Skip content
Give audiobooks, support local bookstores! Start gifting
Outside by Ragnar Jónasson
  Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account
Illustration of person sitting

Shop small, give big!

With credit bundles, you choose the number of credits and your recipient picks their audiobooks—all in support of local bookstores.

Start gifting
Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks!

Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Sign up today

Outside

The heart-pounding new mystery soon to be a major motion picture
Due to publisher restrictions, this audiobook is unavailable for purchase in your selected country.
Length 5 hours 18 minutes
Language English
Narrators Eleanor Jackson, Reice Weathers, Gil Sullivan & Jamie Maclachlan

This audiobook uses AI narration.

We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.

Learn more
  Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account

Brought to you by Penguin.

Four friends. One night. Not everyone will come out alive . . .

Pre-order the gripping new stand-alone mystery from 'world-class crime writer' Ragnar Jónasson

In a deadly Icelandic snowstorm, four friends seek shelter in an abandoned hunting lodge. Miles from help, and knowing they will die out in the cold, they break in, hoping to wait out the storm until morning.

But nothing can prepare them for what's inside . . .

With no other option, they are forced to spend a long and terrifying night in the cabin: watching as intently and silently as they themselves are being watched.

As the night darkens, old secrets spill into the light, and tensions rise between the four friends. Soon it's clear that what they've discovered in the cabin is far from the only mystery lurking there.

Nor the only thing to be afraid of . . .

Praise for Ragnar Jónasson

'Is this the best crime writer in the world today?' The Times

'An intensely gripping mystery, Ragnar Jonasson is a poet of the "dark, wet and cold", of the "gloom, cold and rain". The climactic revelations are credible and moving' The Times

'Invigorating Iceland-set slice of Nordic Noir' Daily Mail

'A mist-shrouded blend of horror and psychological thriller . . . works in every way' Booklist

© Ragnar Jónasson 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Ragnar Jónasson is an international number one bestselling author who has sold five million books in thirty-six countries worldwide. He was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, where he also teaches copyright law at university, and is the co-chair of the Iceland Noir literature festival. He has previously worked on radio and television and, from the age of seventeen, has translated fourteen of Agatha Christie’s novels. He has won multiple awards for his crime fiction internationally, as well as a special jury recognition in Iceland for his poetry. His critically acclaimed international bestseller The Darkness is coming to TV screens, starring Lena Olin, Jack Bannon and Douglas Henshall, and Ridley Scott will be producing Outside as a feature film.

Illustration of person sitting

Shop small, give big!

With credit bundles, you choose the number of credits and your recipient picks their audiobooks—all in support of local bookstores.

Start gifting
Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks!

Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Sign up today

Reviews

His best yet . . . Having read all of Jonasson's previous offerings. Outside confirms that here is an author at the top of his game, with complete command of his audience Yet another humdinger from Iceland's finest crime writer Jónasson's spare prose and brisk pacing make for an immersive read . . . Outside is an intriguing study of isolation, claustrophobia and the particular menace to be found in beautiful yet unforgiving terrain Jonasson is a master at exploring the impact of claustrophobia brought on by darkness and enclosed spaces. He an avid fan of Agatha Christie, and Outside is an adaptation, with an Icelandic twist, of the classic locked-door mystery Jonasson is a master at two aspects of Icelandic noir: one is the description of his country's withering weather; the other is the handling of murderous plots that are tangled beyond all expectations. He's in top form in both specialties this time out Lord of the Flies for grown-ups Jonasson offers an intense standalone, taking to new heights his unrivalled 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 Entertaining, suspenseful and twisty. Overall, highly recommended for fans of Ragnar Jonasson and suspense thrillers in general Chilling thriller by the king of Icelandic noir . . . so gripping I can't put it down A shivery delight Jonasson is a connoisseur of 'unrelenting darkness'; the atmosphere of paranoid claustrophobia [Jonasson] creates is so intense you can't help gripping the book as tightly as possible Entertaining, suspenseful and twisty. Highly recommended for fans of Ragnar Jonasson and suspense thrillers in general Praise for Ragnar Jónasson Jónasson is an automatic must-read for me . . . possibly the best Scandi writer working today

Triumphant . . . Chilling, creepy, perceptive, almost unbearably tense

Dark, chilling and utterly gripping Such a tense, gripping read A world-class crime writer. One of the most astonishing plots of modern crime fiction. A master of the Icelandic thriller. Is this the best crime writer in the world today? . . . He's truly a master of his genre Invigorating Iceland-set slice of Nordic Noir Fiendishy clever Triumphant conclusion to the trilogy. Only Ragnar Jónasson has rendered hindsight so heartbreaking It is nothing less than a landmark in modern crime fiction The red hot crime writer from the frozen north . . . One of the most important voices on the international crime scene Ragnar Jonasson has a gift for crafting clever whodunnits while conveying the intimidating beauty of his native Iceland Jónasson has the full measure of the Nordic noir genre, and pushes all the buttons Expertly Plotted Chillingly terrifying, brilliantly entertaining, captivating the reader from page one. Impossible to put down The author describes the difficult conditions of the four main characters in such a brilliant way that in an instant the reader finds himself in unfamiliar surroundings which neither the reader nor the characters can control A superb page-turner, Outside breathes fresh and unsettling life into the classic locked room mystery Raw with cold and rich in atmosphere, Outside is an Arctic Inspector Calls for a new generation A stunningly original take on the looked-room mystery, where fear of a treacherous snowstorm outside an isolated hut is matched by mistrust among the terrified occupants. Tense. Very tense Four friends find safety from a snowstorm in a remote Icelandic hut - or so they think. Jónasson's twisting, elegantly crafted story will keep you hooked till the very last page Ragnar Jónasson is so skilled in depicting the environment where the story takes place, it becomes one of the characters. It is so atmospheric, I am immediately transported to the Icelandic moors, feeling the cold all the way to the bones. I read with bated breath, my heart pounding with the looming knowledge that soon something bad is about to happen It takes a truly talented writer to work with a thin outline like that and turn it into a classic, and that is exactly what Jónasson has done here. I believe he has penned the Icelandic version of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs Jonasson and translator Victoria Cribb do a fine job of setting the scene, developing the characters, and keeping readers in suspense with a tight, clean, noir prose style From the winner of THE BEST CRIME NOVEL IN THE LAST 50 YEARS Expand reviews
Give audiobooks, support local bookstores! Start gifting