This is the book for which Indriðason won the CWA Gold Dagger award last year. I enjoyed the first book in the series, Tainted Blood (or previously, Jar City), and the return of police detective Erlendur is welcome. As before, he’s struggling with his private life. He lives alone, but his dug-addicted daughter has miscarried and is in a coma.
In the meantime, some bones are uncovered on a hillside… Flashbacks to a time when Reykjavik is under Allied occupation during the Second World War, and a husband who beats his wife and taunts his children including a disabled daughter. It’s pretty horrible what she’s having to put up with.
The question, then, is how does this relate to the bones that have turned up in the present day?
This is a short book, but a very good one. On the surface everything seems very simple, but digging into the past unearths complexities and complications. We learn some more of Erlendur’s background, and begin to understand why he’s had such a tumultuous personal life.