Death at the Sanatorium

by Ragnar Jónasson · 2024

High in the stark Icelandic mountains, the abandoned Akureyri Sanatorium still echoes with the ghosts of its tuberculosis‑treatment days. Only one wing remains staffed—a caretaker, two doctors, two nurses, and a young research assistant—who cling to the building’s bleak corridors to conduct research. When nurse Yrsa is found brutally murdered, five suspects emerge, but the case is hastily closed after the chief physician’s suspicious death, leaving the truth buried for two decades. Years later, idealistic criminology graduate Helgi Reykdal returns from the UK, drawn by his fascination with golden‑age detective tales and a thesis on the unsolved 1983 killings. Determined to confront the lingering secrets of the sanatorium, Helgi reopens the cold case, confronting old grudges, hidden motives, and the lingering chill of a place that refuses to let its past die.