Harriet Klausner's Review Archive
On the outer perimeter of Reykjavik, Iceland, a construction crew uncovers the remains of a body. The corpse had been placed in this shallow grave over five decades ago when the area was undeveloped hills. Inspector Erlendur leads the investigation into the death of this identified male at the same time a forensic archeologist excavates the location to insure no other clues are damaged or lost.
While Erlendur works on what is probably going to end up a cold case, he finds the investigation fascinating and enables him to avoid the domestic abuse cases that seem prevalent. Many prominent leaders would prefer past and present family violence ignored. Erlendur would like to do that as those cases eat at the cop perhaps because his drug addicted daughter remains in a coma following a miscarriage. However, the police or society will not be able to pretend that a brutal beating of a young woman did not occur.
The subplots tie together to make a delightful police procedural that emphasizes the locale as much as the criminal activity. The crusty Inspector is a fine protagonist with woes caused by feelings of guilt as he fears her failed his daughter; yet it is Iceland that holds the plot collectively as one strong story line. The abuse theme will haunt readers well after the tale is finished as Arnaldur Indritason provides a deep extremely well written Icelandic police procedural.