Silence of the Grave (Reykjavik Thriller Series #2) by Arnaldur Indridason, Bernard Scudder (Translator)

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
In Icelandic writer Arnaldur Indridason's follow-up to 2005's critically acclaimed Jar City, melancholic Reykjavik detective Erlendur investigates the remains of a decades-old skeleton found buried at a building site, even as his own personal life slowly unravels…

The story begins with a horrific scene: At a birthday party in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Reykjavik, amid the balloons and streamers, a baby is found gnawing on a human bone. Further investigation leads police to a nearby construction site where a new residential development is being built. As forensic scientists meticulously unearth the skeleton, police inspector Erlendur and his team try to unravel the 60-year-old mystery. Gruesome details surface about an Icelandic family that lived in a nearby chalet during WWII, as Erlendur faces his own tragedy. His estranged drug-addicted daughter, seven months pregnant, desperately reaches out to him for help…

To call Silence of the Grave (which won the British Crime Writers' Association's prestigious Golden Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of 2005) an emotionally charged novel would be an understatement. Indridason's dark, introspective prose mirrors the cold, bleak setting of Reykjavik, and the intimate exploration of numerous unsavory themes (domestic violence, drug addiction, etc.) will leave readers chilled to the bone. This top-notch psychological thriller is a masterfully plotted historical whodunit and, above all, a powerfully moving commentary concerning the cycles of violence in families. In a word: Unforgettable. Paul Goat Allen

From the Publisher

Downtrodden Detective Erlendur and his team must once again investigate Reykjavik’s hidden past to unravel a case of human nastiness.

Construction work in an expanding Reykjavik uncovers a shallow grave. Years before, this part of the city was all open hills, and Erlendur and his team hope this is a typical Icelandic missing person scenario; perhaps someone once lost in the snow, who has lain peacefully buried for decades. But things are never that simple. While Erlendur struggles to hold together the crumbling fragments of his own family, his case unearths many other tales of family pain.

The hills have more than one tragic story to tell: tales of failed relationships and heartbreak; of anger, domestic violence and fear; of family loyalty and family shame. Few people are still alive who can tell the story, but even secrets taken to the grave cannot remain hidden forever.

Alive with tension and atmosphere, and disturbingly real, this is an outstanding continuation of the Reykjavik Murder Mysteries.

The New York Times - Marilyn Stasio

With only two of his novels currently circulating in English translation, Arnaldur Indridason puts Iceland on the map as a major destination for enthusiasts of Nordic crime fiction. In Jar City, published last year, this commanding new voice drew us into the melancholy world of Erlendur Sveinsson, a Reykjavik police detective haunted by the forgotten victims of unsolved crimes. The author raises the same ghosts in Silence of the Grave, applying his austere style to a crime of such emotional breadth and sociological complexity that it acquires the sweep and consequence of epic storytelling.

Publishers Weekly

In Indridason's excellent second mystery (after 2005's Jar City), a skeleton, buried for more than 50 years, is uncovered at a building site on the outskirts of Reykjavik. Who is it? How did he or she die? And was it murder? The police wonder, chief among them the tortured, introspective Inspector Erlendur, introduced in Jar City. While an archeologist excavates the burial site, several other narratives unfold: a horrifying story of domestic abuse set during WWII, a search for missing persons that unearths almost-forgotten family secrets involving some of the city's most prominent citizens, and Erlendur's own painful family story (his estranged, drug-addicted daughter is in a coma, after miscarrying her child). All these strands are compelling, but it's the story of the physical and psychological battering of a young mother of three by her husband that resonates most. And the denouement of this astonishingly vivid and subtle novel is unexpected and immensely satisfying. Indridason has won the CWA Golden Dagger Award. Author tour. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Led by Sweden's Henning Mankell (see below) and Norway's Karin Fossum, Scandinavian mystery writers have become increasingly popular in this country. In the second of an Icelandic series to be translated into English (the first was Jar City), Reykjavik detective Erlendur begins investigating the elderly inhabitants of an area after children find an old human skeleton partially uncovered at a building site. Concurrently, the author tells the story of a woman, horribly abused by her sadistic husband, and her three children living in fear of the father. Yet a third theme involves Erlendur's estranged daughter, drug-addicted and now pregnant, who thrusts herself back into his life. Like the long, cold Scandinavian winters, this novel features much darkness, yet as in the Icelandic sagas the author has studied, there is some hope amidst much pain and suffering. Ably translated, this title won the 2005 British Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger, a controversial choice that forced the CWA to create a separate category for mysteries in translation. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 6/1/06.]-Roland Person, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The secret of a buried body reaches back generations to a grim murder. A birthday party comes to an abrupt halt when a baby is found gnawing on a human bone. After the infant's brother T-ti sheepishly reveals that he found the bone at a construction site down the street, stolid Reykjav'k police inspector Erlendur Sveinsson (Jar City, 2005) cordons off the area as a crime scene, to the chagrin of the builder. An archaeologist determines that the female corpse has been buried for at least 40 years. Erlendur dubs the case the Bones Mystery. Bitterly estranged from ex-wife Halld-ra, he learns that their drug-addicted daughter Eva Lind has landed in the hospital comatose and pregnant. When he's not tracking down elderly neighbors and relatives of former residents of the house with the buried body, Erlendur undertakes a bedside vigil with another comatose patient. The doctors instruct him to talk to Eva, and he digs deeper and deeper into his heart to come up with things to talk about. Erlendur's sidekicks, Sigurdur ili and El'nborg, also grapple with personal problems. Meanwhile, a man named Gr'mur is terrorizing his battered wife and her three children in a subplot that has its own connection to the Bones Mystery. This winner of the CWA Golden Dagger Award is a resonant psychological crime novel rich in unflinching observations about family relationships.

Product Details

• Table of Contents
• Reading Group Guide

Table of Contents

Reading Group Guide

1. Crime novels often seem to have a social conscience. What aspects of society (human relationships, social stigmas, lifestyle choices etc.) are explored here, and what do you think this adds to the authenticity of the novel? To what extent are we intended to condemn, and to what extent to empathise with, the ills of society addressed?

2. Domestic violence is a harrowing subject. How does Indridason's decision to play out the disturbing scenes of the past in a narrative parallel to the police investigations add force to the story?

3. How do Erlender's personal problems compliment the investigation? Think about the same thing in other detective novels.

4. Think about the atmosphere, mood and style of this and any other Nordic crime novels you have read. What draws you to this kind of book? What are you looking for when choosing to read a crime novel?

5. Think about the themes of family and childhood in the book.

6. Think about the plot device of the red herring. How do the twists and turns alter your expectations as the story progresses?