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The Draining Lake (Reykjavík Murder Mystery #6)
In the wake of an earthquake, the water level of an Icelandic lake drops suddenly, revealing the skeleton of a man half-buried in its sandy bed. It is clear immediately that it has been there for many years. There is a large hole in the skull. Yet more mysteriously, a heavy communication device is attached to it, possibly some sort of radio transmitter, bearing inscription...more
Hardcover, 312 pages
Published
September 30th 2008
by St. Martin's Minotaur
(first published 2004)
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I don't why I picked this book. Sometimes I walk past the library shelves in Fiction and just pick one up. If I like the cover (I know - so scientific), I'll read it.
So, begins why I had this book. It's written by an Icelandic writer, Arnaldur Indridason and it was translated into English. On my last horrid plane ride with one stop (3 hours that took 10 hours), I met a man from Iceland one a stopover in Phoenix - he and a friend were on their way to a dinner in Taos - he was Wiccan - H...more
So, begins why I had this book. It's written by an Icelandic writer, Arnaldur Indridason and it was translated into English. On my last horrid plane ride with one stop (3 hours that took 10 hours), I met a man from Iceland one a stopover in Phoenix - he and a friend were on their way to a dinner in Taos - he was Wiccan - H...more
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Literaire thriller die deze kwalificatie verdient, een klein trapje hoger dan Läckberg, die net als Indridason en Gisa Klönne erg goed is in het wisselen van vertelperspectief en het geloofwaardig, genuanceerd schetsen van de karakters van de personages.
Mijn enige andere vergelijkingspunten in de Scandinavische misdaadliteratuur zijn Karin Fossum en Stieg Larsson.
De eerste is niet slecht als schrijfster van psychologische thrillers, de andere was onderlegd en schreef een spannende ma...more
Mijn enige andere vergelijkingspunten in de Scandinavische misdaadliteratuur zijn Karin Fossum en Stieg Larsson.
De eerste is niet slecht als schrijfster van psychologische thrillers, de andere was onderlegd en schreef een spannende ma...more
Hier zu besprechen ist der sechste Band (der fünfte auf Deutsch erschienene) aus der Reihe rund um Kommissar Erlendur von der Reykjaviker Polizei. Durch das langsame Absinken des Wasserspiegels eines Sees wird ein Skelett freigelegt, das vor rund dreißig Jahren in diesem See versenkt wurde. Sehr schnell wird klar, dass es sich um einen Mordfall handeln muss, ist doch der Schädel zertrümmert und das Skelett an ein russisches Abhörgerät gebunden mit dem es auf dem Seeboden festgehalten wurde.
...more
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Lobstergirl
rated it
Recommends it for:
Ben Bernanke
Recommended to Lobstergirl by:
Velma Gaines-Hamock
Shelves:
mystery-thriller,
fiction
Arnaldur Indriðason is the poor man's Henning Mankell. And sometimes that's not saying much, because sometimes Mankell doesn't live up to Mankell. I wish Arnaldur would give more descriptive flavor of Iceland; if these books were my only exposure to it, I would have little idea what it looked or felt like. I would think it was a place full of dour, brooding people, delicious svið (singed and boiled sheep's head), and junkies, rather than a wonderland full of glaciers, cured ram scrota, and Bj...more
This Icelandic writer has produced a series of books about a detective who solves puzzling and often bizarre crimes in his native country. The settings are wonderfully portrayed and the psychological profiles of the various inhabitants of this obscure country are very engaging, very realistic, if a little dark. Living in a land where it is at times light for 20 hours a day or, more often, dark for that long lend the novels a starkness that I find fascinating.
