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Silence of the Grave (Reykjavík Murder Mystery #4)

by Arnaldur Indriðason, Bernard Scudder (Translator)

3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 · rating details · 5,429 ratings · 414 reviews

“Now Iceland has its own Mankell.”
---Holger Kreitling, Die Welt (Germany)

Last year Jar City introduced international crime-writing sensation Arnaldur Indridason to rave reviews and a rousing welcome from American thriller fans. And now, Silence of the Grave, the next in this stunning series has won the coveted Golden Dagger Award. Presented by the British Crime Writers' As...more

Hardcover, 280 pages

Published October 3rd 2006 by Minotaur Books (first published 2001)

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indriðason

Scandinavian/Nordic Mysteries

5th out of 141 books — 221 voters

Murder Most Cold

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Nov 18, 2008 Nancy Oakes rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery, scandinavian-crime-fiction-and-myst

Don't pick this one up if you want something warm and fuzzy -- it's definitely the opposite. But then again, it's gloominess somehow seems a propos, considering not only the main story here, but the ongoing story of Erlandur Sveinsson, the main character here. He's not a happy man, nor does he have any reason to be -- his children hate him, his ex-wife lies about him and he's got ghosts from his past that continually haunt him. But as a detective, he's got to let all of that go so that he can do...more Don't pick this one up if you want something warm and fuzzy -- it's definitely the opposite. But then again, it's gloominess somehow seems a propos, considering not only the main story here, but the ongoing story of Erlandur Sveinsson, the main character here. He's not a happy man, nor does he have any reason to be -- his children hate him, his ex-wife lies about him and he's got ghosts from his past that continually haunt him. But as a detective, he's got to let all of that go so that he can do his job.

As the story opens, a baby is discovered playing with a piece of a human rib bone. The baby's mother makes her other child take her to where he found the bone, and an entire skeleton is discovered. The police are called in, and they have no choice but to wait until the archaeologists slowly and carefully work through the excavation to be able to even determine the sex of the bones. All that's known is that the skeleton is probably quite old, rather than recent, anywhere from 50 to 70 years old. While they wait for the archaeologists, Erelendur and his team begin trying to figure out just who may have lived around the area in the past, and to see if anyone may have gone missing around the time whoever it is laying in the ground was put in there. As the police begin their investigations, they become aware that a young woman went missing, presumed a suicide, and that the man to whom she was engaged was the owner of the property years ago, when the area was shared with a military base during WWII. Interwoven with this story is another
about a family of former residents of the area, a woman and her children who find themselves victims of the husband/father, a wife beater who not only uses physical violence, but "kills the soul" as he metes out his abuse. Between the two storylines, you'll find yourself literally unable to put the book down. That, along with Erlendur's personal problems and the ghosts of his past coming back to haunt him, make for one incredible read.

If you've read Jar City, you've got to read this one. The author's characterization is realistic, the story is moving and the writing is excellent. Highly recommended to those who enjoy good mysteries in general, or to those who are looking for at good Scandinavian mystery writer.

Most excellent.(less)

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Jan 30, 2012 Mary Gilligan-Nolan rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is yet again, another great read from this author. I love this series with the desperate Erlendur and his troubled life. Here, his drug addict daughter, loses her baby and lies in intensive care, close to death herself. Erlendur is involved in a cold case of bones that have been uncovered in a site where a lot of the landscape has changed and the initial timeline is that the bones are maybe 50/60 years old. There is a back-story of a family who once lived nearby during WW2 and the wife who...more

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Dec 05, 2011 Carolyn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: icelandic-fiction, favourites

Any doubts about Arnaldur's talent as a wonderful novelist are absolutely dispelled in this multi themed book. On the simplest level, it is a detective thriller in which Erlendur and the team are investigating the origin of human bones found in a new building project. It quickly transpires that these remains are at least 50 years old, making the identification of the victim very difficult.
This is where Erlendur is able to exercise his special talent: searching for missing person/s has informed h...more

