Reykjavik Murder Mysteries

by 11 books in this series
#1 - Jar City
#1 - Jar City
An old man is found murdered in his Reykjavik flat.

A cryptic note and a photograph of a young girl's grave are left behind.


DID THE DEAD MAN'S PAST COME BACK TO HAUNT HIM?


Inspector Erlendur discovers that several decades ago the victim was accused, but not convicted, of an unsolved crime. As he follows a fascinating trail of strange forensic evidence, Inspector Erlendur uncovers secrets that are much larger than the murder of one man - dark secrets that have been carefully guarded for many, many years...
'A fascinating window on an unfamiliar world as well as an original and puzzling mystery' Val McDermid

'A chilling Icelandic saga of the DNA age' Independent

FROM CWA GOLD DAGGER AWARD-WINNING CRIME WRITER ARNALDUR INDRIDASON
#2 - Silence of the Grave
#2 - Silence of the Grave
Building work in an expanding Reykjavík 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. Things are never that simple.

Whilst 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...

Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger.
#3 - Voices
#3 - Voices
A REYKJAVIK MURDER MYSTERY.

It is a few days before Christmas and a Reykjavik doorman and occasional Santa Claus, Gudlauger, has been found stabbed to death in his hotel room in a sexually compromising position. It soon becomes apparent that both staff and guests have something to hide, but it is the dead man who has the most shocking secret.

Detective Erlendur soon discovers that the placidly affluent appearance of the hotel covers a multitude of sins.

Winner of the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger.
#4 - The Draining Lake
#4 - The Draining Lake
A REYKJAVIK MURDER MYSTERY.

A skeleton is found half-buried in a dried out lake. The bones have been weighed down with an old radio transmitter: is this a clue to the victim, and the killer's identity?

Detective Erlendur is called in to investigate and discovers that there may be a connection with a group of students who were sent to study in East Germany during the Cold War, and with a young man who walked out of his family home one day, never to return.

As the mystery deepens, Erlendur and his team must unravel a story of international espionage, murder and betrayal.
#5 - Arctic Chill
#5 - Arctic Chill
A dark-skinned young boy is found dead, frozen to the ground in a pool of his own blood. The boy's Thai half-brother is missing; is he implicated, or simply afraid for his own life? While fears increase that the murder could have been racially motivated, the police receive reports that a suspected paedophile has been spotted in the area.

Detective Erlendur's investigation soon unearths the tension simmering beneath the surface of Iceland's outwardly liberal, multi-cultural society while the murder forces Erlendur to confront the tragedy in his own past.
#6 - Hypothermia
#6 - Hypothermia
One cold autumn night, a woman is found hanging from a beam at her holiday cottage. At first sight, it appears like a straightforward case of suicide; María had never recovered from the death of her mother two years previously and she had a history of depression. But then the friend who found her body approaches Detective Erlendur with a tape of a séance that María attended before her death and his curiosity is aroused.

Driven by a need to find answers, Erlendur begins an unofficial investigation into María's death. But he is also haunted by another unsolved mystery - the disappearance of two young people thirty years ago - and by his own quest to find the body of his brother, who died in a blizzard when he was a boy. Hypothermia is Indridason's most compelling novel yet.
#7 - Outrage
#7 - Outrage
Reykjavik, Saturday night

He offered her another margarita, and, as he returned from the bar, he carefully slid the pill into her glass. They were getting along fine, and he was sure she would give him no trouble...

48 hours later

A young man is found dead in a pool of blood. There is no sign of a break-in at his flat. The victim is found wearing a woman's t-shirt, while a bottle of Rohypnol lies on the table nearby.

Detective Elinborg, already struggling to juggle family life and the relentless demands of her job, is assigned the case. But with no immediate leads to the killer, can she piece together details of the victim's secret life and solve a brutal murder?
#8 - Black Skies
#8 - Black Skies
Detective Sigurdur Oli is in trouble.

After a school reunion exposes the chasm between his life and those of his much more successful contemporaries, leaving him bitter and resentful, one of his old friends asks him to pay an unofficial visit to a couple of blackmailers. He readily agrees, only to arrive to find one of the pair lying in a pool of blood. When the victim dies in hospital, Sigurdur Oli is faced with investigating a murder without revealing his own reasons for being present at the murder scene.

Moving from the villas of Reykjavík's banking elite to a sordid basement flat, Black Skies is a superb story of greed, pride and murder from one of Europe's most successful crime writers.
#9 - Strange Shores
#9 - Strange Shores
A missing woman. A missing boy. Detective Erlendur returns - for the last time

A young woman walks into the frozen fjords of Iceland, never to be seen again. But Matthildur leaves in her wake rumours of lies, betrayal and revenge.

Decades later, somewhere in the same wilderness, Detective Erlendur is on the hunt. He is looking for Matthildur but also for a long-lost brother, whose disappearance in a snow-storm when they were children has coloured his entire life. He is looking for answers.

Slowly, the past begins to surrender its secrets. But as Erlendur uncovers a story about the limits of human endurance, he realises that many people would prefer their crimes to stay buried.
#10 - Reykjavik Nights
#10 - Reykjavik Nights
THE LIVING

Erlendur has recently joined the police force as a young officer and immediately sinks into the darkness of Reykjavik's underworld. Working nights, he discovers the city is full of car crashes, robberies, drinkers and fighters. And sometimes an unexplained death.

THE LOST

A homeless man Erlendur knows is found drowned. But few people care. Or when a young woman on her way home from a club vanishes. Both cases go cold.

THE SEARCHER

Two lost people from two different worlds. Erlendur is not an investigator, but his instincts tell him their fates are worth pursuing. How could they be linked?

IN THE HEART OF THE NIGHT

Inexorably, he is drawn into the blackness of the city’s underbelly, where everyone is in the dark or on the run.

'One of the most accomplished series of detective novels in modern crime fiction' - Sunday Times

'An international literary phenomenon - and it's easy to see why. His novels are gripping, authentic, haunting and lyrical' - Harlan Coben
#11 - Oblivion
#11 - Oblivion
THE QUICK

A woman swims in a remote, milky-blue lagoon. Steam rises from the water and as it clears, a body is revealed in the ghostly light.

THE DEAD

Miles away, a vast aircraft hangar rises behind the perimeter fence of the US military base. A sickening thud is heard as a man’s body falls from a high platform.

THE FORGOTTEN

Many years before, a schoolgirl went missing. The world has forgotten her. But Erlendur has not.

THE SEARCHER

Erlendur Sveinsson is a newly promoted detective with a battered body, a rogue CIA operative and America’s troublesome presence in Iceland to contend with. In his spare time he investigates a cold case. He is only starting out but he is already up to his neck.

'His novels are gripping, authentic, haunting and lyrical' – Harlan Coben

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