We went to Iceland to stay a week in Reykjavik, on my self I found Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indriðason so I read on the way there. I did not know this writer and do not even remember how I got the book. But I am glad I read it as I liked it and bought two more books by the author. I do believe that if you make a trip a book from there will give you a different introduction than given from guided tours, guide books and other tourist material.
SILENCE OF THE GRAVE by Arnaldur Indriðason
Published 2002
This edition published by Vintage Books 2010
Translated from Icelandic ‘Grafarpögen’ by Bernard Scudder
ISBN 978-0-099-54855-3
290 pages
Part of series of A Reykjavik Murder Mystery; detective Erlendur
Awarded 2005 Gold Dagger for the best crime novel of the year
Genre: crime, police work
Keywords: cold case, missing person, domestic violence, Iceland during 2WW, drug abuse, unhappy families, Iceland, Reykjavik,
Grade 4/5
I will read more from this author.
In a new neighborhood in Reykjavik, Iceland, the children found a bone which a medical student identified as a human rib; this caused involvement of the police, but as it was impossible to rule out a historical grave so they called in help from the archaeologists from the university; archaeological excavations take a lot longer than ordinary police work.
The story is moving back and forth between today and time of the second world war with American military on Iceland as it was estimated that was the time of the dead person.
The police start to look into missing people from the time of the 2WW; the owner of the house near the grave, Benjamin, his girlfriend had gone missing just before the wedding. Nobody knew what happened to her, she has not been seen, suicide? Or did he murder her?
Detective Erlendur also has problems, he is divorced from the mother of his two children, and she has allowed little contact with them and they know their mother would consider it betrayal if they contact him. Their daughter Eva Lind is a drug addicted and pregnant, she phones her father calling for help.
We follow a mother whose first boyfriend died before they could get married but she was pregnant, their daughter Mikkelina is handicapped after a meningitis. The mother’s name is only revealed at the very end of the story, she gets married to a very abusive man, Grimur, he is a monster; they have also two boys: Simon and Tomas. Grimur beats his wife all the time, belittles her in the most awful ways, threatens to kill Mikkelina or her mother. She unsuccessfully tried to escape twice but he finds her, she has no family or friends, nobody helps her. I was convinced that the body they found was hers, but I was surprised to find out it was not.
The problems in the book are serious and heavy, the social back side of domestic abuse: the classical of how Grimur behaves to his wife and his ow children. Domestic abuse can also characterize how Erlundur and his ex-wife behave with there children. Another form of domestic abuse is how drug-abuse influences the surrounding family, all underlined by the Icelandic weather of dark, cloudy and rainy. How can one break out of the misery?
I wonder how realistic it is what happened to Mikkelina and how she ended up.
JAR CITY by Arnaldur Indriðason
Published 2000
This edition published by Vintage Books 2010
Translated from Icelandic “Myrin” by Bernard Scudder
338 pages
ISBN 978-0-099-54183
Part of series of A Reykjavik Murder Mystery; detective Erlendur
Genre: crime police
Key words: murder, rape, police abuse of rape victim, hereditary disease, Reykjavik, Iceland, a run-away bride, medical education, dissection, genetic research.
Grade 3/4
A man is murdered in his own apartment and the murder unit arrives with Erlendur and his team, Sigurdur Oli and Elinborg. The victim named Holberg, turns out to be a crook, accused of rape but not convicted. The woman, Kolbrun, who had accused him of rape had had a daughter who died of a brain tumor aged 3, and Kolbrun committed suicide a few years later. Kolbrum’s sister is alive and furious about how the police managed the complaints of rape and how it fell apart; and donot want to start an investigation again.
When Elandur decides to exhume the body of Kolbrun’s little daughter to confirm that she died from a brain tumor; they find that her brain is missing and had not been returned to the coffin as it should have been. That leads to a long discussion about the use of real organs in medical education then 40 years ago in the 1960’s and 1907’s when the doctors considered themselves gods who did not bother to ask permissions. Today there are strict rules for such a use; although modern computed scans or MRIs allow better and more effective means in medical education.
Erlandur finds it unlikely that Holberg only raped one woman and starts to look deeper. Holberg had 3 friends and one is in prison, Ellidi, the other has disappeared, Gretar. But Elandur considers it likely that Holberg had murdered Gretar and do find him murdered and buried under Holberg’s house.
In real life the Icelandic population is quite like a genetic lab for studying modern familiar transmission of diseases, that fact is touched upon in this book.
Erlandur as in the first book has a non-existing relationship with his daughter, Eva Lind, she has contacted her father to get to know him, even she knows that her mother will consider this a deep betrayal. She is a drug abuser and owns money to various criminals, who all know her father is a cop.
A friend of Eva’s was getting married but ran away just after the ceremony, nobody knows where she is. But Erlandur finds her, and she reveals sexual abuse at her home where she should be most safe.
STRANGE SHORES by Arnaldur Indriðason
Published 2010
This edition published by Vintage Books 2014
Translated by Victoria Cribb from Icelandic from “Furðustrandir”
296 pages
ISBN 978-0-099-56334-1
Part of series of A Reykjavik Murder Mystery; detective Erlendur
Genre: crime
Keywords: family secrets, disappeared persons, abuse, rural Iceland, bad weather, snow storm,
Grade 4/5
Erlendur has returned to his family’s rural home, it is ruin, but every now then he returns here to remember better times, meaning when his little brother, Bergur, was alive. There had been a snowstorm when Erlendur his father and Bergur had gone out to rake of the animals. Erlendur and his father almost died, and Berfur was never found dead or alive. Erlundur has not stopped looking walking over the fells.
Erlendur feels guilty that he survived and his brother did not. His parents are buried in the local church yard here.
He remembers another disappearance, Matthildur, according to her husband she had set out to visit her mother in the next valley walking over the pass when a storm hit and a group British soldier also crossed the same day some of them died, the rest were found, so why had Matthildur not been found like all the soldiers?
Matthildur’s disappearance is so long ago that only few people who knew about it are alive and very old. But unintentionally Enlendur starts to talk to people and cannot stop once he gets started and gradually, he gets closer to the truth.
It is about secrets and hidden love, emotional blackmail, pay-back and revenge, isolation, remote places.
In the book there is a tale of foxes gathering odd objects that can be found in their fox holes, I wonder if that is true.
I found the fact that Erlendur opens by himself at night 3 graves somewhat unrealistic, but he finds out what happened and make a logical story.
Reading this book, I sit with a feeling of a story out of an Icelandic saga, a tale from the past.
What did I learn about Icelandic society? My impression is that the Icelanders are very much into their past, and it influences their present life; their Viking past is a proud memory. Another impression is that the nature and weather is something that very much influence their everyday life and moods, the dark days of winter, clouds, rain, storms, the ocean, fishing.
On the other hand crimes, domestic violence and abuse is same as every where else, perhaps worse because it is such a small society, only 380,000 people in all of Iceland. Victims are victims.
It took me a while to get used to the names of people and locations, they are different from other Scandinavian languages including some odd letters; but in the books the names of the Reykjavik streets are quite like in the books and streets we walked on.
On the author:
Arnaldur Indriðason born 1961 has a degree in history from University of Iceland; has worked as a journalist. The Detective Erlendur series has been translated into more than 20 languages.
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