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Carolyn Thank you for this Dagny, and for the reply to my earlier post about the AusLit. I'll definitely be asking for more info on Snaefellsnes very soon, as...more Thank you for this Dagny, and for the reply to my earlier post about the AusLit. I'll definitely be asking for more info on Snaefellsnes very soon, as I have told Peter that he must go there in September. (We do a lot of bossing eachother about in this family. I give orders to Peter, Jane gives decrees to me, and Douglas, our son, just ignores everyone!)
I was absolutely devastated to hear about the shocking events in Norway. It was the last country, apart from Iceland, that one would imagine something like that could happen. We had our own calamity in Port Arthur, Tasmania, back in the 90's, with over 30 people killed, and a society never really gets over it.
On a much more positive note, I loved your description of your father. He sounds so much like my Dad, who had the same interests in poetry, literature, music and culture. Shakespeare and Beethoven were his twin deities, and like your Dad, his only infirmities were physical, with blindness and arthritis. Even though I lost him 15 years ago, I think of him every day. He would have loved Laxness. Please give your father my good wishes. Was he a farmer in his earlier life?
There may be some British people who are unhappy about Iceland but I haven't encountered any and of course would ignore them anyway! Peter emigrated from Grimsby (yes, the Cod War fishing port!) 40 years ago and doesn't like England at all. He has an old friend in Grimsby, a retired police superintendent, whose girlfriend is Icelandic, so things have obviously settled down a bit.
I hope you get to Sydney one day. It is physically attractive, but I much prefer Melbourne where Douglas lives, for the culture and vibrancy. Sydney always boasts about its beaches, but our local beaches in Esperance are far better. If you do a google images search for Lucky Bay Esperance, you will see what I mean. I had a look on the net at Akranes, and it looks lovely - they also have an Irish festival there. Not surprising as I heard while in Iceland that a large chunk of Icelanders' mitochondrial DNA was celtic, from Ireland or Scotland. So we may be distantly related, as you said! (Big handsome Viking proposes sweetly to young Scottish lass, whisks her away across the sea.....oh well, maybe the reality was a little different!)
The evening news has just come on, but I don't want to watch it.
I hope you have a good day.
Regards
Carolyn(less)
Jul 23, 2011 03:01am

Dagny Yes Carolyn, we are all devastated over what happened in Norway. Norway is really Iceland's "next of kin" country, and one of my cousins has lived the...more Yes Carolyn, we are all devastated over what happened in Norway. Norway is really Iceland's "next of kin" country, and one of my cousins has lived there all her adult life, married to a Norwegian. But everywhere on earth we feel the pain of sympathy for the ones who lost their loved ones and the despair that young innocent people had to end their life and in this terrifying manner.
My cousin wrote that, given what happened people were at least relieved that the perpetrator did not turn out to be a foreign terrorist, which would only have increased the hurt and suspicion in her small country.

When I grew up you'd hear Grimsby mentioned virtually every day in the one and only radio station which one heard anywhere where there were humans ( there was no TV untill '66 and then limited)) That's because some Icelandic trawler had landed there, so many tons of fish ( the type specified)

Akranes is or was (is anything the same?) fishing town. Although my parents moved here in the fifties and my mother's family in the forties (because her dad became headmaster here) I was more attached to the Snæfellsnes region where my father's family has been based since the settling of the country some 1200 years ago. I spent all summers there as child. That's how regional people were! Now "everyone" is from Reykjavik.

The Fish Can Sing -perplexed me for a moment bc in Icelandic it is Brekkukots annáll-takes place in Reykjavík long before it is like now.
BTW I picked up this book and started reading it- perhaps we should move that discussion to its own space!

Before we leave Snæfellsnes here, I'm going to paste an e-mail (in the "private" section) that I wrote to my husband's colleague as the latter wanted a suggestion as to what to do in Iceland for a couple of days when before proceeding to kayak in Greenland (seems like something you'd do) It is a start anyway, and has some links.

My dad could have been a good farmer! But he was a teacher, and in the summer, in order to afford teaching, also lead a road making crew in Snæfellsnes. He started as an 8 years old, minding the horses they used before the ascent of machinery after WW2.

I see that you and Nancy, a virtual Australian ambassador in SoCal, have become GR friends, I kept telling her about what you wrote! As for me, I looked up where you live and I felt like I had discovered another planet, no kidding, that´s how unfamiliar the place is, and to think what you know of mine!

