Arnaldur Indridason - the last three mystery novels in the Erlendur series

   Detective Erlendur is a morose, quiet, determined detective in Iceland.  Over the series of novels featuring him, we have learned about the blizzard when he was a child that he and his brother got lost in.  Erlendur comes home, his brother never does.  From Jar City through to Hypothermia, we have watched the slow uncovering of Erlendur's grief and how this event shaped him.  He is unable to connect with anyone, though he is able to function enough to have relationships for a time - long enough to be married and produce two children before divorce, and later eventually another love affair with a woman in the later novels.  He is not overtly depressed, he is chronically depressed and withdrawn.   Every so often, goes back east on his own to see if he can find out what happened to his brother.  My review of Hypothermia is here.

In the last three novels, something different happens.  At the end of Hypothermia, Erlendur sets out to discover what happened to a woman who disappeared in a town very close to where he grew up.  It was decades before the blizzard that trapped him and his brother.  Disappearances haunt Erlendur, so when he goes, he doesn't really leave any message behind. His detectives know this is normal for him, so they don't think much of it, though as the second week progresses, they start to get worried.
                                               

 Outrage is the next book in the series, taking place during the week after he has left.  One of his detectives, Detective Elinborg, handles this case in his absence.

Outrage is a story about a dead man found in a pool of blood, in his own apartment.  Clues suggest he had had a woman over shortly before his death.  Elinborg is handed the case when her co-worker Sigurdur Oli says he is working on another case, and can't help her.  In Outrage we get to see Iceland, and the detectives, and the case, through Elinborg's eyes.  I really enjoyed getting to know her, and her family: her husband who is quiet, her two sons, and her brilliant young daughter.  Near the end of the book Valgedur, the woman Erlendur is involved with, calls her to ask if she has heard from Erlendur.  It's been almost two weeks, and she is worried.  Elinborg tells her not to worry, but of course they both do.

The mystery itself is good, though a little convoluted.  The killer is not easily apparent, and it is only due to Elinborg's instincts that the real killer is uncovered.  The best part of the mystery is Elinborg herself, and her family.  She loves to cook, and has written a cookbook about desserts that is successful.  Her children are interesting, as is her marriage.  I'd like to know more about her!  So I ended up really enjoying the book as a whole.
                                                                  
Black Skies, the next book, features Sigurdur Oli, the other detective in the pair that work under Erlendur.  He is working on a big case when Elinborg is handed the rape and death case, so he is unable and mostly unwilling to help her. It takes place during the same two week time period Outrage does.  Sigurdur Oli is very ambitious, very aware of his appearance, and as we discover in Black Skies, somewhat crooked.  I say somewhat because he makes a mistake and spends much of the book praying it won't be uncovered, because he knows the people involved in the crime, and should have recused himself from solving it.  They are in important positions, banking etc, and don't want the police involved.  Of course it is much more complicated than that, and before too long, Sigurdur Oli realizes he is trapped, and has been set up.  He can't tell anyone, without revealing his complicity in the investigation.   It's an interesting portrayal of one of the main characters, and makes for gripping reading.  Sigurdur Oli also has a partner he has broken up with, who  he comes to realize he still loves, but it is too late for them.  Black Skies is about errors of judgement, and the policeman who makes some of the worst ones.  The other principal crime is a horrific story of a murder with a leather mask with a spike in the middle of it.  Why it happened, falls in Sigurdur Oli to solve, and the story of what happens to the main character of this investigation has direct links to what is about to happen to Erlendur in the final book in the series.  Again, in Black Skies, there are a few references to Erlendur's mysterious trip to the east Fjords and whatever he is investigating there.

As with Elinborg in the previous book, we discover more about Sigurdur Oli and what his history is.  His parents are divorced, and in the book he learns his father is dying of cancer.   Even though Sigurdur Oli is vain, and self-centered, he has an appealing quality - he is smart, and he does learn from his mistakes ,though he learns the very hard way.  I really enjoyed Black Skies, as dark as the crimes are, it is gritty and realistic as it portrays the betrayal of innocents and all the costs to society when it can't protect the most innocent.
                                                                         
The final book in the series, Strange Shores, was published late last fall.  It features Erlendur, during the two weeks that the previous books take place.  This is what Erlendur was doing out east......he goes out there ostensibly to uncover what happened to a woman in January 1942.  Supposedly Mattildur had set out to visit her family over the mountain pass....only a blizzard came up, and she never made it.  At the same time, a troop of British soldiers had gone out for a walk, and gotten lost on the same moors.  Not all of the soldiers survive, but the ones who do, claim they never met Mattildur, though they would have been walking during the same time and should have crossed paths.  This is Erlendur's cover story, even to himself, about why he is there.  Because the little village he is visiting, is close by his old family home, that his family left after a few years after the blizzard and his brother's death.  They can't bear the memories, and abandon the house and farm.