Continuing with the Indridason series, this one was a cold case about a body found in a lake that was draining away since an earthquake hit the capital of Iceland. The body was estimated to be there for at least 30/40 years and was weighted down with an old Russian listening device. Now, the one type of book I really am not interested in reading is anything to do with spying or espionage, and this was essentially what this was about, relating back to the cold war/Iron Curtain days, however, I ha...more
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I cannot get enough of Arnaldur Indridason; he is consistently good, if not excellent. He constructs the perfect police procedural with a team of detectives "as different as chalk and cheese." Not only does does he probe the detectives' lives and foibles, he also presents characters within the narrative who engage the readers' interest. In the case of The Draining Lake, the background story deals with a group Icelandic students who are socialist and on scholarship at the University of ...more
The fourth book by Arnaldur Indridason featuring Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson takes us once again to Iceland -- almost an alternate universe, but one I'll gladly visit. I'm still waiting for the movie version of Jar City to be released on DVD.
The Draining Lake, in my opinion, is the best of the Reykjavík books featuring the gloomy police detective Erlendur.
Right from the start you are gripped by the discovery of a body in a drained lake that has an old radio transmitter attached to it. Who that person is and how he came to be dead, is the mystery that intrigues you until you discover the truth through the eyes of our trusty detective Erlendur and idealistic young student Thomas, who believes in the Communist cause so muc...more
Right from the start you are gripped by the discovery of a body in a drained lake that has an old radio transmitter attached to it. Who that person is and how he came to be dead, is the mystery that intrigues you until you discover the truth through the eyes of our trusty detective Erlendur and idealistic young student Thomas, who believes in the Communist cause so muc...more
I think it started very slowly and one needs some persistence to get to the engaging parts of the novel. Having said that, it may be that the Islandic names and the fact that the author uses pronouns at the beginning of new sequences slows the reader down. After struggling with the names, I finally just assigned each character a name to which I could relate - that stopped the struggle. As for the pronouns, once I was into the book, I could pick up on the scenes, Leipzig, Iceland or the time fram...more
The Draining Lake is a well crafted mystery where secrets are slowly and deliciously revealed to the reader. The advantage of a mystery series is that it allows for the development of the main character and his or her story, as well as a new storyline for each new crime. Arnaldur Indridason gives each of his main characters “life”: one police officer is also a cookbook writer; another detective has a complicated platonic relationship with a married woman, as well as dealing with his estranged c...more
A dead body is found in a drained lake close to Reykjavik, bound to an odd metal box that turns out to be and old Soviet era spying box. The case is investigated, of course, by Erlendur, and while he investigates who, what, and when happened for the dead body before it got to the lake, parts of the story gets retold in the after the WWII era Germany, Dresden, where a bunch of Icelandic young people were studying. What happened there is bound to the man, but how, will only be evident at the end o...more
Arnaldur Idridison is writing about a detective that lost his brother in a storm when he was a boy. He looks for missing persons for the rest of his life. He finds a skeleton in a draining lake that has been dead for 50 plus years and goes looking for the identity. He is working with a wonderful team that are all concerned for his mental and physical health. He is helping a beautiful woman find herself and escape from a stifling relationship. He is constantly searching for his daughter, and...more
"Kommissar Erlendur hat einen Hang vergangenen Zeiten und alten Fällen nachzugehen. Dieses Mal ist es ein Skelett aus einem abgesunkenen See. Nicht nur, daß es alt ist, es ist auch an ein altes, russisches Abhörgerät gebunden. Dieses, und die Schädelwunde, schließen einen Selbstmord aus. Über Vermißtenlisten, ehemaligen Geheimdienstleuten, einer „abgeschobenen“ Botschafterin und alten Arbeitskollegen nähert sich Elendur und sein Team der Geschichte hinter diesem Fund. Sie geht in die Zeit v...more
As the water recedes from the center of an Icelandic lake, a body is revealed ... and long-dead secrets from the era of European Communism begin to emerge as well. Erlendur (the failed family/incisive detective) and his colleagues, Sigurdur Oli (the young buck) and Elinborg (the lady detective with an interest in culinary matters) take on the case, which has its roots in the now defunct East Germany, over half a century ago ...
