First of all, I read A LOT of mysteries. I’ve read almost the entire canon of Agatha Christie. Sherlock Holmes short stories, ditto. I taught And Then There Were None and The Hound of the Baskervilles for over fifteen years in middle school English, turning non-readers into readers, into mystery-loving Anglophiles. My Kindle library is riddled with contemporary mysteries set in France, Italy, Croatia, India, etc., as well as mysteries written recently but set in Edwardian England, Victorian England, Regency England, and more.
But, last night, I had the shock of a lifetime when I reached the last few pages of my most recent mystery, The Body in the Bath by Ragnar Jónasson.
To say it had a twist ending is a gross understatement. To say it caught me completely by surprise is really saying something, since mystery (not thriller) is my favorite genre of all. And, to tell you that I was reading it in my bathtub, well, let’s just go ahead and say, how ironic is that!
This is the third in Jónasson’s “Helgi series” and it is subtitled in some places online as Book 3 of 3. That just absolutely can’t be right. The last few paragraphs of The Body in the Bath are foreshadowing and laser-beam signaling a 4th book. This series’ original main plot just can’t be over based on the end of book 3.
Confession: I never read book 1, Death at the Sanatorium. When I was offered book 2, The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer, via NetGalley, I jumped at the chance to read my first book by an Icelandic author. I didn’t know it was book 2, but I soon figured out that I had missed something big and did some research. I said in my review of book 2 that I would go back and read book 1, but I never got around to it. I also said that the ending was abrupt…to which Jónasson said, “Hold my beer.”
And, now, I’ve read book 3, also offered to me via NetGalley, and whether it is 3 of 3 or if there is a book 4, I am definitely going back to read book 1, like right now. Not because I don’t know what book 1 set up, because that part is crystal clear, it’s because I simply am not done with Helgi. I just love this mystery-reading, smart, sensitive police detective.
The Body in the Bath is a very quick read coming in at 288 pages. It is dark and gloomy and denotes the loneliness that Helgi is feeling. It is Christmas season and he feels as though he can’t really face Christmas this year, certainly not face it alone, so he makes plans to be with his mother. But, something much worse than the grief for his recently deceased girlfriend Anita intervenes, and he is under suspicion for the death of his ex-girlfriend, Bergþóra. The evidence appears to be solid, and his fellow policemen are chomping at the bit to lock him up.
I’ll give you no spoilers. Just read it. And then report back and let me know if you were blindsided by the ending, or did you see it coming? (My husband does this to me ALL the time. We can’t watch a mystery together because he has it figured out before the first commercial.)
Author Ragnar Jónasson is prolific and well-known in his native country. An interesting note is that he started reading Agatha Christie novels in English when he was 13, and by the time he was 17, he was translating those same Christie novels into Icelandic to share with his countrymen. He cut his teeth on the very best and it certainly shows!
Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books, and of course, Ragnar Jónasson for the ARC ebook of this one, be it 3 of 3 or hopefully <fingers crossed> 3 of 4.
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