Throughout the book, each chapter opens with a little bit about a man who is losing consciousness.  Near the end, I realized it was Erlendur.  How, and why?  Strange Shores is about the grief left behind for the survivors, and about how losing his brother in the blizzard shaped Erlendur.  We discover the truth he has hidden from himself, that he blames himself for his brother's death.  His brother wouldn't have been there if not for Erlendur.......and his parents are so caught up in grief, that he is never able to tell them, and be relieved of his guilt. He comes to see that his whole life, this is why he can't connect with people, why he is a loner, and why he is drawn to solving mysteries.  He has always hoped his brother somehow survived, or would be found.  Strange Shores is heart-breaking in the end. Erlendur can't escape his past, either, and he finally realizes that he doesn't want to.  There is a deep melancholy in this book, as Erlendur after painstaking detective work uncovers what happens to Matthildur. This mystery novel examines the grief that people carry after losing someone they love, and what happens when the loss is compounded by the unknowable:  when the loved one disappears, how can anyone move on?  That mystery means the loss can never be closed, it lingers on as days, months, years pass, waiting to find out what happened, to have a resolution of some kind.  In the end, the resolution that Erlendur finds might not be to every reader's taste, and indeed he does something before the ending that shocked me so much that I put the book down and exclaimed, "no way!" out loud!  What he does is so shocking to me, though I realized this shows his slow unravelling as he faces the memories of that blizzard that he has buried deeply in himself.  I went back to the book, prepared for what I knew was going to come, and hoping anyway it wouldn't.  It is an ending that fits Erlendur and his character, and leaves me so sad for him.

This is a mystery series with a character not like anyone out there.  I love the setting, Iceland with its long dark hours and history that shapes the island and people making a living on it.  The darkness of human character, emphasized because of the long winters, and bleakness of much of the landscape.  Erlendur is unforgettable, and thanks to Black Skies and Outrage, his detectives are much more clearly delineated for me now.  I highly recommend the whole series to mystery readers. 

Interviews with Arnaldur Indridason:
Telegraph (UK)

Other reviews
 Outrage
Kerry at Mysteries in Paradise

Black Skies
Kerry at Mysteries in Paradise

Strange Shores
Crime Fiction Lover
Raidergirl3 at An Adventure in Reading

Last Rituals - an intriguing new Icelandic mystery series

Cath at Read-Warbler and I got together and decided to review a book that we were reading at the same time. This wouldn't be so surprising except that we live an ocean apart! I love how books cross time and space to join people together.

We both had picked up Last Rituals by Yrsa Sigurdardottir, the debut mystery of a series featuring Thora Gudmundsdottir, an attorney and single mother of two. To give you a little background, I'll copy from the back of the book, since I am awful at short storylines (I once failed a test at age 10! that asked me to write something in under 25 words. My teacher taught me the word 'verbosity', saying I suffered from it.)
"At a university in Reykjavik, the body of a young German student is discovered, his eyes cut out and strange symbols carved into his chest. Police waste no time in making an arrest, but the victim's family isn't convinced that the right man is in custody. They ask Thora Gudmunsdottir, an attorney and single mother of two, to investigate. It isn't long before Thora and her associate, Matthew Reich, uncover the deceased student's obsession with Iceland's grisly history of torture, execution, and witch hunts. But there are very contemporary horrors hidden in the long, cold shadow of dark traditions."

What this blurb doesn't say is that this is also a book about family - broken families, families with secrets, families where love isn't so easy to find. It also has more humour than I have encountered in the other Icelandic series I am reading, by Arnaldur Indridason - unexpected jokes the author makes through Thora about how Icelanders see their city, their streets, their driving, a sense of humour borne out of survival. I really liked Thora. The other thing the blurb doesn't say is that Matthew has good knowledge of the victim's family, and we aren't sure until near the end if he is Thora's friend, or monitoring the discoveries on the family's behalf.

I began the book review by asking the first question:
1. What made you pick this book up?

