edinburgh when she experiences A Rip Through Time and winds up in one of the city's alleyways in 1869, inhabiting the body of strangled-if-not-quite-dead housemaid Catriona Thomson and soon hunting for a killer (50,000-copy first printing). In Atherton's Aunt Dimity and the Enchanted Cottage, the redoubtable sleuth and her English-village neighbors fail in their attempt to befriend standoffish newcomer Crispin Windle until they discover the ruins of a Victorian woolen mill--and the graves of children who worked there, whom they seek to identify (30,000-copy first printing; originally scheduled for July 2021). In Nonna Maria and the Case of the Missing Bride, crusty but beloved widow Nonna Maria--who lives on the isle of Ischia in the Gulf of Naples and was inspired by the No. 1 New York Times best-selling Carcaterra's grandmother--intervenes when a young bride-to-be declares that she's afraid of her fianc�. In Haines's Lady of Bones, Mississippi-based Sarah Booth Delaney of the Delaney Detective Agency is attending a party alit with jack-o-lanterns when she's approached by a woman seeking her vanished daughter, who has been investigating the disappearance of young women in New Orleans every Halloween for the last five years (40,000-copy first printing). The internationally best-selling author of the "Dark Iceland" and "Hulda" series, J�nasson sets his new standalone during an Icelandic blizzard, with four frantic friends sheltering in an abandoned hunting lodge and facing a reignited tragedy that likely makes them wish they were all Outside (50,000-copy first printing). In Klingborg's Wild Prey, Inspector Lu Fei of the Chinese Police travels to a remote region of Myanmar to find a missing 15-year-old girl in a case involving the illegal trafficking of exotic animals (50,000-copy first printing). In Robert B. Parker's Revenge Tour, Lupica assigns PI Sunny Randall the thankless task of investigating actress friend Melanie Joan Hall when Melanie's manager turns up dead, her bank account looks to be wiped out, and details of her past suddenly seem more imagined than real. In Paretsky's Overboard, a seriously injured teenage girl discovered by V.I. Warshawski on Lake Michigan's rocky shore subsequently vanishes from the hospital, and the iconic detective must chase down a monstrous conspiracy with pandemic-ridden Chicago as backdrop (100,000-copy first printing). Pursuing a massive drugs-and-weapons shipment being shepherded across the U.S.-Mexican border by former cops with the warning "You talk, you die" written on their bodies, Patterson/Paetro stalwart Sgt. Lindsay Boxer suddenly has 22 Seconds to decide what her fate will be. Second in the new series from librarian Weaver, who launched her writing career with the delightful Amory Ames mysteries, The Key to Deceit has breaker-and-enterer Ellie McDonnell again approached by stuffed-shirt good-guy Major Ramsey in World War II London: he wants her to discover which side the female spy found bobbing in the Thames was on (40,000-copy first printing).

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2022
The ptarmigan hunt four old friends have planned for a winter weekend in the wilds of eastern Iceland goes south when the weather turns on them and they turn on each other. Three of the four--actor Dan�el, attorney Gunnlaugur, and Helena, an engineer for a tech startup--would have no business traipsing around in the snow under any circumstances if it weren't for the fourth, �rmann, a travel guide with a checkered past as a drug user-turned-dealer whose underworld connections in Denmark might well have killed him if Helena hadn't ridden to the rescue. Once an unexpected snowstorm sends them searching desperately for a hut they can shelter in, it's gradually revealed that the others all have secrets of their own. Dan�el can't stop lying about the fact that his career in London has never taken off. Helena's still mourning V�kingur, the ex who died under suspicious circumstances five years ago. And Gunnlaugur is an alcoholic rapist whose two years on the wagon come to an end inside the hut, where the refuge they've sought swiftly turns nightmarish with the discovery of an armed stranger inside. No matter what they do, the man won't move, won't talk, and won't put down his gun even when the group falls asleep. Soft-pedaling the supernatural trappings of The Girl Who Died (2021), J�nasson presents the weekend getaway as an excruciatingly slow-motion avalanche in which it's obvious from the beginning, as Helene says, that "something's got to die before we finish this trip"; the only questions are who, how many, under what circumstances, and at whose hands. A shivery delight. It's nice that the Icelandic Tourist Board hasn't paid J�nasson to quit publishing.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 7, 2022
In this disappointing standalone from Jónasson (The Girl Who Died), Daníel, a struggling actor living in London, travels to Reykjavík to join three friends for a reunion: Helena, an engineer; Ármann, an entrepreneurial tour guide; and Gunnlaugur, a lawyer. Ármann has organized a hunting weekend, but things go massively wrong on the moors. A blizzard forces the group, with minimal gear, to shelter in a disused hunting hut, where they encounter something genuinely shocking (Daníel “had never been so afraid in his life”). The payoff for this early fright is a long time coming as the novel focuses on the foursome’s backstories, which illuminate the motive for the expedition. It’s a dandy premise, and Jónasson does a good job of connecting the dots, but the plot is built on a rickety foundation. Would an experienced and successful guide like Ármann be so ill prepared? He creates a decent amount of suspense and horror and is great at conveying the menace of an Icelandic winter, but some readers will find what happens too hard to swallow. Hopefully, Jónasson will return to form next time. Agent: David Headley, DHH Literary (U.K.).

Starred review from March 1, 2022
Icelandic author Jonasson, known for the Dark Iceland and Hulda series, offers an intense stand-alone, taking to new heights his unrivaled skill for using winter as an unpredictable plot-twister. Daniel has returned to Iceland for a weekend trip with college friends Armann, Helena, and Gunnlaugur. Armann, the founder of a successful tourism company, has persuaded the group to forgo pub crawls in Reykjavik for a hunting trip in the remote west fjords. When they're overtaken by an unexpected winter tempest, survival depends on finding refuge in the area's emergency shelter. When they enter the locked shelter, however, they're met with a stranger silently staring from the corner as he points his gun at them. Their efforts to engage the stranger fail, and the friends' dormant strife begins to feed on the strange, high-stakes situation. As each of the friends narrates, a darker story of revenge, hidden crimes, and deadly impunity emerges. There is so much to like here: the complexity of the quartet's relationships, Jonasson's powerful, streamlined writing, and the parallels between an unforgiving setting and the characters' seething grudges. Readers will be drawn into Jonasson's forbidding Iceland landscape, where it's anyone's guess who will make it out alive.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from May 1, 2022

J�nasson (The Girl Who Died) is no stranger to Icelandic crime fiction fans, and this strong thriller stand-alone shines with the violent atmosphere of the country's brutal winters. Daniel, Armann, Gunnlaugur, and Helena, friends since college, gather for a reunion weekend to hike and hunt ptarmigan birds and to reconnect. They set off into the highlands only to encounter a violent winter storm that forces them into one of the emergency shelters that dot the haunting landscape. Unfortunately, the shelter that they find holds a gruesome discovery. Now they are faced with a horrible choice: either remain in the lodge with the horror or venture back out into the storm facing possible death. J�nasson marvelously ramps up the tension in this multiple viewpoint story and drops several excellent twists along the way. As the long night evolves, readers learn that the characters have several dark secrets and that their friendships might not be as solid as they seem. Someone wants revenge and will have that revenge at a deadly cost. VERDICT Perfect for readers who love winter-themed thrillers in the vein of Allie Reynolds's Shiver and Ruth Ware's One by One.--Bill Anderson

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.