Silence of the Grave (Reykjavik Murder Mysteries, No. 2)

by Arnaldur Indriðason | Mystery & Thrillers |
ISBN: 0312427328 Global Overview for this book
Registered by florafloraflora on 1/28/2008
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8 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by florafloraflora on Monday, January 28, 2008
I bought this book over the weekend after hearing a podcast about Scandinavian crime fiction. It's fantastic, with very fully-realized characters and a two-pronged plot in which the past moves forward and the present moves backward to meet at the scene of the crime. I'm even learning a little bit about Icelandic history.

There's a splashy first sentence too: "He knew at once it was a human bone, when he took it from the baby who was sitting on the floor chewing it."

This is as good a mystery as I've ever read.

Journal Entry 2 by florafloraflora on Tuesday, January 29, 2008
A nicely-done mystery. A 50-year-old skeleton turns up on a suburban building site. Detective Erlendur and his colleagues, including what might be the world's most meticulous archaeologist, work on solving the mystery and uncover another in the process. Meanwhile, the deeply melancholy Erlendur's estranged daughter suddenly needs his help.

Reserved for a friend of mine.

Journal Entry 3 by florafloraflora on Thursday, May 1, 2008
Sending this out to a friend today.

Journal Entry 4 by wingmiketrollwing on Tuesday, May 13, 2008
A welcome RABCK from florafloraflora, this Icelandic thriller was an immensely satisfying read. A buried human skeleton is found on the edge of a housing development in an outer suburb of Reykjavik. It is estimated that the burial took place during WW2.

The police call in a university archaeological team to conduct the exhumation. In a relentlessly grim tale of murder, suicide, family break-up, drug abuse and chronic domestic violence, the incongruous slowness of the diggers provides the only light relief. But the detectives are patient; the body has been there 70 years, so a few days more won't matter.

Archaeology is an apt metaphor for the gradual discovery of dark family secrets more than half a century old. But the truth is revealed not only by police detective work; the events of 70 years ago form a direct sub-plot with an omniscient narrator. At first it seems these events are concurrent with the detective work, but in an original twist, the reader suddenly realises that this entire narrative must be flipped back in time as part of the murder mystery. Thereafter, the current detective work and the historic narrative inexorably converge on the final revelation - it's very artfully done!

Another sub-plot is the relationship between the middle-aged detective, Erlendur, and his ex-wife and estranged children. Erlendur's daughter, Eva Lind, is a drug addict, comatose in intensive care after a miscarriage. He spends much of his spare time talking to her at her bedside, occasionally accompanied by a barrage of verbal abuse from his ex. Such a happy scene!

But the central theme of long-term domestic violence is the most harrowing and heart-breaking of all. One wonders continually how and why the wife of Grimur (tellingly, her name is revealed only late in the story) endures such appalling physical and mental abuse for so many years. It also leaves permanent psychological scars on her children, one of whom is physically handicapped and utterly rejected by her terrifying father. And yet we know that things like this happen in real life.

Moreover, Indriðason is no bonehead purveyor of guts and gore like the despicable Palahniuk (why do some people love him?). There is an enduring, indeed salutary love and solidarity in the relationships between Grimur's long-suffering wife and her long-suffering children. That love triumphs over evil.

Is Indriðason's Iceland as portrayed in this novel any more representative than, say, the grimy world of Rankin's Inspector Rebus is representative of Edinburgh (in stark contrast to the cosy Edinburgh of McCall Smith)? Perhaps life in general really is harsher and grimmer in bleak, inhospitable places on the edge of the Arctic Circle.

Some time ago I saw an excellent film documentary about rural Wisconsin in the early 1900s. There's a related book - wish I could recall the names. Anyway, the film maker set out to show that life down on the farm was really not so idyllic, citing many cases of mass killing followed by the suicide of the killer, or just suicide. The Wisconsin winter without oil-fired central heating and cavity wall insulation must have been hard to bear! And of course some time later Wisconsin also gave us Ed Gein...

I'm going to wild release Silence of the Grave in Reykjavik in July. I had thought of doing this near Bobby Fischer's grave at Hraungerdi, but this lies some 30 miles east of the city and so I may not get there. Shame, it would be nice to say goodbye to somebody whose chess has meant a great deal to me through most of my life. Like the central characters of Indriðason's novel, Fischer was always a tormented soul. He no doubt chose to die in Iceland because it was the scene of his greatest triumph, and because Iceland welcomed him. But he may also have felt emotional affinity with the wild land of ice and fire. I can't wait to go there!

Journal Entry 5 by wingmiketrollwing at Pen and Wig pub OBCZ in Cardiff, Wales United Kingdom on Saturday, April 16, 2011

Released 12 yrs ago (4/16/2011 UTC) at Pen and Wig pub OBCZ in Cardiff, Wales United Kingdom

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Sorry, I didn't release this book in Iceland as promised in my earlier JE. But with good reason: the ship broke down and I didn't go! However, I have since been to Iceland and unfortunately this book slipped under the radar. Anyway, the Icelanders will prefer to read it in their own language. No more excuses, I'm now going to release it at today's BC meetup at the Pen & Wig OBCZ!

