One of Ian Rankin's favourite books of the year - 'An intelligent, provocative whodunit with a killer twist' ____________A body is found off the coast of Iceland.A young Russian woman, Elena, hoped to find a fresh start. Instead she found death.A cursory police investigation calls it suicide. Another statistic, she's soon forgotten . . .But not by Reykjavik Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdottir. Difficult and unconventional, Hulda is being forced into early retirement. Offered one last cold case to investigate she chooses Elena's. On discovering another woman has vanished, she believes a killer roams free.Her colleagues, however, think she's out to cause trouble. With days before she's stripped of her badge, can Hulda catch the killer alone?____________'The ending really took my breath away and that's hard for writers to do to me these days . . . It was a complete surprise and I should have seen it coming and I didn't. [Hulda] is a fantastic, complex 3D character and I want to see more of her, so hurray, this is the first of a three book series' Ian Rankin on Simon Mayo 'Superb . . . chilling . . . one of the greatest tragic heroines of contemporary detective fiction' Sunday Times 'Outstanding' Daily Mail'The perfect territory for mystery [writers]' New York Times'Expertly plotted, with an ending that's a true shocker' Guardian'Magnificently dark and twisted and that ending - blimey!' C. J. Tudor, bestselling author of The Chalk ManPick of the Paperbacks, Sunday Times'Outstanding series debut . . . builds to its stunning conclusion, one of the more remarkable in recent crime fiction' Publishers Weekly 'The Darkness melds an insightful character study with a solid plot for an outstanding novel' Washington Post