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Voices

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What do you do when the Santa Claus who is supposed to be hosting a hotel children's party turns up dead in his dingy basement room with a knife wound in his chest, his pants round his ankles and a condom still on? Summon Reykjavik's gloomiest detective of course. Erlendur Sveinsson, hero of Arnaldur Indridason's 9-volume series of Icelandic mysteries, is a dysfunctional as ever, here in 'Voices', the fourth book of the set. Separated from his wife, barely on speaking terms with his junkie daughter and resistant to all his colleagues' attempts to cheer him up at Christmas, Erlendur moves into an unheated hotel room to solve the murder of a Santa who was once a child musical prodigy. Paedophiles, prostitutes, bitter relatives and pimps inhabit the world he must delve into until finally the case is solved and momentarily Erlendur's spirits are lifted as he exits the hotel singing a Nordic Christmas carol. Lovers of Scandinavian mysteries with their emphasis on the bleakness of the landscape and full of interior dialogue will find this book very satisfying.

The third book in the Reykjavik Murder Mysteries series

In a well known Reykjavik hotel, the doorman "Santa stand-in" is found stabbed to death and left in a compromising position. Detectives Erlendur and Sigurdur Oli discover that the late doorman was in fact a former child-prodigy choirboy well known for his recordings that are now collector's items. Could this be the reason he was murdered? As the Icelandic detectives delve into the homicide, they piece together the fragments of the deceased's tragic existence to find the murderer.

On a separate case, Inspector Elinborg deals with a badly battered boy and becomes emotionally involved in securing the conviction of the father.

On a private note, Erlenburg continues with his troubled family relationships both with the ghosts of his own youth and coping with the problem of Eva Lind, his daughter, who is fighting a drug addiction and the traumatic loss of her stillborn baby.

"Voices" is a tense, profound and disturbing novel; Indridason explores the dark corners of human nature by allowing the reader to get inside his protagonist's head. All the characters are fascinating in their own way with a well defined personality; you are drawn to them immediately. The story is far more than a murder mystery; it is one about the loss of innocence, ruined childhood and family secrets, very touching, you can't help but feel deeply for each person's saga. Right from the start you are captivated by the action and the drama. Indridason has once again delivered a spellbinding thriller and I am looking forward to the sequel "The Draining Lake"

Just days before Christmas, Gudlauger Egilsson, Reykjavik hotel doorman, handyman and occasional Santa Claus is found stabbed to death in his room in the hotel basement. Detective Erlundur , and his team of Óli and Elínborg are called in to investigate.

It seems that Gudlauger , a long-term hotel employee, was largely invisible to his co-workers. And none of the staff seem very keen to assist the police. Erlendur takes a room at the hotel, partly to irritate the manager and partly because he cannot face the emptiness of his flat. Staying in this room, which is neither nice nor effectively heated, gives Erlendur an opportunity to observe the hotel at work and to focus on the case.

As Erlendur discovers more about the life of the victim, he also becomes introspective about his own life. Elínborg is distracted by the concurrent case of a schoolboy who has been badly beaten. A gang of young bullies may be involved, but Elínborg thinks the boy's father may be involved.

Each of these strands involves some level of dysfunction in families, and an absence of effective communication. Each of the storylines complement each other without slowing the pace of the story. And the answers? Who did kill Gudlauger, and why? The mystery is solved in the final pages, but what a sad journey it is.

This is the third novel in the Reykjavik Murder Mysteries, which now totals six. It is the first I've read, but I'll be looking to read the others (in order).

Jennifer Cameron-Smith