A fascinating window on an unfamiliar world as well as an original and puzzling mystery - Val McDermidA man is found murdered in his Reykjavik flat. There are no obvious clues apart from a cryptic note left on the body and a photograph of a young girl's grave. Detective Erlendur is forced to use all the forensic resources available to find any leads at all. Delving into the dead man's life he discovers that forty years ago he was accused of an appalling crime. Did his past come back to haunt him? Finally, Erlendur's search leads him to Iceland's Genetic Research Centre in order to find the disturbing answers to the mystery. This prizewinning international bestseller is the first in a new series of crime novels set in Iceland.
"This is Icelandic and it’s the first in the series. Another miserable cop and the backdrop of Iceland which is bleak and rainy or snowy. The cop has a daughter who’s a junkie and he doesn’t see much of his kids. I chose this one because it could only have been set in Iceland, could only have been about Iceland. The plot is all about the human genome discovery and stuff. I won’t go into it but it has these medical and scientific projects going on and the jars are the test tubes and jars with parts of the body in them. I suppose it’s traditional. It started in the States with Philip Marlowe – you know, they drink too much and are flawed in some way. If you have to follow this guy through half a dozen books it’s more interesting if he’s flawed. He has to keep your interest. I mean, Ruth Rendell’s Wexford who is happily married and all that, he gets very boring after a while. It’s like virtual travel. It’s not only a good novel but you get a sense of another country and of that country’s preoccupations. There is a lot of morality in a way and the novels are much more literary, more philosophical. I know Karin Fossum sees herself as a descendent of Ibsen. You don’t get all the slash and rip, car chasey, pacy stuff that you get in a lot of American and now British novels."