Susan: I read a review of Icelandic mystery writers somewhere (I can't find
out where now, the list I had turned out to be for Swedish crime writers)
and Yrsa Sigurdardottir's Last Rituals was on it. So when I saw Last Rituals
in the book store, I grabbed it. It's her first book, so it must have been a
review that I saw. Basically it's Icelandic, so I was interested!

Cath: I saw mention of it on Danielle's blog - A Work in Progress. I
previously had no idea that there *were* any Icelandic crime writers! Not
that I'd given the matter a great deal of thought because if I had I would
have realised that there had to be. Anyway, when I looked the book up I
decided I that I wanted to read it and found it quite easily in the library.
Result!

Me again:
2. Do you read many books that are translated (ie written first in a foreign
language)?

Susan: Yes. Well, I should categorize that - I really read mysteries that
are translated. From Iceland - Arnuldur Indridason, from Sweden - Henning
Mankell, Asa Larsson, Ake Edwardson, and new to me Karin Fossum and Steig
Larsson, and from France - Fred Vargas.

Cath: Before Last Rituals, no. Since then, by some odd coincidence, I've
read three! Grey Souls by Philippe Claudel and the first two Inspector
Montalbano books by Andrea Camilleri. Oddly enough they're all crime books,
although Grey Souls is slightly more than that. I clearly have an interest
in crime stories set overseas.

Another question from me:
3. What do you enjoy most about foreign language books?

Susan: I love the different view we get of other countries. Even when the
syntax of the English is a little bit strange - a direct translation, not
always idiomatic translation - I am fascinated by what that shows about the
writer and language, and I wish I could read in the original language.
Because Sweden and Canada share long cold dark winters, their gloom is
similar to Canada's bleak view and nature landscape that fills most of our
writing. Pine trees, cold winter nights, below freezing temperatures, broken
by short, searing summers when no one wants to sleep because it's light out.
I really enjoy seeing the world through another's eyes - it is sometimes
disconcerting, true, but I find it refreshing too. I also enjoy seeing how
people are characterized, what is similar about police procedurals,
investigating crime, and how similar people are no matter where they are in
the world. I also learn alot about places this way, not as a travel
guide, but as how the cities and streets are written about.

Cath: That's a difficult question because I'm not sure I've read enough to
judge properly. I *think* it's the glimpses of cultures that are quite
unlike your own. The Inspector Montalbano books, for instance, are set in
Sicily, where, if the books are anything to go by, there is a culture of
corruption and crime which impinges on the lives of everyone who lives
there. Whether this is a serious worry in the lives of normal people, I
don't know. Reading books like these tends to create certain questions in my
mind which I then search for the answers to. So the answer to the question
is probably that foreign language books broaden the mind and make me want
to read many more books from overseas - but not necessarily translated ones or, necessarily, of the crime genre. For me I think it's almost a secondary way of indulging in armchair travel.

Cathy finally got a turn! She asked:
4. Is there something about Iceland that particularly fascinates you?

Susan: I'm not sure. I became fascinated when I lived in England, and it
became a weekend getaway for the English - just a short plane ride away, and
very cheap! All of a sudden, I wanted to see the geysers, the volcanic
earth, and Reykjavik, and I have never lost the desire to go see. I think I
am fascinated by how this culture developed so far away from the rest of the
world, and what it's like that far north and still have a culture, a capital
city.

Cath: Yes but I'm not sure when my interest began. It could have been when I
read Avalon by Anya Seton... *many* years ago. The heroine (I can't even
remember her name) is captured by Vikings and taken to Iceland and I found
myself fascinated by the landscape and the history. I'd love to go there to
see the bleak volcanic landscapes for myself - geologically speaking I think
it's the youngest country in the world and that's an amazing concept to take
in, the fact that it's still growing and changing. One of these days I
*will* go.

Cath's next question was:
5. Have you read any other Icelandic authors?

Susan: Yes. Arnuldur Indridason is one of my favourite mystery writers! I
love Erlendur's sense of justice no matter how long it has taken, his
struggles as a father and divorced husband, and the cases he gets are
interesting. There is room for a lot of darkness in the human heart, and
pathos and tragedy. Against this are the police, some of whom are funny,
some bitter or mean, set against Erlendur and is determination to pursue a
case until answers are found.
I was so happy when I saw there was another Icelandic author writing
mysteries! So I was always going to read Last Rituals.

Cath: The simple answer to this is 'no'. To my shame I've always been completely unaware of Icelandic authors. But I do now have one other on my tbr mountain - Tainted Blood by Arnaldur Indridason, which I'm really looking forward to reading.

