Indridason, Arnaldur Inspector Erlunder Series 1-8

Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson is a brilliant cop , but also a gloomy and thoroughly anti-social figure who guards his privacy jealously. When he’s not doggedly pursuing a case, he is hunkered down at home brooding over its details. He passes his solitary time reading his strange library of papers about people lost in the wilds of Iceland. Why? Because the ghosts of his past give him no quarter.

Created by Icelandic author Arnaldur Indridason, Detective Erlendur is as enigmatic as they come. His exploits have captivated fans through 11 novels, of which nine have been translated into English. Although Strange Shores wrapped up the original series, a prequel series featuring a younger Erlendur will tell us about his earlier cases.

One Man and His Past
The childhood loss of his little brother during a snowstorm, for which he blames himself, is still a permanent presence in Erlendur’s life. He goes on an annual pilgrimage to his birthplace to continue the search for the boy’s body in the rugged hills. He also feels guilty over his own indifference towards his children after his marriage failed so many years ago. As the series progresses, Eva Lind and Sindri, who are now adults with their own problems, gradually become part of his life. And, he reluctantly comes to terms with his past, at his own speed, with his trademark stubbornness.

Cold and Unforgiving
Set in Reykjavik, and across Iceland’s stony, unforgiving landscape, the books create a strong impression, reflecting the silent, glacial progress of Erendur’s battle with his own inner storms. His investigations provide rich insight into Icelandic culture, old and new. We hear a lot about certain issues – the criminal justice system, nationalism, racism, immigration, corporate greed, the welfare state. One book even touches on genetic disease. The small gene pool is a concern in this small, isolated country. These are narrative elements shared across the Nordic noir sub-genre.

The original Erlendur series

Sons of Dust (Synir duftsins – 1997)
Not yet translated. The back-to-back deaths of a retired teacher in his home and the suicide of one his students immediately raises red flags for the local police force that the cases are somehow related. Erlendur and his team are introduced, and the book reveals his failed marriage and his troubled relationship with daughter, Eva Lind. She has drug problems.

Silent Kill (Dauðarósir – 1998)
Not yet translated. The naked corpse of a murdered young woman is found at the grave of Jon Sigurdsson, Iceland’s historical hero of independence. It is then discovered that the victim was a drug addict. But who killed the woman and why did they lay her naked corpse at the flower-strewn grave of Iceland’s legendary freedom fighter.

1 - Jar City
Jar City introduced us to Inspector Erlendur’s universe, including his boss Marion and two sidekicks Elinborg and Sigurdur Oli. An old loner is found murdered in his decrepit flat, and the killer has left a note and a photograph of a child’s grave. Erlendur and his team explore the old man’s past and reveal disturbing secrets. They later learn the child in the picture died of a rare genetic disease and that her mother committed suicide. Was it a revenge killing? The forensic evidence they gather eventually leads to a high tech lab, the eponymous jar city, and a tense showdown with the killer.

2 - Silence of the Grave
In 2005, Silence of the Grave became the second Erlendur novel to appear in English. As the detective struggles to save his drug addict daughter Eva Lind from herself, a body is found in a shallow grave in an old Reykjavik town that is being dug up to make way for suburbs. The body is found to be quite old, but the hills that once formed the area have many stories to tell – of love, domestic violence, and murder.

3 - Voices
It’s Christmas time, and the doorman of a busy hotel is found murdered in the basement. He is dressed as Santa Claus, and his trousers are down around his ankles as though he was dispatched in the middle of a sexual act, possibly with a prostitute. Once the chuckles subside and Erlendur is brought in to investigate, we learn more about the victim. In his youth, he was a promising soprano with the voice of an angel whose fate turned on a dime and resulted in tragedy. Erlendur seeks answers among the hotel staff, the victim’s own troubled past, and an avid record collector of choirboy recordings.

4 - The Draining Lake
A skeleton is found in a lake which is slowly draining after an earthquake. A hole in the skull points to murder, and what is most interesting is that the body was weighted down by a Cold War-era spy device. As Erlendur and his team struggle to identify the victim, their investigation runs parallel to the perpetrator’s back story of love and betrayal in communist East Germany. Erlendur further develops his new love interest, a biotechnician named Valgerdur, and his old boss also weighs in on the case. The story arc of Erlendur’s family matters also develops when his son Sindri appears out of the blue.

5 - Arctic Chill
When a young boy of Thai descent is found murdered, racism is suspected. Erlendur recruits the victim’s own mother to help as he looks for answers at the boy’s school. Getting few answers from a local pedophile, he encounters resistance from the child’s family, his classmates and the local thugs, which include similar ethnic outcasts. Here we learn more about Erlendur’s children, who want answers about their father’s strange ways. They are curious about the circumstances behind his brother’s death, which has haunted him all these years. We also learn more about the personal life of Erlendur’s police colleague, the moralistic, unyielding Sigurdur Oli.

6 - Hypothermia
A woman is found hanged in her own summer cottage. Although apparently a suicide, Erlendur isn’t buying it. He conducts an informal investigation based on his own hunches, convinced the answers lie somehow with the woman’s husband and a local psychic she consulted. Erlendur slowly renews ties with his children by finally confronting head-on the story of his brother’s death. His disastrous attempt to reconcile with his ex-wife, the intrusions of his children, and the death of his old boss Marion overwhelm Erlendur. These distractions fuel his impetus to solve two old missing persons cases that seem related.
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7 - Outrage
With Erlendur away on mysterious personal business, his female colleague Elinborg plays the central role in Outrage. She’s out to find the killer of a date rape predator who was apparently caught red handed and murdered. The storytelling style focuses on Elinborg and her thought processes, and we discover just what an excellent a detective she is. Her passion for cooking, her home life and relationship with her husband and children are also explored, to the point where they play a role in how the case is solved. We see how she feels towards Erlendur and Sigurdur Oli – it’s like an insider report on their crime unit.

8 - Black Skies
It’s Sigurdur Oli’s turn to take the spotlight but from the start he receives attention he doesn’t need. Off duty, he goes to warn off a blackmailer for a friend of a friend but walks in on a violent scene. The blackmailer lies battered on the floor, and Oli himself gets a smack on the head. When the woman dies in hospital Oli has to duck the queries of his colleagues as to why he was at the scene. Solving this case and staying out of hot water is his aim, while on the side a Reykjavik vagrant is trying to leave messages for him about an old paedophilia case. Corporate greed comes into play in the murder enquiry, while Oli is frustrated by his failed marriage, ex-wife and overbearing mother.

Strange Shores
The most recent Erlendur novel sees the policeman sleeping in the crumbling remains of his family’s old home in rural Iceland. He showers at the local swimming pool and meditates on his memories and emotions. Talking to a fox hunter, he becomes intrigued by the case of a woman who, like Erlendur’s little brother, disappeared during a snowstorm. In between wandering the hills and fjords in the hope of finding the bones of his brother, and recalling the sadness that pervaded his family when he was a boy, Erlendur also unravels Matthildur’s touching story – because there was more to her death than bad weather.