It has been a year since Erlendur Sveinsson, a young
officer with the Reykjavik Police, had been called
to leave his normal traffic duties to pull a body out of
a flooded peat pit. It had given the rookie cop a turn
when he realized that the drowned body was Hannibal's.
Erlendur had become acquainted with the homeless man
over time while working on night patrol. Now, Erlendur
is back at the scene and looking over the shallow pond
again. Why had Hannibal ended up in this place? Was it
just a simple drowning of an old alkie that most people
just wanted to say good riddance to, or could it be
something more?
Erlendur can't let it go as just another wasted homeless
man, one less problem to deal with. Like a bulldog with
a bone, he cannot let it go and starts to investigate on
his own time. He has a special concern for the missing.
In talking to Hannibal's sister, he learns more about
Hannibal's life and tragedy.
It is now the summer of 1974 and Iceland is celebrating
its 1,100 anniversary of settlement. People are in a good
mood with the sun shining. Yet, the more the taciturn
Erlender investigates, the more he becomes obsessed with
Hannibal's death. Then a woman also goes missing after
being out late one evening. Is there a connection, or is
Erlendur's own past driving him to find answers where
none exist?
After ten very successful novels in the Inspector Erlendur
series, internationally acclaimed author Arnaldur
Indridason has written REYKJAVIK NIGHTS as a prequel to
the series. As such, REYKJAVIK NIGHTS reads easily as a
stand-alone mystery, yet fans of the series will
definitely enjoy finding out more about the early shaping
of this protagonist's career. New fans, like me, will
relish the idea of having a whole series to read after
this intriguing prequel.
Indridason brings a very authentic voice and immediate
sense of time and place to Erlander's exposure to the
sordid details of night patrol, and especially in dealing
with the dark underbelly of this interesting city.
As an Icelander with a background in studying history,
Indridason also weaves in very interesting historical
information as a natural part of the storyline.
Indridason is well known for bringing a haunting sense of
realism to his works and REYKJAVIK NIGHTS is no
exception. Indridason graphically depicts the carnage
from car collisions to the physical looks of weary people
too long and off the bottle. REYKJAVIK NIGHTS contains a
complex and multi-layered plot that is both
psychological as well as investigative. Personally, I
found it intriguing, but slow at the start as I was not
sure of how things fit, but I soon found REYKJAVIK NIGHTS
so captivating, I could not put it down. All in all, I am
sure mystery and Erlender fans will have lots of good
reading ahead of them in REYKJAVIK NIGHTS. Do check it
out for yourself!
In this stunning prequel to his critically acclaimed
Inspector Erlendur series, Arnaldur Indridason gives
devoted
fans a glimpse of Erlendur as a young, budding detective.
The beat on the streets in Reykjavik is busy: traffic
accidents, theft, domestic violence, contraband … And an
unexplained death.
When a tramp he met regularly on the night shift is found
drowned in a ditch, no one seems to care. But his fate
haunts Erlendur and drags him inexorably into the strange
and dark underworld of the city.
The writer whose work The New York Times describes as
"having the sweep and consequence of epic story telling"
has
outdone himself in this multi-layered and masterful
suspense
story. His latest book in the series, Strange Shores, was
nominated for the 2014 Crime Writers of America Gold
Dagger
Award.
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