Silence of the Grave: A Reyjavik Murder Mystery [Paperback]

Starred Review. In Indridason's excellent second mystery (after 2005's Jar City), a skeleton, buried for more than 50 years, is uncovered at a building site on the outskirts of Reykjavík. Who is it? How did he or she die? And was it murder? The police wonder, chief among them the tortured, introspective Inspector Erlendur, introduced in Jar City. While an archeologist excavates the burial site, several other narratives unfold: a horrifying story of domestic abuse set during WWII, a search for missing persons that unearths almost-forgotten family secrets involving some of the city's most prominent citizens, and Erlendur's own painful family story (his estranged, drug-addicted daughter is in a coma, after miscarrying her child). All these strands are compelling, but it's the story of the physical and psychological battering of a young mother of three by her husband that resonates most. And the denouement of this astonishingly vivid and subtle novel is unexpected and immensely satisfying. Indridason has won the CWA Golden Dagger Award.
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Icelandic mysteries hit the U.S. ground running last year with the appearance of Indridason's outstanding Jar City. This equally fine follow-up returns to the theme of buried pain, with the action centering on the discovery of a human bone at a construction site near Reykjavik. Inspector Erlendur Sveinnson is on the case, but the trail, which leads back to World War II, has gone very cold indeed. Erlendur (Icelanders use first names) has a very personal reason for his abiding interest in missing persons, and that--combined with the fact that his drug-abusing daughter is in the hospital in a coma--opens the door for plenty of backstory regarding the detective's troubled history. With a narrative that jumps between the 1940s and the present--without giving away whodunit--the novel generates a sort of emotional claustrophobia, its characters trapped in a world where the pain of the past, though often submerged, is always with us. Indridason has definitely vaulted onto the A-list of Scandinavian crime authors. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Praise for Arnaldur Indridason’s Jar City:

“A very impressive debut, and a very impressive novel.”
–Crime Time

“A fascinating window on an unfamiliar world as well as an original and puzzling mystery.”
–Val McDermid

Downtrodden detective Erlendur and his team must once again look into Reykjavik’s hidden past to unravel a case of human nastiness. Alive with tension and atmosphere and disturbingly real, this is an outstanding continuation of the Reykjavik Murder Mysteries.

Praise for Arnaldur Indridason’s Jar City:

“A very impressive debut, and a very impressive novel.”
–Crime Time

“A fascinating window on an unfamiliar world as well as an original and puzzling mystery.”
–Val McDermid

Arnaldur Indridason worked for many years as a journalist and critic before he began writing novels. He has published several thrillers, but it is for his Reykjavík Murder Mysteries — the series featuring Erlendur and Sigurdur Óli — that he is best known outside his native Iceland. He has won the Glass Key for best Nordic crime novel (both for Tainted Blood and for Silence of the Grave) and the Martin Beck Award for best crime novel translated into Swedish (for The Voice). In 2005, Silence of the Grave was awarded the coveted CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel, an accolade shared with Minette Walters, Reginald Hill, John le Carré and fellow Nordic crime writer Henning Mankell.


From the Paperback edition.