Cath's third question was:

6. As a working mother, did you find Thora's problems with mixing her
home-life and work true to life?

Susan: Yes! and it really added to the character, that she was juggling
both, and that her kids were moody and didn't always want to go with their
father. Very true to life.

Cath: Judging by my daughter's problems as a single mother it did seem to me
to be quite true to life. I liked that aspect of it too, as crime writers
usually focus on male policemen, it seems to me, and it was refreshing to
have a glimpse of life from a female perspective. It made me think about
reading other crime novels where the main 'investigator' is female. Ones
that spring to mind are the Kate Martinelli series by Laurie R. King and
P.D. James's Cordelia Gray books - but there must surely be a lot more?

I then asked two extra questions:

7. Did you enjoy the mystery? What was a strength and a weakness?

Susan: Yes, I enjoyed the mystery very much. I didn't guess who the killer
was until near the end, and then I couldn't figure out how it was done.
One streggth were the characters - they were all well-drawn, from Thora, to
her associate Matthew Reich, to the various suspects - I had no difficulties
telling anyone apart, or remembering who was who. I enjoyed the various
viewpoints as well, which added to the mystery, without revealing too much.
One weakness was the discovery of some key evidence - wouldn't the person
involved who hid it, have tried to retrieve it? It would have been more
interesting if the house had been broken into and the area searched, then to
have it accidentally discovered. That wasn't quite believable. All this time
and the person never noticed it.....

Cath:

Yes I did enjoy the mystery. Like Susan. I was close to the end before it dawned on me who the killer was. One strength of the book, for me, was how well the author concealed that. I thought that was very nicely done.

No real weaknesses jumped out at me, but of the book in general I could say that at times the translation was slightly simplistic. But that's real nit-picking and not something terrible; possibly it's symptomatic of many translations as I noticed it in the Andrea Camilleri books too. But in neither case was it enough to put me off.

And my final question:

Bonus question: Would you recommend the book to be read?

Susan: Yes! 4.7/5!!!

Cath: Yes, I most certainly would! It's a skillful crime story with an unusual setting and well worth anyone's time and trouble.

Cath asked her two final questions:

Bonus Question 1: Did you find the rather macabre background to this story - the manner of the student's death and so on - at all off putting?

Cath: I suppose I should have done, after all he fell out of the cupboard onto a tutor with his eyes gouged out and some weird markings on him and from then on there were some startling revelations about his interest in witchcraft and odd sexual practises. But the truth is I didn't find it off putting at all. I suppose I like reading books that deal with off the wall subjects and, it has to be said, that Yrsa Sigudardottir deals with these matters in a way that doesn't go into *really* gory detail. She states what happens in quite a matter of fact way and that's fine by me. If the details had been dealt with in the manner of say, a real horror story, then my reaction would doubtless have been different as I don't deal with blood and gore at all well.

Susan: Like Cath, I should have - some the sexual practices and how witchcraft was portrayed was gruesome, but the author deals with it matter-of-factly - this is what the victim was interested in - and like Cath says, the gory parts are NOT dwelled on. This is a crime novel with some horror aspects, which I found made it more intriguing. I do wish though that some good witchcraft would be portrayed for once. I get tired of it always being portrayed as leading to a bad end, when for the most part, the religion is about living in the world in a responsible way. Other than that, I found the macabre aspects very well done.

Bonus question 2: Are you planning to read book 2 in the Thora Gudmundsdottir 'My Soul to Take'?

Cath: Yes, I am. I'm keen to see what the author will come up with next in the way of a crime plot but also to see how her relationship with Matthew matures and how a certain occurrence within her family pans out. Hopefully it'll be a nice long series.

Susan: Oh yes! Please let it be out soon, because it looked very interesting - involves a haunted hotel......definitely an area of interest for me (hauntings, ghosts). Plus, as Cath said, there is that family angle that is very interesting too. I did enjoy her children, and the ex, and the partnership with the other lawyer, very much. Definitely a series to keep reading.
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This was fun to do with Cath! I really enjoy sharing reading experiences with a blogging friend, and then sharing with you how we found the book. I enjoy reading other bloggers when they do the same thing. I love seeing what people liked in a book, what they possibly didn't, and also the give-and-take as they/we make up the combined review style. I hope you enjoyed this too, and possibly brought a good mystery to your attention!

RIP IV news:
Now, onto some very good news: Carl has announced that we should check out his blog tomorrow!!! YES, THAT MEANS RIP4!!!!

