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Biographical note
Arnaldur Indridason worked for many years as a journalist and critic before he began writing novels. His books have since sold over 20 million copies worldwide. Outside Iceland, he is best known for his crime novels featuring Erlendur and Sigurdur Óli, which are consistent bestsellers across Europe. The series has won numerous awards, including the Nordic Glass Key and the CWA Gold Dagger. The Shadow District – the first book in the Reykjavík Wartime Mystery series – won the Premio RBA de Novela Negra, the world’s most lucrative crime fiction prize. Victoria Cribb studied and worked in Iceland for many years. She has translated more than 25 novels from the Icelandic and, in 2017, she received the Orðstír honourary translation award for services to Icelandic literature. Victoria Cribb has spent the last twenty-five years immersed in Iceland's language and literature. After reading Old Icelandic at Cambridge, she took an MA in Scandinavian Studies at University College London and a BPhil in Icelandic at the University of Iceland, before working in Iceland for a number of years as a publisher, journalist and translator. Since 2002 she has lived in London, working as a freelance translator, and currently also teaches Icelandic at University College London and in Cambridge. Her translations include The Blue Fox by Sjón and three novels in collaboration with Olaf Olafsson, as well as countless other works of fiction and non-fiction, published in books, anthologies and magazines. At present she is translating the latest crime novel by Arnaldur Indridason.The undisputed king of the Icelandic thriller.
- Barry Forshaw, Guardian
Indridason remains the king of the ice-castle.
- Mark Sanderson, Evening Standard
The crime: Reykjavík, August 1941. When a travelling salesman is found murdered in a basement flat, the police initially suspect a member of the Allied occupation force.
The suspect: Flóvent, Reykjavík’s sole detective, is joined by the young military policeman Thorson. Their investigation focuses on a family of German residents, the retired doctor Rudolf Lunden and his estranged son Felix, who is on the run, suspected of being a spy.
The ex-lover: Flóvent and Thorson race to solve the case before US Counterintelligence can take it out of their hands. As evidence emerges of dubious experiments carried out on Icelandic schoolboys in the 1930s, Thorson becomes increasingly suspicious of the role played by the murdered man’s former girlfriend, Vera, and her British soldier lover.
'The undisputed King of the Icelandic Thriller.' - Guardian
'An international literary phenomenon - and it's easy to see why. His novels are gripping, authentic, haunting and lyrical.' - Harlan Coben