Well, Arnaldur's 'Silence´has generated a lot of noise, perhaps time to move to Brekkukot! I have a comment about the tick of the clock there...(less)
Jul 25, 2011 09:04am

Aug 25, 2008 Gary rated it 5 of 5 stars

Cold Case

If you're a fan of crime fiction and well-plotted mysteries, and are on the lookout for a fresh new face in a crowded genre, then you'll be doing yourself a favor by trying Arnaldur Indridason and his captivating "Silence of the Grave".

Back from last year's "Jar City" is Erlendur Sveinsson, the jaded Reykjavik police detective plodding bitterly though a life of regrets. A skeleton is found while excavating a new housing project, quickly determined to be decades old, and assumed a murder...more

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Feb 08, 2009 Toni Osborne rated it 4 of 5 stars

In a Reykjavik suburb during a building excavation, a body is found in a shallow grave. This part of the city was once open hills. Detective Erlendur and his team investigate and hope this will solve a cold case. Things are never that simple...Complicated by the age of the burial, Erlendur team's work slowly through all the possibilities... The hills reveal more than their share of family tragedy, brutally and heartache..

Erlendur is also confronted by the mess of his own family. Eva Lind his dru...more

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Dec 08, 2008 Austensibly rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: crime novel afficionados

Shelves: whodunits

A skeleton is unearthed while a suburban housing tract is being built outside of Reykyavik, bringing a world-weary inspector known for carefully reconstructing cold cases to the scene. He's a cold fish himself. Meticulous to the core, he calls in archeologists to fully uncover the skeleton, then laments his decision as they apply their learned methodology, waiting out the clock. In fact, there are few characters in this book that don't leave you feeling as though Icelanders must have ice water c...more

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Apr 12, 2013 Ingrid Verschelling rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

Tijdens een kinderfeestje heeft een klein kind een stuk bot in haar mondje. Een student medicijnen herkent het als zijnde een mensenbot. Het broertje had het gevonden op een bouwterrein. Blijkt er een lijk te liggen, wat er al tientallen jaren gelezen begraven moet zijn. Er wordt een archeoloog bij gehaald en het afgraven gaat heel langzaam. Ondertussen proberen Erlandur en zijn team erachter te komen wat er gebeurd kan zijn. De locatie is een heuvel nabij Reykjavik en was vroeger nogal afgelege...more Tijdens een kinderfeestje heeft een klein kind een stuk bot in haar mondje. Een student medicijnen herkent het als zijnde een mensenbot. Het broertje had het gevonden op een bouwterrein. Blijkt er een lijk te liggen, wat er al tientallen jaren gelezen begraven moet zijn. Er wordt een archeoloog bij gehaald en het afgraven gaat heel langzaam. Ondertussen proberen Erlandur en zijn team erachter te komen wat er gebeurd kan zijn. De locatie is een heuvel nabij Reykjavik en was vroeger nogal afgelegen. Er staan wel een aantal bessenstruiken. Vroeger schijnt er een zomerhuis te hebben gestaan. Na onderzoek komen ze op een gezin, wat er in de tweede wereldoorlog heeft gewoond. Terwijl het onderzoek gaande is, moet Erlendur ook steeds naar het ziekenhuis om zijn dochter Eva Lind te bezoeken. Zij ligt in coma, terwijl ze 7 maanden zwanger is. Er wordt hem aangeraden om met haar te praten, wat Erlendur moeilijk vindt, maar gaandeweg vertelt hij toch veel aan zijn dochter.

De tweede verhaallijn is over Margret en haar gezin. Zij wordt door haar man geestelijk en lichamelijk mishandeld. Dat gaat jaren zo door en haar oudste zoon voelt zich machteloos. Als haar man na diefstal in de gevangenis terecht komt voor een half jaar, breekt er voor Margret een fijne tijd aan. Dave is een collega van haar man en brengt haar een paar visjes. Dave herkent aan haar blik, dat ze wordt mishandeld. Hij heeft het zelf ook mee gemaakt. Ze wordt verliefd op Dave. Maar als het half jaar om is, komt haar man weer thuis. En dan?