I just checked for the link, and IT"S UP NOW! Link Here, it's here, it's here, RIPIV is here!!!
Oh yes, it's time for ghost stories and monsters and things that make my blood run cold! Hurray!!!!

And I was just on-line to my library last night, requesting some books for the challenge. See you at the challenge site! As Deslily keeps saying, let's hope Mr Linky works this time.....

***Added after initial posting: funny, isn't it? Because of Cath, I now have a new book to get: Grey Souls by Philippe Claudel sounds so interesting. And I just saw on Amazon.ca that the new book - the sequel to Last Rituals - by Yrsa Sigurdardottir, My Soul to Take, is out in hardcover. I love it when there are lovely, lovely new books to look forward to reading!!!

Tainted Blood - Arnaldur Indridason

Tainted Blood by Arnaldur Indridason is the first book in the Icelandic mystery series featuring Detective Erlendur. I first encountered Erlendur when I read Silence of the Grave last year. It's the second book in the series, but all I could find at the time. I can't say enough good about this series, since I have been hooked since Silence of the Grave. I am so pleased that Tainted Blood is as good.


The book starts off quietly, with the discovery of a body in a basement apartment. After that, the mystery slowly builds as Erlendur and his team try to discover why the old man was killed. Erlendur is fascinating. He is an older detective, with a failed marriage behind him and lost touch with his children when they were little. One child has gotten in touch with him when the book opens. She is almost a failure, exactly like he is, personally, and like him, is very intelligent. It's not that Erlendur is a social outcast, far from it. He is part of the new breed of detectives in current mysteries, where their desire to solve a mystery takes them to places that precludes being able to sustain deep relationships. It's like looking into the human heart affects people, as it surely must: " You think it won't affect you. You reckon you're strong enough to withstand that sort of thing. You think you can put on armour against it over the years and can watch all the filth from a distance as if it's none of your business, and try to keep your senses. But there isn't any distance. And there's no armour. No-one's strong enough. The repulsion haunts you like an evil spirit that burrows into your mind and doesn't leave you in peace until you believe that the filth is life itself because you've forgotten how ordinary people live. This case is like that. Like an evil spirit that's been unleashed to run riot in your mind and ends up leaving you crippled."
This is the longest speech in the book by Erlundur. When I read it, it got me thinking about how mysteries and detectives have changed from the beginning of the twentieth century to recent times. Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett had heroes who were single, who commented on life because they were outside of it. They could go where no one else who was 'ordinary' could go. Investigating mysteries - crime - assaults on people - meant that you couldn't engage in ordinary life after. For a very long time this continued through detective series and mysteries, although there were exceptions - Tommy and Tuppence Beresford from Agatha Christie, Nick and Nora Charles by the same Dashiell Hammett - which were foils to the theory, but because they were a team, the sense of loneliness was not part of their story as it is when the detective is single.

I admire both kinds of detective series - Tommy and Tuppence are part of two of my favourite Agatha Chirtie novels, N or M, and By the Pricking of my Thumbs, but I have a particular preference for the plumbing of the human heart, for the sense of righting a wrong that restores some sense of justice in the world. The single detective in particular stands for morality, and Erlendur is Iceland's contribution to this form of detective story. Even though he has a failed marriage, he does get along with his team - although when we finally meet his boss, it is hilarious how he undercuts him, so Erlendur is no pushover or hierarchical, by-the-books detective either. There is a great deal of intuition, that essential key to great detective work. There is also what I think is part of the Iceland character, the inheritance from the old Icelandic sagas, the idea of fate and gloom. How could a people live in darkness, and snow, for much of the year, and not be somewhat morose and gloomy? I like Erlendur. He is quiet, forceful, persistent, and human. I enjoy how he solves mysteries, with doggedness, and the desire to discover why. There are no car chase scenes, no mobsters, no city in peril here. Just a quiet mystery involving a man who turns out to be much worse, a monster, and the crime committed years ago still ripples through lives in the current day, as crimes do. These are contemplative books on human life, not shying away from the twists in human nature, and I am becoming a very big fan of this series. I have gone out and bought the next two (after Silence of the Grave) that have been translated, to read in the new year as my challenges end.

This is also part of my Orbis Terrarum challenge, so I've now read 5 books in this challenge.

You might think this is not a big change from reading horror, but for me it is. I was thinking over this week why it was, and the conclusion I've come to is that horror often is unresolved, whereas in most mystery books, there is a resolution, a restoring of justice, peace, the balance.

Next up: back to RIP3, and The House of Dr Dee by Peter Ackroyd.