Outrage by Arnaldur Indridason

Outrage: An Inspector Erlendur Novel by Arnaldur Indridason; translated from the Icelandic by Anna Yates --- 281 pages

This is the eighth and latest mystery in the series about an Icelandic homicide detective. However in this book Inspector Erlendur is offstage. He's taken a leave of absence to travel to the East Fjords, leaving his assistant, Elinborg, in charge. Elinborg suspects he is dealing with some old personal business; she hasn't inquired too closely because she knows Erlendur to be close-mouthed in the old Icelandic fashion about such things, and she respects that.

In his absence, Elinborg is handed a difficult and disturbing case, involving the murder of a man whom she quickly comes to suspect was a serial rapist who stalked single women, drugged them so they could neither resist nor remember their attacker, and then brutally raped them. With patience and persistence, Elinborg manages to develop evidence that confirms the murdered man's nasty proclivities; but tragically, it appears that he was killed by one of his victims. All that remains is to gain a confession from the suspect, and Elinborg will get all the credit for solving the case.

But in the course of her investigation, Elinborg visited the rapist's childhood home in an isolated rural village, and discovered an old unsolved case of a young girl who went missing from that village. She's convinced there's a connection. The villagers are sullen and uncooperative; they try to discourage Elinborg but that just makes her even more persistent. In the end she uncovers the truth and learns there are some wrongs that can never be righted. Indridason, like Stieg Larsson, Karin Fossum and others, writes in the popular thriller genre called Nordic Noir.    

Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indridason

Silence of the Grave: A Thriller by Arnuldur Indridason; translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder --- 279 pages

This is the second book in Icelandic author Indridason"s series of gritty crime thrillers featuring Detective Inspector Erlandur Sveinsson. Erlandur and his team are called out to the scene of a grisly discovery: the bones of a corpse found by children playing on a construction site where a new housing estate is being built on the outskirts of Reykjavik.

Already in this second book it seems well established that Erlandur and his team deal in cold cases --- old murders long unsolved. In this instance, Erlandur must first determine whether this is a murder at all, and if so, how to identify the victim. Only by slowly gathering and assembling bits and pieces from old records and fading memories does Erlandur uncover the dreadful family history hidden in this silent grave. What he learns also forces him to confront the reason for his own failed relationships, especially with his defiant and self-destructive daughter.  With its jaundiced view of human nature and brooding Icelandic setting, this is another example of the "crime nordique."

Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason

Jar City: A Reykjavik Thriller by Arnaldur Indridason; translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder --- 275 pages

The first of Indridason's police thrillers to be translated and published in English, this novel was made into a film in Iceland in 2006 under its original title, Myrin.  The author worked for many years as a journalist before becoming a crime fiction writer.
His detective, Erlendur, and his team, are responsible for investigating the murder of an elderly man in his basement apartment. The old man turns out to be an unsavory character with a murky past and a number of sordid habits, but there seems to be no reason why someone should now be targeting him for murder. Then Erlendur happens to find an old photograph hidden under a desk drawer: it shows a grave marker for a four year old child. The photograph leads Erlendur on a journey into the past: the inexplicable deaths of children, old crimes ignored and unreported, a man missing for 25 years, a violent and sadistic bully locked in solitary confinement, and new state of the art technology brought to bear on incurable diseases all figure into a story of unintended consequences come home to roost.

Working in the tradition of the crime nordique, this author will appeal to fans of Per Wahloo, Maj Sjowall and Henning Mankell.