A very engaging and entertaining Icelandic crime story. Detective Sigurdur Oli agrees to do a favour for a friend and finds himself involved in a murder investigation. Sigurdur Oli starts to find that the pressure created by investigations a murder while not revealing his own involvement creates a lot of problems. The investigation twists and turns as the excesses of boom time Iceland must be paid for. The reveals are superbly staged, and the story moves at an engaging pace. The plot threads are beautifully drawn together, and the sour climax is deeply satisfying.
Sigurdur Oli ids not a sympathetic character and Arnaldur Indridason writing does nothing to make him any more sympathetic. He is very self-centered and is somewhat abrasive, he is also committed and competent. His maneuvering to justify his remaining on the investigation are engaging, they feel real and horribly relatable. Sigurdur Oli is a good police officer with a credible private life, the reader may not like him, they can easily relate to him. His personal life is under considerable strain, it is not actively dysfunctional, it is an understandable context for his actions.
The supporting cast are all given the breath of life, there are no stereotypes of fill in positions in the story. Everyone is actively motivated to act, to defend their interests in credible ways and the respond to the increasing pressure of the investigation in an engaging fashion. The cast are meshed in a superb set of plot mechanics, the story flows from one reveal to another, quietly changing focus only to return around again in a beautifully constructed way. The context of the boom in Iceland when banks and financiers in Iceland appeared to be global powerhouses is detailed with sardonic care.
Arnaldur Indridason has a clear authorial presence in the story, there is an explicit point of view about the cast and context. This never gets in the way of the story; it gives it an additional depth and coherence. The translation by Victoria Cribb is completely transparent, there is no sense that the cast, context, and writing are anything other than Icelandic, the English is never clumsy or artificial. It allows the rhythms of Icelandic life to emerge in an utterly natural way.
First rate crime fiction, a deep pleasure to read.
