Silence of the grave

When a skeleton is unearthed at a Reykjavik building site, Inspector Erlendur and his colleagues set out to unravel a complex decades-old crime that may have ties to his own troubled family history.

When a skeleton is unearthed at a Reykjavik building site, Inspector Erlendur and his colleagues set out to unravel a complex decades-old crime that may have ties to his own troubled family history. By the author of Jar City. Reader's Guide available. Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger Award. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.

Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger AwardInspector Erlendur returns in this gripping Icelandic thriller When a skeleton is discovered half-buried in a construction site outside of Reykjavík, Inspector Erlendur finds himself knee-deep in both a crime scene and an archeological dig. Bone by bone, the body is unearthed, and the brutalizing history of a family who lived near the building site comes to light along with it. Was the skeleton a man or a woman, a victim or a killer, and is this a simple case of murder or a long-concealed act of justice? As Erlendur tries to crack this cold case, he must also save his drug-addicted daughter from self destruction and somehow glue his hopelessly fractured family back together.Like the chilly Nordic mysteries of Henning Mankell and Karen Fossum, Arnaldur Indridason delivers a stark police procedural full of humanity and pathos, a classic noir from a very cold place.