The Shadow District – Reykjavik Wartime Mystery #1

The Shadow District by Arnaldur Indridason is book one in his new Reykjavik Wartime Mystery series.

Indridason is the author of the excellent Detective Erlender series. However, I must admit that while I have loved the series books I have read, I have fallen behind in the series. As a result, I often forget about the series. Can out say once again “too many books too little time”.

Anyway, when I saw The Shadow District in the library and discovered it was book one in a new series It was a no brainer to check it out.

The Shadow District: Plot

The story unravels in two tine periods. The first is the present. Where the police have discovered a ninety year-old man killed in his own bed, smothered by his own pillow. In the room former police Detective Konrad finds two newspaper clippings. The clippings are about a murder that occurred in wartime Reykjavik. The murder occurred in a rough part of town known as “ the shadow district” A place Konrad knows well because it’s where he grew up!

The second time period is wartime Reykjavik.  In that time period, the body of a murdered young woman is stumbled upon by a young Icelandic girl and her US Army boyfriend.  Soon the murder is being investigated by an American Military Police inspector and an Icelandic Detective.

In order to solve the murder of the old man in the present day Reykjavik , Konrad must solve the unsolved wartime murder.

The book’s chapters alternate between present day Reykjavik and Konrad’s investigation and wartime Reykjavik and the two detective’s investigation.

Bottom Line

Typically, I read several books at one time. However, I must say that once I started The Shadow District I didn’t want to leave Reykjavik until I knew the solutions two both murders.

As always, I thought  Indridason created a great story populated with some great characters.  It is however hard for me to see who will be the lead character going forward. If it is the Wartime Reykjavik series. I assume it will be either Thorson the Army military police officer or Flovent his Icelandic counterpart. If  though the stories are told in flashbacks Konrad could be the lead character, supported by the current police detective Marta.

Either way, I am certain it will be a tight well-written story. A story  populated by believable and interesting characters. I am looking forward to The Shadow District’s sequel!!

EKK Rating 4.00. Goodreads Rating: 3.69

Links for the Further Exploration of the Books of Arnaldur Indridason

Wikipedia</a
Goodreads
Amazon

Book # 10 for 2018

P.S. Note to self – start reading the Erlender series again!!

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A freezing wind pierced Erlendur’s clothes as he stood by the swings where Elias had died, and his mind roamed over the mountains and moors to another child who had once slipped from his grasp and now followed him through life like a sad shadow 

Arctic Chill by Arnaldur  Indriðasonis the 7th book featuring Icelandic detective Erlendur Sveinsson and his colleagues Elínborg and Sigurður Óli. (It’s actually the 5th book in the series that has been translated.) From Wikipedia:

Arnaldur’s books have been published in twenty-six countries and have been translated into Russian, Polish, German, Greek, Danish, Catalan, English, Italian, Czech, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, Finnish, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, Chinese, Croatian, Romanian and French. Arnaldur received the Glass Key award, a literature prize for the best Nordic crime novel, in 2002 and 2003. He won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award in 2005 for the novel Silence of the Grave.

In this installment Erlender and his collegues are called on an icy January day to a garden where a body has been found: a young, dark-skinned boy Elias is frozen to the ground in a pool of his own blood.  Elias is a ten year old boy, whose mother a native of Thailand, has married an Icelandic man and moved her family Elias and his older brother Niran to Iceland. As Erlender’s team investigates the brutal murder they uncover the racism faced by immigrants to Iceland like Elias and his family. The story is a good police procedural as Erlender,  Elínborg and Sigurður Óli try to piece together the events that led to the senseless murder. But I love this series, like many others, for the devlopment of the characters. They not only have to deal with work but their personal lives too. As  Elínborg deals with a sick child,  Sigurður Óli deals with the prospect of adopting a child and Erlender deals with the death of his long time mentor, his releationship with his adult children, and the spector of   his brother whose hand Erlender lost on the moors during a freak blizzard so many years ago.

While  I do think that you can pick up any of Arnaldur’s books and enjoy them, I think they are more enjoyable if you start at the beginning! So go find Jar City and get busy you won’t regret it!

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A freezing wind pierced Erlendur’s clothes as he stood by the swings where Elias had died, and his mind roamed over the mountains and moors to another child who had once slipped from his grasp and now followed him through life like a sad shadow 

Book 27 of 2011 is Arctic Chill by Arnaldur  Indriðason and is the 7th book featuring Icelandic detective Erlendur Sveinsson and his colleagues Elínborg and Sigurður Óli. (It’s actually the 5th book in the series that has been translated.) From Wikipedia:

Arnaldur’s books have been published in twenty-six countries and have been translated into Russian, Polish, German, Greek, Danish, Catalan, English, Italian, Czech, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, Finnish, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, Chinese, Croatian, Romanian and French. Arnaldur received the Glass Key award, a literature prize for the best Nordic crime novel, in 2002 and 2003. He won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award in 2005 for the novel Silence of the Grave.

In this installment Erlender and his collegues are called on an icy January day to a garden where a body has been found: a young, dark-skinned boy Elias is frozen to the ground in a pool of his own blood.  Elias is a ten year old boy, whose mother a native of Thailand, has married an Icelandic man and moved her family Elias and his older brother Niran to Iceland. As Erlender’s team investigates the brutal murder they uncover the racism faced by immigrants to Iceland like Elias and his family. The story is a good police procedural as Erlender,  Elínborg and Sigurður Óli try to piece together the events that led to the senseless murder. But I love this series, like many others, for the devlopment of the characters. They not only have to deal with work but their personal lives too. As  Elínborg deals with a sick child,  Sigurður Óli deals with the prospect of adopting a child and Erlender deals with the death of his long time mentor, his releationship with his adult children, and the spector of   his brother whose hand Erlender lost on the moors during a freak blizzard so many years ago.

While  I do think that you can pick up any of Arnaldur’s books and enjoy them, I think they are more enjoyable if you start at the beginning! So go find Jar City and get busy you won’t regret it!

The post Book 27 – Arctic Chill – Arnaldur Indridason appeared first on .