Moordkuil was winnaar van de beste Scandinavische misdaadroman van 2003. De verschillende verhaallijnen worden mooi met elkaar verweven en komen aan het eind van het boek samen. Je leest wat er gebeurd is met de broer van Erlendur, toen ze kinderen waren. Er is een bepaalde eenzaamheid bij Erlendur, die nooit meer weggaat. In het verhaal van Margret voel je de machteloosheid van de oudste zoon aan den lijve. Je zou willen ingrijpen, maar helaas kan dat niet. Als de tijd om is en de man van Marget komt thuis, voel je op je klompen aan, dat er iets staat te gebeuren. Maar wie de dader is, daar kom je nog niet meteen achter. Ik vond het een spannend verhaal en ben benieuwd naar de volgende delen.(less)

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Jul 24, 2012 Eric_W rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: police-procedural

This is the second in a series that begins with Jar City, a novel I enjoyed.

This book has one of the creepiest opening scenes. A young man picking up his brother at a friends birthday party notices the friend's little sister chewing on something. As a medical student just having been through numerous autopsies, he recognizes the "toy" as being a human rib bone. The bone was found by the birthday boy while playing in a housing development under construction. Archaeologists and geologists are...more

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Jul 20, 2012 Ian Mapp rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 24, 2012 Anna rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, bookcrossing

The second book of Erlendur series, located in Reykjavik, Iceland.
I enjoyed this one a lot more than the first one (Jar City). Erlendur is kind of a loner type of detective, but he and his thoughts and silences felt much more intimate than on the first one.
A skeleton is found close to a construction site on the outskirts of Reykjavik by pure chance. It starts to look it is an older body, decades old. On the same time, while we follow the investigations, there's another story unfolding: a woman...more

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Feb 24, 2012 Tim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery-suspense, reviewed

Reviewed in PW:
In this excellent mystery—the Icelandic author’s second novel to appear in English (after last year’s Jar Head, St. Martin’s/Minotaur)—a skeleton is uncovered at a building site on the outskirts of Reykajavîk. Who is it? How did he or she die? And was it murder? Those are the questions the police—most notably the tortured, introspective Erlendur—are struggling with, while an archaeologist excavates the burial site. While the digging goes on, a number of other narratives unfold: a...more

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Jan 24, 2012 Ishmael Seaward rated it 4 of 5 stars

A worthy second novel/mystery. From the opening line: He knew at once it was a human bone; to the closing line, takes the reader on quite a ride. He also has a way of closing a series of paragraphs, with a line that grabs your attention and shifts everything so you are no longer certain where the storyline is going: The only thing they found of Jon was his hand. It was in a blue mitten.
The setting is Iceland. Erlandur is an excellent detective, but not so excellent a father, divorced and estrang...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Monica rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-and-or-evil, scandinavia

When a teething child at a birthday party turns out to be chewing on a long buried human rib, it's the beginning of another hard slog for Erlendur and his team.

The bone came from a construction site, and it will require the help of a team of archaeologists to unearth the entire skeleton. In the meanwhile, the detectives are canvassing residents of the sparsely populated area, trying to find out who may have lived nearby during WWII. There was an American army base, and a few local families.

The n...more

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Dec 29, 2011 Eve rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was a little slow to start, but I nonetheless finished it in two days. I enjoyed it because it was 1) set in Iceland (a country about which I knew nothing when I cracked the cover) and 2) the developing mystery, characters, and different storylines kept me in suspense until the end. Be forewarned - it's a gentle build of tension until the end. But in the final 30 pages when the strings of the story started to come together, I found myself wanting to flip ahead and make sure it worked o...more

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Oct 24, 2011 Cmorice rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ce roman, prix Clé de verre 2003 du roman noir scandinave, signe le grand retour du commissaire Erlendur et des adjoints Elinborg et Sigurdur Oli. Les lecteurs français avaient été conquis par le précédent roman noir d’Arnaldur Indridason. Ils le seront de nouveau avec cette épatante histoire qui navigue entre passé et présent, et dont la mémoire historique forme la dynamique interne.
Tout commence par la découverte sur un chantier d’un squelette vieux de soixante ans par le commissaire et son éq...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Catherine Woodman rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A corpse is found on a hill in the outskirts of Reykjavik. It looks like it has already been there for a long time, but the excavation goes terribly slow because a team of archaeologists is carrying out the work. In the meantime inspector Erlendur and his colleagues try to get a picture of what happened 50 to 70 years ago. Slowly but surely they find out the awful truth. In between the story line of the investigation, there is another storyline about a family consisting of a father, mother, 2 br...more

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Jun 10, 2011 C rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Loved how it was set in Iceland.

