We All Fall Down - Nic Sheff

We All Fall Down by Nic Sheff - 297 pages

As I read Tweak: Growing up on Methamphetamines I laughed, I cried, I fell in live with Nic Sheff. I became absorbed in his journey, and the same was true for We All Fall Down. While Nic's relapses aren't nearly as severe this time around the story still rises and falls with his struggle with addiction. Reading his books feel like talking with an old friend and as I read We All Fall Down I couldn't help but feel proud of Sheff by the end (even if the beginning made me want to wring his neck).

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.