A Gripping Icelandic Mystery

Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason

This is the first book in Arnaldur Indridason’s acclaimed Inspector Erlendur series. You may remember how much I enjoyed Ragnar Jonasson’s Icelandic crime novel Snow Blind (you can read my review here). After I posted my review of Snow Blind, one commenter recommended I check out Indridason’s books. I’m glad she did, because the book was excellent. In fact, at the time of this writing, I’m almost done with the second novel in the series.

In Jar City, the reader meets Inspector Erlendur of the Reykjavik police department after he is called to a dingy basement flat to investigate the death of its only occupant, an old man by the name of Holberg. Two young boys living in a flat above Holberg discovered the body. Holberg died from a head injury inflicted by a heavy ashtray; there is no clue to the identity of the killer except a note found with the body. The note states merely, “I am him.” Hidden under a desk drawer in the flat is a photograph of a gravestone. There is no indication where the grave might be or who is buried beneath it.

What follows is a riveting story of Erlendur’s quest to find out everything he can about Holberg’s past, why someone would have wanted to kill him, and who that person might have been. Erlendur and his team of two other detectives discover Holberg, who was a lorry driver at the time of his death, hides a chilling and violent history. A long-ago associate of Holberg’s has also been missing for years, and Erlendur believes he knows where that person might be. Holberg’s death, the missing associate, and the photograph of the grave are all somehow connected, but the detectives struggle to obtain answers from witnesses and victims who are reticent to talk.

Erlendur’s attempts to solve the murder are interspersed with accounts of his life outside the police station, which is also quite bleak. He is a loner, a divorced man in middle age who left his wife and children when the children were very small. He has a tempestuous relationship with his adult daughter, who, like her brother, is drug-addled and scarred from Erlendur’s abandonment.

Geographically, Iceland is not technically part of Scandinavia (which includes Denmark, Sweden, and Norway). Culturally, however, Iceland (along with Finland and the Faroe Islands) is often considered part of the Scandinavian region. This may explain why Icelandic fiction is so similar to Scandinavian fiction. Consistently recurring themes mirror the weather: dark, bleak, and chilling. This is a highly atmospheric book that takes Erlendur and the reader from the docks of Reykjavik to Iceland’s Genetic Research Centre to the opulent home of a well-known researcher.

The author’s prose is direct and sparse in a way that lends a layer of authenticity and depth to the motif of darkness and gloom. If the prose were flowery or verbose, the reader would find it jarring and incongruous.

Please note: this book is not for everyone. It is gritty and fierce. It covers subjects including rape, graphic murder, and childhood disease and death. There is plenty of foul language.

I do recommend the book to anyone who likes a disquieting, atmospheric mystery that doesn’t hold back when it comes to difficult topics. I listened to the audiobook version of the story and I couldn’t imagine a better narrator than George Guidall.

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From time to time I share with my readers news of my friends’ releases and sales. For the most part, I haven’t yet read the books. If I have, I’ll be sure to tell you.

This week my friend CeeCee James has a new book out. The Curious Case of Emily Lickenson is the first book in the Emily Lickenson Cozy Mystery Series and you can grab a copy for 99¢. Click the link below to read more.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQD2F2LP

P.S. It was Murder

The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths

The Postscript Murders, Book 2 in the Harbinder Kaur mystery series, is not only a great whodunit, but the author’s love letter to books.

Harbinder Kaur is an officer with the West Sussex police department, and she’s got a doozy of a murder investigation on her hands. Peggy Smith, an elderly woman with a penchant for thinking up ways to kill people, has been instrumental in helping a number of authors craft unique ways to murder characters in their books. Those authors, grateful for her assistance, have dedicated books to her and thanked her countless times in back-of-the-book acknowledgements.

But now Peggy is dead, and the question is this: was hers a natural death, or was it murder? When her demise is followed rather quickly by the deaths of authors who have used her “murder consultant” services, signs begin to point toward murder.

Harbinder is drawn into the mystery when a trio of Peggy’s friends reach out to her with their suspicions about Peggy’s demise. Natalka, Peggy’s nurse, found Peggy’s body. Her friends Benedict, a former monk who owns a seaside coffee shop, and Edwin, a retired BBC radio presenter who lives in the same sheltered living facility as Peggy, are convinced that Peggy did not die by natural means and they are determined to figure out who killed her and why.

Harbinder Kaur is a fabulous main character. She’s thirty-something, gay (but single), Sikh, and still lives with her parents. She has the complexity to carry a series, and though she was not as major a character in the first book in the series (The Stranger Diaries, see my review here), I hope readers will see more of her as the series progresses.

The story is told from the point of view of Harbinder and her three new friends, all of whom fancy themselves amateur sleuths and have backstories of their own which unfold gradually throughout the book. The relationships among all the characters are compelling and intricate, and I enjoyed getting to know each of them.

I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, but I delighted at the literary festival in Aberdeen, the friends’ stay at a safe house, Harbinder’s partner (and the hilarious ways he is described), and the easy pace of the plot. There are plenty of juicy turns, and I loved the conclusion, which came as a series of shocking twists at the very end of the book. Each and every thread in the story is tied up neatly, and left me eager for the next book in the series.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a great crime mystery, a book about books, and a companionable group of friends who team up to solve a puzzle.