Arctic Chill: An Inspector Erlendur Novel

When I bought this book, I thought that "import" must mean that this edition came from Iceland. That's why I spent almost $10.00 more than I would have had to for the American hardcover edition. I was wrong. This edition is from Canada and is nothing special. Save your money and buy the American edition. I would have sent it back but it just takes too much effort to wrap it up and get to somewhere to send it back. The 5 stars are for the book itself. It is superb. What the other reviewers say about it is right on. I've since bought two more of Arnadur's books.

Do you want to feel yourself really in another world, with the silence and the uniqueness of Iceland? Read Indridason. I'm kind of an expert in "noir novels" and this author has me hooked. Such a clean language. Such a painfull soul this detective. Wonderfull combination.

This is the fifth book of the Reykjavik murder mysteries (a sixth will be published at the end of this year titled "Hypothermia) and it is at the top of it's class. Indridason is favorably compared with 'Henning Mankell' and 'Jo Nesbo' for good reasons, in that each book is more than just a mystery or police procedural. In this one Arnaldur (I'm using the normal Icelandic habit of referring to everyone by their first name) is called on to find the murderer of an eleven year old boy. What makes this mystery personal is Erlandur's ongoing nightmare of having gotten lost in a blizzard and then separated from his then eight year old brother, who was never found. The boy, who is Icelandic and Thai, was born in Iceland. He has a fifteen year old half-brother who his mother brought over from Thailand. The older brother is suffering terribly from 'cultural shock' and doesn't fit into Icelandic society. Much of the book is a polemic about how Icelanders view themselves and how they view the 'incomers'. With a population under half a million and a language that is difficult to learn, they are proud of their years of isolation. [Icelandic is an offshoot of Old Norse and is related to Danish, but is very archaic is it's pronunciation and grammar.] Many fear that 'multiculturalism' will destroy their unique culture. As an example: for over fifty years there was an US Air Force base in Kaflevik but little intermarriage or cross-culture during that time. Erlandur spends some of his time questioning his own feelings about immigrants and their need to hold onto the 'old country'. The natives fear that their children will lose touch with their ancient culture and become Euro-centric. [Note: the Allthing, Iceland's Parliament has been in existence since before the year 1000 CE.] He is approached by both his estranged children who want to discuss with him the death of his brother and the effect it has had on all their lives. Erlandur, like most of his countrymen (according to Arnaldur) is exceedingly private and not comfortable with 'touchy-feely' discussions. In a parallel investigation Erlandur has been called into a missing persons case which he decides is a scam between the husband and wife or for the husband to cover up a murder. When he investigates the husband he finds that he is a philanderer who has cheated on his wives with their successors. Erlandur, who prides himself in NEVER deciding on a case before he has REAL evidence, makes the mistake of deciding the husband has started cheating on the new wife (just over two years) and this has driven the current wife to suicide. His premature decision also comes to effect how he looks at the boy's murder case. In the end the conclusion is satisfying in that the culprit(s) are caught but for Erlandur the strange background to the case and the information he digs up on the people involved is disconcerting to his vision of Iceland. His relationship with his children and the woman he is seein

I am not a traditionally a reader of mysteries, but since my wife introduced me to selected writers, there are a few to whose new books I quite look forward. Scandinavian writers of this genre appeal a great deal. After all, part of what we get from any novel is being taken into a world we do not know, and the place and people names of Scandinavia are exotic and fascinating. Also, there is a great touch of humanity in the stories coming from Scandinavian writers, quite in distinction to some well-known, hard-boiled American writers whose fiction I find almost unreadable. Norway's Karin Fossum is chief among the Scandinavians, being a writer and storyteller of top quality, but I enjoy Iceland's Arnaldur Indridason too. His first books were not in the same class with Fossum's, but with Arctic Chill, he rises to a new level of quality. This is fine and gripping book, an interesting tale with many twists and turns. Indridason weaves several plots together here and manages them with great skill. The two criminal cases - a murder and a separate missing person - actually nicely reinforce each other and are used to introduce some interesting complexities. Indridason is always a clear writer, but this book introduces a new level of sophistication in his storytelling. We still have his intelligent, very human, and sympathic detective, Erlendur, a man with whom we feel it might be nice to spend some time discussing the human condition. We still have the wonderfully forbidding weather and brooding landscape of Iceland as major characters. This is a book you will not want to put down. Highly recommended.