The second book I read from this Icelandic detective series...more
The second book I read from this Icelandic detective series...more
BoekenTrol
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
those who like Nordic thrillers / detectives
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I liked this book. Made me think a lot, not so much about the who dunnit this time, but more about the time part of the book was placed in: the 1950's in East Germany. Very chilling part. Every time I read about the way people had to live in East Germany, the former Soviet Union or other East European countries, I get shivers. I realise how lucky I am that I was born here in the 'free' west, that there's no lack of anything, normally speaking...more
I liked this book. Made me think a lot, not so much about the who dunnit this time, but more about the time part of the book was placed in: the 1950's in East Germany. Very chilling part. Every time I read about the way people had to live in East Germany, the former Soviet Union or other East European countries, I get shivers. I realise how lucky I am that I was born here in the 'free' west, that there's no lack of anything, normally speaking...more
Indridason, Arnaldur. THE DRAINING LAKE. (2008). ***. An earthquake off the coast of Iceland has created new channels of drainage for a lake outside the city, and the water level is falling off rapidly. A woman who works with the state Hydrology Department and has the job of measuring the change in the level on a regular basis, finds a skeleton embedded in the bottom mud in a place that was once under about twelve feet of water. The skeleton had a hole in its head, and, wrapped around its ...more
The story behind Erlendur's Draining Lake investigation begins not with the discovery of bones in a lake bed, but in the 1950s in Leipzig. At that time it was part of the GDR, and students were being recruited to come to the university there to study. Some Icelandic socialist students were part of the recruitment effort -- but many discovered that there was a catch to their free education once they had been there for a while. Flashforward to the present, where a hydrologist examining a lake bed ...more
This author never disappoints. There is something about the nordic countries - Sweden, Norway, Iceland - that always seems to lay a mood profound pessimism and depression onto its literary characters - at least in mysteries. Must be something to do with the lack of light in the winter and the overabundance in the summer. However, this particular book leaves you with a ray of hope.
This is a bit of a different story for Idridason. It continues to follow his main protagonist, Erland...more
This is a bit of a different story for Idridason. It continues to follow his main protagonist, Erland...more
I have never heard of Icelandic authored books before so you could say that I was quite a virgin until I picked up a copy of Manden I søen (The man in the lake) in the library a couple of weeks ago under "Nordisk krimi" shelves.
I was hoping for something exciting, something different than could put the Icelandic element in the book forward compared to other Nordisk-authored books but I got disappointed beforehand. Apart from the exotic Icelandic names (this could be pain in...more
I was hoping for something exciting, something different than could put the Icelandic element in the book forward compared to other Nordisk-authored books but I got disappointed beforehand. Apart from the exotic Icelandic names (this could be pain in...more
I can't get enough Erlendur and my third in the series did not disappoint. The characters--Erlendur's children (Eva & Sindri), his partners (Sigurdur Oli & Elinborg), the old crusty ex-cop Marion Briem, and more recently Erlendur's love interest Valgerdur--Indridason sculpts have completely sucked me in even though their Icelandic names are nearly impossible to pronounce let alone remember.
The Draining lake starts with a body being uncovered by...a draining lake. Yet this seemingly ...more
The Draining lake starts with a body being uncovered by...a draining lake. Yet this seemingly ...more
I don't really get the big deal with Scando crime fiction, but I do like Arnaldur Indradason's Erlendur novels. Lots of references to (horrible sounding) Icelandic food (boiled sheeps head?), characters who spend their lives in never-ending gloom, and well worked plots which keep you interested to the end, they're a great series of books. This one, involving murder, Icelandic students in 1950s East Germany, and long burning hatreds is the best I've read so far.
Oh, and the film of Jar C...more
Oh, and the film of Jar C...more
The is a gripping and haunting story taking place in present day Iceland and partly in East Germany during the Cold War era.
