Hardback: Every Icelander knows about the Gudmundur and Geirfinnur disappearances.
In 1974, in two seemingly unconnected incidents, two men vanished into thin air.
Then, out of it, came six murder confessions and six convictions.
Yet, in the decades that followed, these too would evaporate.
Anthony Adeane tells the stranger-than-fiction true crime story that has dogged Iceland for forty-five years. In doing so, he provides a comprehensive account of the case, paints a fascinating picture of the country - covering its history, landscape, law, media, domestic politics and geopolitical importance - while placing the increasingly bizarre developments in the contexts that shaped each decade: from the effects of World War Two, to the Cod Wars and Cold War, the 2008 economic crash and beyond.
Using unprecedented access, and fuelled by a personal obsession with the case, he uncovers the mistakes that were made, the lives that were ruined, the questions that remain unanswered, and the headlines that continue to be printed.
Out Of Thin Air (2018) is at once the shocking story of a miscarriage of justice, a brilliant portrait of a society through the lens of a tragedy, and a compelling true crime narrative.
About the author: Anthony Adeane is a journalist based in London. He pitched the idea for a documentary about the Gudmundur and Geirfinnur disappearances to an independent production company in autumn 2014 and then worked with them over the next three years, travelling back and forth to Iceland to conduct interviews with those involved, and to learn more about this fascinating country.
He has since built up a vast network of contacts, including the main suspects, the police who first investigated the disappearances, and the journalists who made their names with this story.
When he is not writing about bizarre Icelandic disappearances, he can be found working at the BBC as a current affairs producer.
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