When a deadly snowstorm strikes the Icelandic highlands, four friends seek shelter in a small, abandoned hunting lodge. From the author of "The Girl Who Died".
Jónasson inspires fast page turns via quick cuts among the four characters as they reflect on the past (so many secrets!) and frantically strategize about the present. Mini cliffhangers keep the story humming along ... Spare prose and brisk pacing make for an immersive read that's less about the individual characters and more about what they become when they're forced together, no longer able to dissemble or hide. Will they work together to save themselves before it's too late? Can they? Outside is an intriguing study of isolation, claustrophobia and the particular menace to be found in beautiful yet unforgiving terrain.
Jonasson is carving his own powerful groove in Nordic noir ... As the story unfolds, it becomes harder and harder to like or sympathise with any of the characters. What’s more, they don’t even like each other – to the point where you’ll wonder why any of them went on this trip...Their interactions and the revelations about the characters are interesting, but there’s nobody here to root for or empathise with. They are a reflection of the cold, unforgiving landscape – treacherous, even – and there’s no spark of warmth among them ... Psychological thrillers like Outside rely on the drip feed of information from the characters’ narrator to the reader. The author is always going to withhold certain facts so that the story makes an impact in the right places. While the plotting is great, certain key relationships between the characters, which they all know about, are kept back until late in the story. There’s a certain point where you may feel a bit cheated because some basic facts, which explain a lot, only come out late in the story ... The atmosphere is perfectly chilling, the set-up is intriguing and Outside has a strong plot ... The tight, intense scenario gives Ragnar Jonasson’s curveballs added power. The action, when it comes, is brutal and unexpected. It’s also fantastic that this author is willing to branch out and try new things. As with The Girl in Who Died, he gets well away from detective fiction and takes us a lot deeper into the heads of his characters. Outside has a bit of a Patricia Highsmith quality to it. The hurts, insecurities and fears the characters feel drive their actions. I just wanted more to like about them, or one of them at least.
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 ... 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.
