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Dec 23, 2008

Elizabeth rated it:

I read this book in one day. I can't think of the last time I did that. It helped that there was a snow storm outside and the temperature was in single digits but with all the other one could do in the house (including that neglected bookshelf dusting), the most interesting thing was this book. I love mysteries that are mysterious enough to keep me reading even if I've figured out some or all of it before the big reveal. Jar City reveals itself slowly over the course of the story, with the prota More...

0 comments like (11 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Christy rated it:

Arnaldur Indriđason's Jar City is a mystery novel set in Reykjavik that plays with issues of paternity, family, and identity. Mostly, however, it's a whodunit. As such, it's a good read. But as more than that, though it gestures toward larger questions, it left me wanting more.

The jacket reviews call it a "dark, haunting novel" with an "emotionally wrought ending that caught me off guard and touched me in a way that few mystery novels do" (The Boston Globe), one More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Jan 30, 2012

Carolyn rated it:

The detective Erlendur series is my favorite discovery of the past decade. There is absolutely nothing similar in the detective fiction genre, and this includes other Nordic crime fiction such as the Millenium trilogy. It is just so Icelandic. The main character is complex, flawed and a mass of contradictions. The author skilfully combines threads of different plots into a very effective narrative.
Among the themes which are explored are guilt, loss of a child and coming to terms with More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2011

Vanessa rated it:

Arnaldur Indridason (a name I just retyped 4 times before I spelled it right) is a best selling writer in Iceland. I had a little trouble getting into this story at first but once I did, I did enjoy it and had to barrel through the last 100 pages to find out what happened. The way he wrapped everything up was fairly clever, making good use of Iceland's history, weather and demographics. His protagonist is Erlander, a Reykjavik detective investigating the murder of an old man that looks fairly un More...

7 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 08, 2010

Brendan rated it:

Jar City follows Detective Erlendur as he investigates the seemingly random murder of an old man with an ash tray. What he uncovers is a whole lot more sordid, complicated, and grim. A few thoughts:

* I haven’t read or seen very many Nordic mysteries–Death in Amsterdam, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and the PBS Wallander series–but man, are they gloomy. Jar City is no different. What’s strange is that I find very little reason or specifics about what make it gloomy. It just More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Writerlibrarian rated it:

This is an amazingly dark and desperate mystery novel. Set in Iceland, in mid late fall, when the days are short and humid and full of desperation. Erlendur ends up investigating the murder of an old, vicious man who might have raped countless of women. This book is about hiding from the past and the consequences of it. It's as good as the best Mankell's novel. I liked it a lot even if I was feeling quite blue when I finished it. It's a total trip into a country we barely know exist and a societ More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 12, 2007

Jim rated it:

The first novel in English by Indridason. Set in Iceland, this book and its sequels, Silence of the Grave and Voices, feature Erlendur Sveinsson, another middle-aged detective about ten scotches from suicide. He's an original, with an air of exhausted sophistication that makes Harry Bosch and John Rebus look callow.

Indridason is gift for anyone who loves a good crime story, but bored with the usual run of serial killers and sex addicts. The Icelandic context makes the stories richer More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 20, 2010

Joyce rated it:

Set in Reykjavik, Iceland, this debut novel police procedural features Inspector Erlandur who is practically a copy of Henning Mankell s Inspector Kurt Wallander. Both are divorced, both have trouble with their ex-wives, and both have terrible relationships with their daughters (although Wallander s improves over the series). [return][return]The plot centers around the murder of an old man. The investigation slowly uncovers the fact that the origins of the murder go back decades to other cr More...

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Feb 02, 2009

Toni rated it:

Also published under the title "Tainted Blood"

This is the third Inspector Erlendur book but the first to be translated into English.

What seems to be like an ordinary murder of an old man whose head has been bashed in by an ashtray; things are far more complicated than they look. Many years ago the victim was accused of rape but never convicted of the crime. Did the old man's past come back to haunt him? Inspector Erlendur leads the police team and hunts down dec More...

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Feb 14, 2012

John rated it:

JAR CITY by Icelandic crime writer Arnaldur Indridason is sombre, clever, and extremely absorbing.

