Ragnar Jonasson

Tips and Resources From Your Ragnar Jonasson Book Club Friends:

Ragnar Jónasson began his career in crime fiction by translating Agatha Christie books, something he said helped him with writing his own work. He told France 24 News that he began reading Christie mysteries as a boy. Her books were the first crime novels and first English books that he read. “When I was 17, I had this crazy idea that I could actually translate one book, and I had my mother drive me to the publisher of Agatha Christie in Iceland and ask them, you know, would you let me, a teenager, translate a book and incredibly, they said yes. And so I did that for more than 10 years. So that was my hobby when I was in school and when I was working before I started writing my own books. And translating Agatha Christie really gives you a sense for the structure of a crime novel.”

His Dark Iceland series, featuring Ari Thor, became a breakaway success and has been translated into 38 languages. He also has co-written a bestselling crime novel with longtime friend and fellow Agatha Christie fan, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Iceland’s Prime Minister.