Reykjavik Nights by Arnaldur Indridason

Reykjavik Nights: An Inspector Erlendur Novel by Arnaldur Indridason; translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb --- 294 pages

The ninth Inspector Erlendur novel is a prequel, going back in time to 1974 to show us the young Erlendur at the start of his career, assigned to the Traffic Division of the Reykjavik police, working the night shift, dealing with car crashes, robberies, fights, drunks drug addicts and the occasional unnatural death, while respectable citizens are sleeping.

Erlendur is already displaying his stoic, almost anti-social nature, and his talent for dogged, persistent investigation.

On one of the long Northern nights, a homeless drunk Erlendur has encountered on the streets turns up drowned in a waste pond. No one is particularly surprised by Hannibal's death. A respectable married woman named Oddny, walking home from a night out with friends, disappeared the same night. She was trapped in an unhappy marriage; the police suspect suicide, but the case will remain officially open until they find the body.

Only Erlendur, obsessed by the need to discover the truth about those who have lost their way, is driven to pursue his own investigations.

Arnaldur Indridason is a historian, former journalist and film critic, and internationally acclaimed author of the "Nordic Noir" Inspector Erlendur series set in Iceland.

Click HERE to read an interview with author Arnaldur Indridason.

Click HERE to read the review in the New York Times.

Click HERE to read a review from the Crime Fiction Lover web site.  

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling --- 503 pages

J.K. Rowling's much anticipated first post-Harry Potter book is advertised as "a big novel about a small English town," and her first written for adults. At 503 pages it does qualify as big; and the setting, the seemingly charming village of Pagford, is a small English town. And yes, the subject matter and the language are definitely aimed at adults, although some of the key characters are teenagers in the throes of very turbulent adolescences.

Like Agatha Christie and so many other English novelists, Rowling puts the microcosm of her small town under the microscope to reveal, in pitiless detail, the desperate lives behind the bright facades and false bonhomie of Pagford, when the unexpected death of one of Pagford's leading citizens sets off a "take no prisoners" war over his vacant seat on the town Council.

But what is really sad about this book (as several reviewers have pointed out), is that ALL the characters are so unpleasant, so unlikable and so wrapped up in their own grievances that it's impossible to care very much about what happens to any of them.  It remind me more than anything of the 18th century English artist William Hogarth, who chronicled the sordid and brutish underbelly of society in such works as "The Rake's Progress." Rowling's opinion of humanity seems pretty grim and not for the squeamish or faint of heart.

A Sunless Sea by Anne Perry

A Sunless Sea: A William Monk Novel by Anne Perry --- 372 pages

I enjoy British murder mysteries, especially those set in the past. Anne Perry has two excellent series: her William Monk mysteries, set in mid19th century London; and her Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mysteries, set in late 19th/early 20th century London.

The particularly gruesome murder of a middle-aged prostitute on Limehouse Pier soon lands Monk, his wife Hester, and the brilliant barrister Sir Oliver Rathbone in a tangled web of deception thrown up by government ministers, ostensibly to protect the grieving family when a prominent doctor committed suicide after his research on opium use and abuse was rejected by the government. Gradually Monk and Hester begin to suspect that the doctor did not commit suicide but died at the hands of someone who is profiting from the opium trade. And that someone is a powerful man high in government circles, who is manipulating the police and the courts to cover up his own crimes.

The doctor's wife Dinah has insisted from the start that her husband was murdered to prevent him from speaking out. Now she is being framed for the murder of the so-called prostitute. Her conviction and execution will ensure that her accusations and her husband's reputation are thoroughly discredited.

While Monk and Hester, and a few trusted associates, work frantically to uncover the truth, Rathbone must use every weapon in his legal arsenal to defend Dinah and prolong the trial until they can find the evidence to confirm their suspicions. When Rathbone realizes that even the judge has been co-opted by the conspiracy, he must decide whether he should make use of another, darker weapon that fate has placed in his hand.

The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny

The Beautiful Mystery: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel by Louise Penny --- 373 pages

This is the eighth volume in Penny's acclaimed mystery series featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamiche and his second-in-command, Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir of the Sûreté du Québec.

Each installment in the series features a musical motif; in this mystery, Gamache and Beauvoir are called to investigate the murder of a monk in the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups (Saint Gilbert Among the Wolves), hidden deep in the Canadian wilderness miles from the nearest settlement. Here two dozen cloistered monks live a simple life of work and prayer. They grow vegetables, raise chickens, make chocolate-covered blueberries to sell --- and they sing. The monks have recently been rediscovered by the outside world, after releasing an album of Gregorian chant. Their glorious voices, raised in these ancient religious songs, have had a powerful effect on people all over the world. The murdered monk was the choir director. His proposal to record another album, and send the monks out into the world as musical missionaries, created a painful schism in the once peaceful community and resulted in his murder. The only suspects are his brother monks.

Gamache is also concerned about Beauvoir's mental state, as Jean-Guy has only just recovered from an addiction to painkillers brought on by the trauma he suffered in a previous case, in which a number of officers under Gamache's command were injured or killed. Both he and Gamache have reason to suspect that the tragedy was engineered by corruption at the highest levels of the Sûreté. When one of the Superintendents they suspect is involved in the corruption suddenly descends upon the monastery and begins to interfere in the investigation, the Chief Inspector fears that his enemies are targeting Beauvoir in order to destroy Gamache before he can expose their crimes.