It’s a straight police procedural, involving a lead detective (Erlendur) who works on his instincts rather than simply following the obvious clues, and this sometimes frustrates of his colleagues. Like Wallander, he’s not an exciting or glamorous detective, and the whole setting (it rains throughout almost the entire book) is dour and underplayed, which, of course, is pretty much how ma More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 31, 2011

Kelly rated it:

The small genetic pool of Iceland plays into the starkly composed mystery which marks the debut in English of Inspector Erlendur (though it was the third Erlendur book in Iceland). In what first presents as a typically rueful Icelandic crime Arnaldur Indriðason crafts a procedural that begins with a bashed in skull, but turns into something much more when the victim , Holberg, turns out to have been accused of rape but not convicted. The victim of the murder is a brutal character himself, now la More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 18, 2011

Richard rated it:

Rating: 3 bleak * of five

It's hard for me to believe this is a debut novel. The author is, of course, a journalist and so the possessor of writerly skills; still, a novel is something wholly and entirely other than he could be expected to do in his sleep.

I think the first-novel-ishness comes out in a few small ways. He introduces a deeply disturbing sub-plot and does almost nothing with it. He has characters behave in some ways that don't scan with their stated behaviors. But More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 07, 2011

Joe rated it:

A police procedural story set in Iceland. Detective Erlendur is a fifty year old long divorced father with two children, young adults. He had little contact with the children while they were growing but, welcomed them when they sought him out when they were older. His daughter was a drug addict deeply in debt to dealers while his son faired a little better. His life was his job and he worked long hours and weekends in the dark and cold and rainy north. A murder victim was found by his upsta More...

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Aug 20, 2011

Alyssia rated it:

I don't often read crime novels, although I do when the mood comes across me. Mostly I read books which are either most definitely not set in the real world such as science fantasy or the ridiculously depressing books which tend to be closer to biographies. But I'd read quite a few reviews of this particular author, both here and in other places and so I thought it worth a shot. Particularly as I was looking at buying books for my ski-ing holiday (yes, it has taken me this long to finally start More...

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Aug 14, 2011

Kathleen added it

Jar City, by Arnaldur Indridason, a-minus, Narrated by George Guidall, produced by Recorded Books, downloaded from audible.com.

Gold Dagger Award winner Arnaldur Indridason's novels featuring Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson became international sensations on their way to selling millions
of copies worldwide. The debut of morose detective Sveinsson finds the inspector and his team delving into the murder of a retiree with horrifying secrets. The inspector is called to an isolated ca More...

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Jul 28, 2011

Derek rated it:

This is an excellent thriller, hopefully the first of a string of them by this author that I shall read (I have the next one on the "to read" pile). I have only withheld the full 5 stars because of a few quibbles with the translation which struck me as odd. Nothing I could put my finger on, mostly looseness of grammar, and a few instances of "he [blah blah]..." with no indication of who "he" was.

I especially liked the way the author withheld critical information. Th More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 28, 2011

Ms.pegasus rated it:

JAR CITY by Arnaldur Indridason (translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder) is deceptively austere in writing style. The story is propelled almost solely by the skillful intertwining of several story lines. A 70 year-old man named Holberg is found murdered in his damp squalid basement apartment. The only clues are a cryptic and hastily scrawled note and the aged photograph of a 4 year-old's grave. Inspector Erlendur of the Icelandic investigation unit and his team learn that the 4 More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 09, 2011

Anna rated it:

An old man is found murdered in his Reykjavik flat. The only clues around him are an odd note and a photograph of a young girl's grave. Inspector Erlendur discovers that many years ago this man was accused of, but never convicted, of a rape. Did the man's past start to haunt him? As Erlendur investigates the murder, he also opens a cold case, and the forensic evidence starts to build to something much bigger than just the murder of one old man.

An enjoyable (and not too brutal) thrill More...

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Dec 24, 2009

Tony rated it:

Indridason, Arnaldur. JAR CITY. (2005). ****. This was the first of this author’s books to be translated from Icelandic into English, and was done masterfully by Bernard Scudder. The novel won the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel when it was published. A film has also been made based on the book, but, unfortunately, Netflix doesn’t have a copy. In this novel, we meet the series protagonist, Inspector Erlendur, and the rest of his squad – all based in Reykjavik. They all take o More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 22, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

This Icelandic murder mystery was recommended to me by my boss's boss. She's spent... um, quite a few years as a librarian, so her reader's advisory skills are top-notch. She saw that I was enjoying The Elegance of the Hedgehog, so she recommended this.

On the surface, the two books have very little in common... besides being written by Europeans. And the French and Icelandic aren't exactly culturally or geographically adjacent. But there's something more intangible that seems to con More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 03, 2009

Martha rated it:

This author is evidently well known in Iceland, and there's always room in the U.S. for a mystery writer with something different to add to the genre.

