My favourite genre of books is crime, and over the last couple of years I have been reading a lot of crime novels set in Iceland, mostly by Icelandic authors. I have written about the books I’ve read, too, and through that, someone here recommended Arnaldur Indriðason to me, with his series of novels about the Icelandic Detective, Erlendur, and his colleagues Elínborg and Sigurður Óli.
I started out with the novel which was recommended (and thank you whoever it was, I’m sorry I have forgotten!) was Jar City, called Mýrin in Icelandic. This actually isn’t the first in the Erlendur series, as several prequels have been written too, but it was the first I read. I didn’t quite ‘get’ it at first, and I was a little grumpy and dissatisfied…. but it was me that was wrong as a reader, not Indriðason as a writer. Jar City starts with Erlendur viewing a dead body, a middle-aged man who has been murdered in his own home. On the body is a note, and the detectives agree that it is most mysterious note, and they cannot make sense of it… Indriðason does not tell us, his audience, what the note says… When I read this, I couldn’t work out why it was kept from us. Why didn’t he tell us what the note said? It was enigmatic, so why couldn’t we see what it was to understand in what way it was mysterious and meaningless?
How clever Indriðason is; the content of the note is eventually revealed, and revealed at the right time, the perfect time for us as readers. he does the same thing in his other books; we do not always know who the narrator is, we don’t always know the names of characters, certain facts are mentioned but deliberately withheld from us… clever writing, very clever writing.
The detectives have back-stories, Erlendur has to deal with his past, his childhood and the tragic loss of his brother, his broken family, and his new relationships. I’m really enjoying the series… I’ve read four, so I have plenty more to come; some are not yet translated, and some are prequels.
To find his books look here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Arnaldur-Indridason/e/B001ILIBV0/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
To find out more about the series:
http://www.crimefictionlover.com/2014/01/a-guide-to-arnaldur-indridasons-detective-erlendur/
Lois Elsden 