Detectives are trying to figure out the identity of bones found buried in a new subdivision outside Reykjavík. The story flashes back between the detectives in present day and a woman, her three kids and her abusive husband. The woman marries this man after her first husband dies and after they're married he turns out to be a total psycho. She is subjected to systematic physical and verbal abuse and her children are verbally abused as well. She tries to escape, b...more

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Nov 22, 2010 Danielle Parker rated it 3 of 5 stars

I always enjoy reading mysteries set in foreign lands for the extra fillip of a free armchair traveler experience. Lately I’ve embarked on Janwillam van de Wetering’s fine and lively Amsterdam cops series. I own a collection of Georges Simeon’s classic Maigrets, which are some of the most tightly plotted of all police mysteries. A foray into modern post-Maoist China and colorful Mumbai were also on my reading list these last few years, not to mention John Burdett’s wild and crazy Bangkok stories...more I always enjoy reading mysteries set in foreign lands for the extra fillip of a free armchair traveler experience. Lately I’ve embarked on Janwillam van de Wetering’s fine and lively Amsterdam cops series. I own a collection of Georges Simeon’s classic Maigrets, which are some of the most tightly plotted of all police mysteries. A foray into modern post-Maoist China and colorful Mumbai were also on my reading list these last few years, not to mention John Burdett’s wild and crazy Bangkok stories.
Of course, if the zest of foreign adventure is the lure, I have no idea why I picked up ‘Silence of the Grave’, the second of Arnaldur Indridason’s police procedural series. While I haven’t yet sampled the latest hot stuff, Stieg Larsson’s ‘Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’, I’ve read enough Martin Beck police procedurals to know the Nordics tend to run to dismal in their police procedurals.
Break out the Akvavit and have it on hand to cry into: Indridson’s black novel doesn’t buck the national trend of dour. The gloomy Martin Beck and his Swedish compatriots are positively jolly compared to the denizens of Indridason’s Rejkjavik. I’ll never look at those colorful painted houses in the travel brochures and feel the same way about the town now. Inside they’ve apparently got mattresses on the floor and hungry toddlers wandering around with untended urine rashes, ignored by their comatose junkie parents.
‘Silence of the Grave’ begins with the discovery of human bones dug up by accident in an up-and-coming modern subdivision. The bones are about 70 years old, but clearly the victim met foul play. Just how foul they’re not sure, because the kid-glove archeologist digging out the grave doesn’t reveal the bones until nearly the last page.
The three detectives assigned to the case give it their best shot. An old chalet, now gone, stood on the site in the WWII era. First a British, then an American military base stood just over the hill. The three detectives in the case unravel a wartime crime, a tale of a missing pregnant fiancé and her distraught suitor during their journey down the stale trail. An abusive husband, a battered wife, two small sons and a crippled daughter lived in the now demolished chalet. The story of the dysfunctional family is told in flashbacks as the investigation unwinds.
Interleaved with the tale of the battered wife, monster husband and neurotic children are the lives of the three detectives. Detective Inspector Erlendur has a heroin-addict daughter who’s just had a miscarriage and is lying in a coma. Erlendur spends a lot of time talking to her, which he apparently never manages when she’s conscious. More than twenty years later, he still can’t answer why he walked out on her mother, his two-year-old daughter and their infant son, even to himself.
The younger male detective, the insensitive, selfish Sigurdur Oli, has been shacked up with his increasingly impatient lover for four years and is terrified of the threatening shackles of matrimony and unwanted offspring. (His story does end in a sort of happy-ever-after: he suggests canning the whole white wedding and kids idea in favor of me, thee, a trip to Paris and a sports car. Gee, guess who’ll get to drive that one to work).
The lone female in the group, Elinborg, gets short shrift in this tale, perhaps for the simple reason she’s the only half-way happy member of the team. No point in wasting copy there.
Of course, finely observed characterizations and writing elegant for its plainness are famous characteristics of the stereotypical Scandinavian mysteries, and I suppose ‘Silence of the Grave’ doesn’t disappoint. The writing is plain to near leaden in this one. And we learn more than we want to of those unhappy lives. The feckless gormless men, the angry bitter women, the ruined children… not much light in this story.
Only at the end do we get a glimmer, from the one child who overcame her unhappy childhood. By that time, I needed my glass to cry in. Strike Iceland off my future travel plans, and bring on the happy-ever-after Harlequins. I need one!

