The Shadow Killer by Arnaldur Indriðason

March 6, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – Kindle edition. Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb. Minotaur Books, 2018. Originally published 2016. 304 pgs. Library copy.  Amid the American and British occupation of Iceland in 1941, a man is founded murdered in a small apartment in Reykjavík – a swastika drawn across the victim’s forehead with his own blood. When the murder weapon is determined to an American-issued service pistol, a Canadian-Icelandic military officer by the name of Thorson is loaned out to the Icelandic […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Iceland, Icelandic, Translated • Tags: Arnaldur Indriðason

The Shadow District by Arnaldur Indriðason

December 28, 2018 by Christina

Fiction — Kindle edition. Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb. Minotaur Books, 2017. Originally published 2013. 304 pgs. Library copy. During the 1940s, when Reykjavik served as a staging ground for the American military invasion of Europe, a young woman is founded murdered behind the National Theater. The area around the theater is known as the “Shadow District”, and the devious behavior conducted there often occurs without punishment. But this murder — and the American serviceman seen fleeing from the […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Iceland, Icelandic, Translated • Tags: Arnaldur Indriðason

Reykjavik Nights by Arnaldur Indriðason

September 27, 2018 by Christina

Fiction — Kindle edition. Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb. Minotaur Books, 2015. Originally published 2012. 336  pgs. Library copy. Erlendur Sveinsson is a new patrolman working in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik. Primarily assigned to the night shift, Erlendur’s police duties are largely constrained to arresting drunk drivers, corralling the city’s homeless population, and ticketing traffic violations. During one night shift, Erlendur crossed paths with a homeless man named Hannibal. The interaction was brief; Hannibal had been discovered living […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Iceland, Icelandic, Translated • Tags: Arnaldur Indriðason

Into Oblivion by Arnaldur Indriðason

September 9, 2018 by Christina

Fiction — Kindle edition. Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb. Minotaur Books, 2016. Originally published 2014. 352 pgs. Library copy. In 1979, Erlendur is divorced, estranged from his young daughter, and working as a detective based out of Reykjavik. Like most of Iceland, he and his work partner, Marion Briem, are split on the presence of the American military at Keflavík. Icelanders have been told the Americans are needed; that the small, island nation would be at risk from the […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Iceland, Icelandic, Translated • Tags: Arnaldur Indriðason

Voices by Arnaldur Indriðason

November 24, 2015 by Christina

Fiction — print. Translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder. Minotaur, 2007. Originally published 2002. 313 pgs. Library copy. Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson is called to one of the grand hotels in Reykjavik to investigate the murder of the hotel’s Santa/handyman/doorman named Gulli, who was found dead in his basement apartment with his pants around his ankles. The hotel staff insists the old man was an unwanted addition to their ranks – a washed out doorman who was to be fired at […]

Categories: 2015 Reads, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Iceland, Icelandic, Translated • Tags: Arnaldur Indriðason

Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indriðason

December 26, 2014 by Christina

Fiction — print. Translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder. Picador, 2005. Originally published 2002. 293 pgs. Library copy. On the outskirts of Reykjavík, a human skeleton is discovered half-buried — the victim’s hand outstretched towards red current bushes — in a shallow grave near the former barracks of American and British military personnel during World War II after an infant is spotted chewing on a human rib bone. An archeologist is called to exhume the body; the soil at the […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Glass Key Award, Iceland, Icelandic, Translated • Tags: Arnaldur Indriðason

The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indriðason

December 21, 2014 by Christina

Fiction — print. Translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder. Minotaur, 2008. Originally published 2004. 312 pgs. Library copy. Since a 2000 earthquake opened cracks in the lakebed, Lake Kleifarvatn has lost nearly twenty percent of its surface revealing trash, remnants, and a skeleton dating from the Cold War of the 1960s with a large hole in the skull. Attached to the skeleton is a heavy communication device – possibly a radio transmitter – bearing inscriptions in Russian, and Inspectors Erlendur, […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Iceland, Icelandic, Translated • Tags: Arnaldur Indriðason

Arctic Chill by Arnaldur Indriðason

December 3, 2014 by Christina

Fiction — print. Translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder and Victoria Crib. Harvill Secker, 2008. Originally published 2005. 344 pgs. Library copy. The Reykjavik police, including Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson, are called to a low-income apartment complex to investigate the death of a young boy. Because the young boy does not appear Icelandic, Erlendur and his coworkers, Sigurdur Oli and Elinborg, presume Elias is the victim of a race-based hate crime and turn their attention to the gangs of teenagers that […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Iceland, Icelandic, Translated • Tags: Arnaldur Indriðason

Hypothermia by Arnaldur Indriðason

November 20, 2014 by Christina

Fiction — print. Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb. Minotaur, 2010. Originally published 2007. 314 pgs. Library copy. The eighth novel in Indriðason series follows Inspector Erlendur as he attempts to solve the suicide of a woman who was haunted by the loss of her beloved mother. The case is technically closed but her best friend, who found the woman at her house along the shores of Lake Thingvellir, is convinced that María would not have killed herself despite […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Iceland, Icelandic, Translated • Tags: Arnaldur Indriðason

Jar City by Arnaldur Indriðason

October 23, 2014 by Christina

Fiction — print. Translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder. Thomas Dunne, 2004. Originally published 2000. 275 pgs. Library copy. Inspector Erlendur is called to Reykjavík to follow-up on the only clues in the murder investigation of an single, elderly man named Holberg — a cryptic note left by the killer saying “I am HIM” and a photograph of a young girl’s grave from the 1960s. In the course of his investigation, Erlendur learns the man was accused — yet not convicted — […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Glass Key Award, Iceland, Icelandic, Translated • Tags: Arnaldur Indriðason