The tale begins when waters of Lake Kleifarvatn mysteriously recede revealing a 30 year old skeleton weighted down by Russian listening equipment. Police inspector Erlendur and his team, detectives Elinborg and Oli reopen the Missing Persons files and the investigation leads them to the University of Leipzip and the long-buried history of Icelandic espionage, Co...more
The tale begins when waters of Lake Kleifarvatn mysteriously recede revealing a 30 year old skeleton weighted down by Russian listening equipment. Police inspector Erlendur and his team, detectives Elinborg and Oli reopen the Missing Persons files and the investigation leads them to the University of Leipzip and the long-buried history of Icelandic espionage, Co...more
These just keep getting better. The characters are amazingly well-drawn. There's not a stock piece to be found--not even in the minor characters. And just as is the case in life, there are no perfect people--neither perfectly bad nor perfectly good. The plots are wonderfully rich and complex. The motivation for crimes are real motivations--anger, revenge, frustration, sorrow--and they are completely consistent with the characters. There is a reason for everything that happens. It's a plea...more
I didn't like this book as much as the first one I read by this author. The writing is still a bit simplistic, but again, I think it may be because of the translation. This book deals with spies and such and I didn't care much for it. Also, had a bit of trouble keeping the characters separate because of the Icelandic names--Icelanders probably have the same trouble when reading American novels.
Police procedural set in Iceland, somewhere around the year 2000, it would seem. The main detective, Erlendur, is yet another middle-aged grump, with characteristics reminding me of the original detective of this sort, Martin Beck.
I was somewhat puzzled that I had so much trouble keeping the characters straight, apparently because of their Icelandic names. Not a problem I usually have.
I found this interesting not only because of the main setting in Iceland but because o...more
I was somewhat puzzled that I had so much trouble keeping the characters straight, apparently because of their Icelandic names. Not a problem I usually have.
I found this interesting not only because of the main setting in Iceland but because o...more
Inspector Erlander and his team are called to investigate the appearance of a skeleton chained to a Russian radio transmitter, found at the bottom of a dried lake. The skeleton's identity puzzles the team, and they have virtually no leads to follow up on.
All possible clues lead to more questions. Their focus on the Russian radio transmitter leads them to consider the involvement of spies in Iceland during the Cold War but they are stonewalled when they approach the embassies.
...more
All possible clues lead to more questions. Their focus on the Russian radio transmitter leads them to consider the involvement of spies in Iceland during the Cold War but they are stonewalled when they approach the embassies.
...more
Another great story from Indridason.
A skeleton is found at the bottom of a lake and detective Erlendur has to discover who it is. This plot involves the history of the cold war and Iceland's part in it. Again, Erlendur is looking for a person that went missing many years ago and the story threads from the past and the present are skillfully interwoven in this novel.
A skeleton is found at the bottom of a lake and detective Erlendur has to discover who it is. This plot involves the history of the cold war and Iceland's part in it. Again, Erlendur is looking for a person that went missing many years ago and the story threads from the past and the present are skillfully interwoven in this novel.
I don't like mice-cat games, murders, lonely inspectors and investigations. I watch CSI serial with one eye open, but at 9pm I am already so knocked out that it's hard for me to keep my saliva in mouth. The only movie that I like that is about police is LA Confidential. In books, I don't care who is the murderer and why. But this was a good choice, easy to read. During the reading, in parallel you can make a movie in your head. I would recommend this writer to detective lovers. While it didn't d...more
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Translation of titles can be found at: http://www.literature.is/desktopdefault....
Arnaldur Indriðason was born in 1961, the son of an Icelandic author, Indriði G. Þorsteinsson. Having worked for many years as a journalist and critic for an Icelandic newspaper, he began writing novels. At one week in the summer of 2003, his crime novels occupied the top five spots in the Icelandic bestse...more
More about Arnaldur Indriðason...
Arnaldur Indriðason was born in 1961, the son of an Icelandic author, Indriði G. Þorsteinsson. Having worked for many years as a journalist and critic for an Icelandic newspaper, he began writing novels. At one week in the summer of 2003, his crime novels occupied the top five spots in the Icelandic bestse...more
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