(less)

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Jun 29, 2010 Sandra rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not a book to read if you’re having a down day! It starts when a guest at a child’s birthday party notices that the baby is teething on a human bone---and it gets darker from there. In fact, this novel makes it difficult for me to believe that the sun ever shines in Iceland. The murder mystery is essentially the investigation of this cold case. To whom does the bone belong? How did the person meet his or her death? Was there a perpetrator? Who was it and is he or she still alive?

The chief invest...more

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Jan 02, 2010 Joje rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this book just after “The Book Thief”. The social milieu is not very different, despite the differences in the countries, and yet the atmosphere is much bleaker. I guess that goes with being a detective novel, and no one has Hitler to blame it all on so they can get on with being warm human beings despite the disadvantages. How the most battered of all the characters ends up being the warmest, most human, however, does however stand out, just as in the English-language book. The main them...more

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Dec 26, 2009 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-crime-detection

Indridason, Arnaldur. SILENCE OF THE GRAVE. (2006). ****. In a new suburb of Reykjavik, where new housing construction is under way, pieces of human bones are found in what would soon become the basement of a new house. Detective Inspector Erlendur and his staff are called to the scene. Not knowing if the bones are of historical interest or not, Erlendur calls in the staff of the archaeology department of the local college to perform the dig. From the few bones that they can see, however, their...more Indridason, Arnaldur. SILENCE OF THE GRAVE. (2006). ****. In a new suburb of Reykjavik, where new housing construction is under way, pieces of human bones are found in what would soon become the basement of a new house. Detective Inspector Erlendur and his staff are called to the scene. Not knowing if the bones are of historical interest or not, Erlendur calls in the staff of the archaeology department of the local college to perform the dig. From the few bones that they can see, however, their first guess is that it’s not a Viking buried there, but a body that has been there between fifty and seventy years. Uncovering the skeleton intact in a manner that will not destroy any other clues to its identity will take a long time. Meanwhile, Erlendur has to begin his investigation as soon as possible. He searches the records for any indication of missing people from just before WW II to slightly after. He then attempts to find out who was living close to the target area that many years ago. He notices that there is a row of red currant bushes planted near the site, and assumes that they were put there by a former resident. There were also remnants of army bunkers and gun emplacements in the area, both British and American, from the war time. He seeks out old residents – a difficult task because of the time period involved – and tries to see if anyone remembers anything. He’s down to maybe three or four potential scenarios as to who the body might have been, but still needs to see the actual remains before he can reach any conclusion. One of the potential suspects is a man whose fiance left him and disappeared at that time. She was never found, and people assumed that she had committed suicide in the sea. Another possibility was that the body was that of an army man who had been killed at the time, so that the search was on for old war records on camp personnel records. He did learn that there had once been a small house next to the spot of the find that had been owned by a man who moved to the city at about the time. Old neighbors knew that he rented the property out, but had no clue who was there during the critical time period he was investigating. Finally, through diligent effort of his staff, Erlendur learns that there was a family of five living in the old house during the war. We learn a lot about that family and how disfunctional it was. Throughout all of this, Erlendur has continued trials with his daughter. She turns up drunk and stoned at his apartment one night and lets him know that it’s all his fault. He tries to reach some kind of accord with her and attempts to sway her thinking into stop using drugs because of the effect it will have on the baby. Nothing seems to work. She disappears again until he receives a phone call from her asking for help. Before he can find out where she is and what the trouble is, the call is cut off. He madly searches the city and all the haunts he knew she had frequented before, and finally finds her collapsed just a few hundred feet from the maternity clinic which she had tried to reach on foot. She goes into the hospital into intensive care and goes into a coma. She stays in that coma for the rest of the book, while Erlendur visits her and tries to talk to her about who he is and why life has turned out this way. In spite of his full plate, the case is eventually solved by Erlendur and his crew, but punishment has already been meted out by time. This novel by this excellent Icelandic thriller writer fits in after “Jar City,” and before “Arctic Chill.” The characters are rounded and the reader becomes sympathetic to them and their lives, both in and out of the police force. Recommended.(less)

