This is an excellent follow-up of Indridason's Jar City as he returns to the theme of buried pain, with the action centering on the discovery of a human bone at a construction site near Reykjavik. Inspector Erlendur Sveinnson is on the case, but the trail, which leads back to World War II, has gone very cold indeed. Erlendur has a very personal reason for his abiding interest in missing persons, and that--combined with the fact that his drug-abusing daughter is in the hospital in a coma--opens the door for plenty of backstory regarding the detective's troubled history. With a narrative that jumps between the 1940s and the present--without giving away whodunit--the novel generates a sort of emotional claustrophobia, its characters trapped in a world where the pain of the past, though often submerged, is always with us.
Disappointing, especially since I had enjoyed two other books in the series so much.
Still good for local colour, and the sad, prickly character of Detective Erlundur. But it lost a crucial star for me because the mystery of the skeleton on the building site seems forced, and artificially strung out to generate suspense. Some of the detectives' behaviour went beyond dumb, to being cruel and unprofessional. The solution to the mystery, when it comes, is disappointing.
Warning: flashback scenes involve truly upsetting, and relentless, domestic violence. Between that, and the fact that Erlundur's estranged daughter spends most of the book in a coma, and that prompts him to recall his failings as a father that led to their estrangement (and her self-destructive behaviours, probably), this book isn't going to leave you full of the joys of spring ...
Still good for local colour, and the sad, prickly character of Detective Erlundur. But it lost a crucial star for me because the mystery of the skeleton on the building site seems forced, and artificially strung out to generate suspense. Some of the detectives' behaviour went beyond dumb, to being cruel and unprofessional. The solution to the mystery, when it comes, is disappointing.
Warning: flashback scenes involve truly upsetting, and relentless, domestic violence. Between that, and the fact that Erlundur's estranged daughter spends most of the book in a coma, and that prompts him to recall his failings as a father that led to their estrangement (and her self-destructive behaviours, probably), this book isn't going to leave you full of the joys of spring ...
This is a great series. The stories are gritty, and life is certainly tough, but the characters are tough. Each new book sees the characters change and grow. There's no telling how the story will end.
Vivian Q. (bellasgranny) -
Second book in the series. I read it on the heels of Jar City. I'm really enjoying this series and have ordered Hypothermia, the last book to be translated. Solid, well written and translated police procedural set in Iceland. Highly recommend.
