2 x Indridason

I have spent a couple of weeks in Sweden, seeing my son and friends, decorating the flat and doing some studies. The last was more of an emergency call, since I had misread the dead-line! Well, know I have caught up again.

Looking at my TBR shelves in Sweden (yes, these shelves exists both in Belgium and Sweden!) I discovered to my great pleasure,  two unread books by Arnaldur Indridason.  Nordic crime writers are very popular these days. For one reason or the other, I don't read so many crime novels. However, having found some unread on my shelves, I went all crime fiction during these weeks. I start with one of my very favourite author.

Artic Chill and Reykjavik Nights by Arnaldur Indridason. As usual, interesting cold case stories mixed with a murder mystery.

In Arctic Chill a dark-skinned young boy is found dead and his Thai half-brother is missing. Is it a racial murder? Or a paedophile murder? Or did the boy see something he shouldn't see? The options are many and Erlendur and his team find tension in the boy's surrounding. As usual there is a lot of tragedy connected to the people surrounding the case. At the same time Erlendur faces shadows from his past.

In Reykjavik Nights I found, to my surprise, a young Erlendur, just having started working for the police and doing night patrols. Checking the book on the internet, I saw that there actually are four books in a "Young Inspector Erlendur" series. Here he is solving a case with a murdered home-less begger and a missing wife. He is not yet and inspector and pursues the case on his spare time.  We can see the future inspector and his special way of approaching a murder case, already here. A different case, but not less interesting.

As always Indridason makes you guess until the very end. I really love his books, and they have a lot of interesting, touching stories of ordinary people. Many of them from the dark side of society. His characterisations are very good and you always get a dose of the Icelandic scenery! What is not to love?

Have you read anything by him? Do you like the books?