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Oct 02, 2009 Evanston Public Library added it

When a toddler at her brother’s birthday party is found chewing on what turns out to be a human bone, Inspector Erlendur Svinsson is called on the case. It turns out that the bone is a piece of a skeleton found buried near a new construction site on the outskirts of Reykjavik--and the victim may have been buried alive: the skeleton’s chest is crushed and its hand reaches upwards, as if trying to dig itself out from the ground. As Erlendur and his team seek answers, their research takes them back...more

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Apr 09, 2009 The Writer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Although Nordmosen, another book from the same Icelandic author, was announced as the best Nordisk Krimi, I certainly think that Tavs som Graven (Silence as the grave) deserves the prize (not "price" as most Danes spell it :P ) better.

After reading Manden i Søen, Nordmosen and this book, I begin to believe that Indriðason is indeed an excellent Icelandic krimi author. Manden i søen is perhaps not as dazzling as the two latter books I mentioned but now that I know his writing style better (althou...more Although Nordmosen, another book from the same Icelandic author, was announced as the best Nordisk Krimi, I certainly think that Tavs som Graven (Silence as the grave) deserves the prize (not "price" as most Danes spell it :P ) better.

After reading Manden i Søen, Nordmosen and this book, I begin to believe that Indriðason is indeed an excellent Icelandic krimi author. Manden i søen is perhaps not as dazzling as the two latter books I mentioned but now that I know his writing style better (although I believe I'm reading backwards since Manden i søen timeline falls after both Tavs som Graven and Nordmosen) I must admit that he's a briliant writer since he managed to write two simultaneous stories in different time lines without revealing any essential and could successfully combine them near the end of the book to disclose the real plot of the book.

Tavs som Graven is simply clever. Indriðason did a fantastic job in constructing the plot where it all started with a discovery of a human bone by a birthday kid in a suburban area just outside Reykjavik. The bone turned out to be a part of the human skeleton buried under a construction area around 70 years ago.

Our old faithful policeman Erlendur, helped by his two colleagues Sigurdur and Elinborg took over the case and tried to track the past in hoping to find out whose skeleton it was and whether it was a murder case or not.

The investigative quest led them into a horrific story from the past. The very reason of the existence of the skeleton they found 70 years later. A story that was silenced abruptly and now it resurfaced because of the discovery of the skeleton. A story retold by a survivor of the descendant of a brutal family, scary enough to make anyone chilled to their bones.

I was deeply affected by the book, especially in the last few chapters when Indriðason cleverly played with my emotion and taunted my curiosity to the extreme when he revealed fragments per fragments of the whole story contained in the book. Reading this book brought me the same excitement that I found so far only in Stieg Larsson's trilogy books. It's truly a "krimi" book to the bones and fans of the genre should definitely check this book out from their libraries.

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May 14, 2013 Shari rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Icelandic lives, some struggling with damaged psyches, and all struggling with just finding a way to make it through to the next day, provide an unusual mystery for Erlendur, Sigurdur Oli, and Elinborg.

Bones found in a new housing development as Reykjavik pushes its boundaries toward the grasslands, bring in unlikely help. An archaeologist and his team take over the site and do a long, painstaking excavation, that, while it maddens Erlendur because of its slowness, also provides him and his tea...more

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Dec 14, 2012 Susan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Nordic Mystery, Icelandic edition.

Silence of the Grave is Arnaldur Indridason’s second novel in the Inspector Erlander Reykjavik Murder Series. I definitely plan on reading more.

