Strange Shores: An Inspector Erlendur Novel (An Inspector Erlendur Series)

From Booklist *Starred Review* Erlendur, the doleful Reykjavik police inspector (Outrage, 2012), has taken leave from his job to return to Iceland’s remote Eastern Fjords. He is camping very rough in the collapsing remains of the farmhouse his family abandoned after his younger brother, Bergur, disappeared in a savage blizzard that Erlendur barely survived. Walking the moors, Erlendur meets an old man named Boas who took part in the search for Bergur, and the voluble Boas tells him of another disappearance. A woman named Matthildur set out for her mother’s house in 1942 and disappeared in another blizzard. Erlendur begins to visit surviving people who knew Matthildur, and he ultimately stitches together a tale of lies, betrayals, and murder. But all the while, it is Bergur’s disappearance—and Erlendur’s guilt—that obsesses him. His interviews with people who knew Matthildur, all in their eighties and nineties, recall the voices of Norse sagas: pithy, concise, and very matter-of-fact about everything, including their own impending deaths. These encounters are brilliantly written, and the Matthildur “case” is wonderfully convoluted. The dour detective courts hypothermia each night in the farmhouse, has ethereal encounters with an augur from his youth, and finds some respite from his lifelong grief. Strange Shores reads as if it could be the last entry in the Erlendur cycle. If so, it’s a superb end to a haunting series. --Thomas Gaughan “Having been absent in Indridason's previous two mysteries, Erlendur's return will thrill fans. His doggedness and unconventional methods are in rare form. While series veterans get more insight on Bergur's disappearance, no knowledge of the backstory is required for full enjoyment of this satisfying mystery.” ― Library Journal “Brilliantly written.” ― Booklist “Iceland's Indridason is a master of the hard-edged realist psychological thriller anchoring his stories in the dark side of contemporary Icelandic life.” ― Men's Journal ARNALDUR INDRIDASON won the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Silence of the Grave and is the only author to win the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel two years in a row. The film of Jar City was Iceland's entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, and the film Silence of the Grave is in production with the same director. The film Contraband, starring Mark Wahlberg, was based on an Icelandic film written by Indridason, who lives in Reykjavik, Iceland. Read more