Iceland seems like a dark place, and this novel only reinforces the notion. Our hero, detective Erlandur, is driven to justice almost against his better judgment. He battles politics, laws, and even the pitiful pleas of victimized families to be left alone, in order to get the killer and restore justice. In his own life, however, he More...

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Nov 14, 2011

Seb rated it:

I wanted to read an easy read after a 600page novel i struggled with a bit and my eye fell on this one. Detectives are always a good way to relax and a scandinavian thriller is even better. I didn't know anything from this author so i went in with no expectations. It is his first in the series with inspector erlendur. This character is in my opinion a bit over the top. Instead of making him a kind of deadbeat the writer makes him a man who is to blame for the end of his wedding, who has two chil More...

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Oct 08, 2009

Diane rated it:

This is another of those mysteries set in the cold north, this time Iceland. Is there a rule that says these men of the frozen north must be brooding, depressive, middle-aged, and divorced? The main character of this book, Erlunder,is a father of two problem children, both of whom add to his angst. It is an irony that the mystery of this story is not so much who committed the crime, but the family mysteries that motivated the crime. Those family mysteries relate to rape, genetic guilt, and loss. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Mary rated it:

This is the first of the series from the Icelandic crime thrillers and is also called "Tainted Blood". I would recommend this author to anyone who likes a murder/mystery, they are well worth a read. I like the fact also that the lead Detective is for once, not a perfect Adonis that the women are falling over themselves to get to know, he is an overweight, ginger haired (bushy), bit of a slob, with a whole load of personal problems, his drug addicted daughter being his biggest problem, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 16, 2011

Nancy rated it:

New York Magazine recently did an article on Scandinavian Crime Fiction. You know, "if you like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo , you'll love these!" Well, I hated The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but I liked this detective story set in Iceland. This definitely feels like an Icelandic novel - aspects of the national culture are woven into the plot. This is probably not a four star novel, but I got to spend time in Reykjavik last summer, and it's always more enjoyable to read a book More...

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Aug 26, 2010

Sandra rated it:

Another dark, moody Icelandic mystery! An old man is murdered with an ash tray, “a pathetic Icelandic murder,” as police inspector Erlendur describes it. A photograph of a child’s grave links the murder to a past crime and some unusual forensic evidence. Soon Erlendur reopens a cold case and is searching for a rapist as well as a murderer and is spending time at Iceland’s Genetic Research Centre.

The setting is raining and unfriendly. The characters are sad and desperate. Erlendur, th More...

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Feb 15, 2010

Joe rated it:

This was an interesting read about a murders that occur as a result of hatred,anger,indeference,self indulgence and disease.

A murderer is the hero and a murderer is a villan. One kills out or hatred and anger and the other out of self indulgence and pleasure. Disease becomes a weapon of destruction and hideous murder. A disease that is found in greater numbers of the population of Icedland than in other places in the world with more virulent results there than eslewhere. It be More...

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May 15, 2011

S.D. rated it:

This is the first in a series set in Iceland and introducing Inspector Erlender. An elderly man is found murdered in his apartment. A note was left with the body…”I am him” along with a photograph of a graveyard of a young girl. Erlender discovers that the deceased, Holberg, had been accused of rape decades ago but he was never charged. The case leads Erlender and his team, Sigurdur Oli and Elinborg, to the victim’s sister who is less than enthused with the police since they didn’t believe he More...

1 comment like

Sep 26, 2009

Sarah rated it:

I thought it was a nice story, except for the fact that none of the events connected in a logical way, and the fact that there was no happiness what-so-ever in the book.

The detective has a messed up family, no friends, no friendly co-worker relations, etc. His life is just one long crime-immersed fast-food-filled nightmare. I didn't like any of the characters, and all their interactions seemed hollow, like they were talking AT each other.

The events just sort of roll out, More...

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Aug 01, 2011

Michele rated it:

This Icelandic mystery/thriller by one of Iceland's most popular authors won the Glass Key Award in 2000 for the Best Nordic Crime Novel. It's been translated into English here under both this title and also under the title "Tainted Blood." It was made into a movie in Iceland in 2006 entitled "Jar City."

This is Arnaldur Indridason's third novel to feature Reykjavik policeman Inspector Erlendur and the novel is quite compelling. Erlendur is called to investigate More...

6 comments like (2 people liked it)