Journal Entry 6 by HerbertLooby at Cardiff, Wales United Kingdom on Sunday, April 17, 2011
Serendipity seems to have brought this my way. I was incredibly pleased to find this at the meet up as it is by an author who had been recommended to me by other BC'ers and I needed something by this author to add to a book box. thank you!

Journal Entry 7 by HerbertLooby at on Sunday, July 27, 2014

Released 9 yrs ago (7/27/2014 UTC) at

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

For wishlist tag game - enjoy!

Journal Entry 8 by wingyorkshire-lasswing at Maidstone, Kent United Kingdom on Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Thank you for tagging me with this, I'm looking forward to reading it. As my TBR pile is massive it may take me a while to get to it.

Journal Entry 9 by wingyorkshire-lasswing at Maidstone, Kent United Kingdom on Saturday, March 10, 2018
Got to it at last!
This was so good I found it difficult to put down once I'd started it, I'm looking forward to the next in the series.

Journal Entry 10 by wingyorkshire-lasswing at Maidstone, Kent United Kingdom on Thursday, March 15, 2018

Released 6 yrs ago (3/16/2018 UTC) at Maidstone, Kent United Kingdom

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

This is now on its way to brunton11 as part of the Wishlist Tag Game, hope you enjoy this as much as I did :-)

Journal Entry 11 by wingbrunton11wing at Chester, Cheshire United Kingdom on Saturday, April 7, 2018
Arrived safely today via Salford 😀 thanks for the tag.

Journal Entry 12 by wingbrunton11wing at Chester, Cheshire United Kingdom on Sunday, June 14, 2020
I enjoyed this book much more than the first one. I’ll be on the lookout for book 3.

Reserved as a potential RABCK.

Journal Entry 13 by wingmcsarwing at Richmond, British Columbia Canada on Wednesday, August 26, 2020
Thank you so much for generously sending this as a surprise RABCK. I enjoyed book 1, and since you liked this more than the first book, I am more eager to read this. The only thing is I just received the same book last week for a sweeps. Great minds think alike and both of you chose this book for me. So I will probably find another reader for this copy.

Journal Entry 14 by wingmcsarwing at Richmond, British Columbia Canada on Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Released 2 yrs ago (4/27/2021 UTC) at Richmond, British Columbia Canada

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I haven't read this one yet. But I read book 1 in the series and enjoyed it. This duplicate copy is going to ResQGeek as part of the BC Unconvention 2021 NSS. Enjoy!

Journal Entry 15 by ResQgeek at Alexandria, Virginia USA on Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Oh wow! Scrolling through the journal entries for this well-traveled book is a thrill. I miss miketroll, and florafloraflora used to be active here in the DC area! What a great chance to travel down memory lane for a little bit.

As for the book itself, I see that it has gotten lots of positive responses, which alone makes me interested in reading it. That is only reinforced by the fact that the book is set in Iceland, and Reykjavik specifically. My wife and I spend three nights in Reykjavik on our way home from a cruise up the Norwegian coast, and we *loved* the city, the country, and the people. We definitely plan to return. Somehow, I don't expect this to linger in my TBR mountain range for long.

Journal Entry 16 by ResQgeek at Alexandria, Virginia USA on Saturday, June 12, 2021
Mystery novels are not, for the most part, a big component in my reading. It isn't that I don't enjoy them, but so many of them are formulaic, and I get bored of reading the same story over and over again. But not this one. This one grabbed my interest quickly and I was utterly absorbed in it for the duration. The story opens with the discovery of a skeleton at a construction site on the edges of the Reykjavik suburbs. As the police begin their investigation, it quickly becomes apparent that the body was likely buried during (or very near) the years of WWII. As the police begin digging through records and trying to trace anyone who might have information from that far back, we also are introduced to two other story threads. One is the brutal tale of a woman trapped in a violent, abusive relationship. As these two stories develop, it gradually becomes clear that they are the same story, but the careful story writing keeps the reader guessing as to the identity of the victim until the very end. The other sub-plot centers on the detective in charge of the investigation and his own struggles with his estranged family. All of these threads come together to provide a thoroughly satisfying story, with complex and well developed characters.

Journal Entry 17 by ResQgeek at Alexandria, Virginia USA on Monday, December 20, 2021
I used this book as one of my submissions for this year's annual BC-in-DC holiday party first-lines game. I knew as soon as I read it that it was perfect for our game. 6of8 seemed excited to get this book, and I will try to find a way to get it to her soon.

Journal Entry 18 by ResQgeek at Alexandria, Virginia USA on Sunday, February 6, 2022

Released 2 yrs ago (2/6/2022 UTC) at Alexandria, Virginia USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

6of8 claimed this during our annual "first lines" book exchange during our December virtual meeting. I don't know when I will see her next, but katekintail is coming by today to drop of books I claimed during the exchange, and she is probably more likely to see 6of8 before me, so I'll hand this to her to pass along.

Journal Entry 19 by wing6of8wing at -- Mail or by hand-rings, RABCK, meetings, etc, Virginia USA on Sunday, February 13, 2022
Today I met up with KateKintail to release some memorial books and to exchange books with each other. I didn't realize that the two she gave me were from Resqgeek -- even when we proceeded to his house and talked with him for a while. Thanks!

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