The story opens at a child’s birthday party and that is about the only cheerful thing that happens in the entire novel. A bone has been found by some partygoers and when one of the adults identifies it as human, this detective story gets as dark as an Icelandic winter night. Inspector Erlander and his team are brought i...more

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Aug 18, 2012 Kristine Brancolini rated it 5 of 5 stars

Arnaldur Indridason is my new favorite Scandinavian mystery writer. Silence of the Grave is an excellent mystery and an outstanding novel. Period. I was anxious to read another book by Indridason after finishing Jar City last week and, as other reviewers have commented, this book is even better. It features a wider range of characters and it explores one of society's most devastating ills, domestic violence. In Jar City American readers notice right away that Iceland seems to have an extremely l...more Arnaldur Indridason is my new favorite Scandinavian mystery writer. Silence of the Grave is an excellent mystery and an outstanding novel. Period. I was anxious to read another book by Indridason after finishing Jar City last week and, as other reviewers have commented, this book is even better. It features a wider range of characters and it explores one of society's most devastating ills, domestic violence. In Jar City American readers notice right away that Iceland seems to have an extremely lenient sentencing policy for criminals. They serve a couple of years prison time for crimes that would put them away for life in California and most other states. So, when a vicious wife beater was introduced in Silence of the Grave I sensed that the perpetrator would be dealt with mildly, if at all. And that authorities would not be supportive of the wife. They weren't. Then it is revealed that the abuse occurred in the 1930s and 1940s. Even worse. The reader doesn't learn the name of the victim until the very end. Margret. Margret is the heroine. Her story is exceedingly sad and unfortunately, not unique.

Silence of the Grave also reveals more about Detective Inspector Erlendur. In Jar City we learn about his estrangement from his children and his barren home life. He seems to have no other family and no friends. But he doesn't dwell on any of this with his colleagues. He is trying to build a relationship with his daughter Eva Lind, but she is a self-destructive addict who is struggling with her addiction with mixed result. She is pregnant at the end of Jar City but we learn at the beginning of this book that she has begun taking drugs again and lost the baby. Erlendur finds Eva Lind and manages to save her life by taking her to the hospital, but she is in a coma and the outcome is uncertain. We gain new insights into Erlendur as he talks to the comatose Eva Lind.

The narrative alternates between the story of Margret, her husband Grimur, and her three children, Mikkelina, Simon, and Tomas; and the present day discovery of a 70 year-old-skeleton on a hillside outside Reykjavik. It is obvious from the beginning that the two narrative are connected. Mikkelina contracted meningitis as a toddler and as a result, she suffers from numerous diabilities. Grimur not only beats Margret, he torments and threatens the children, especially Mikkelina. The entire family lives in a constant state of terror due to Grimur's viciousness and unpredictability. By the time WWII has broken out, they family is living in a "summer chalet" in the mountains outside Reykjavik. The area is swarming with first British soldiers, who occupied Iceland during the war, and then the Americans. Soon, the readers is hoping for deliverance for Margret and her children. In the present Erlendur leads his small team in solving the mystery of the skeleton, while trying to spend time with Eva Lind and confront his own past.

Winner of the Golden Dagger Award from the British Crime Writers' Association, this may be my favorite book this year. The mysteries in Silence of the Grave are completely tied up, no loose ends, but the book also bring us into the world of a profoundly unhappy family, doing the best they can to survive. Indridason brings their story to a satisfying resolution.

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Sep 28, 2009 Jim rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: mysteries

It is just possible that the great literary works of the future will be in formerly humble genres such as mysteries, fantasies, and romance. Perhaps we will just admit that Moby Dick was the Great American Novel after all, and that we don't have to rewrite Don Quixote or the works of Balzac, Anthony Trollope, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Henry James.

During my travels, I tend to concentrate on mysteries and spy novels; and I would not be surprised that my thoughts are the result of reading Le Carré,...more It is just possible that the great literary works of the future will be in formerly humble genres such as mysteries, fantasies, and romance. Perhaps we will just admit that Moby Dick was the Great American Novel after all, and that we don't have to rewrite Don Quixote or the works of Balzac, Anthony Trollope, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Henry James.

During my travels, I tend to concentrate on mysteries and spy novels; and I would not be surprised that my thoughts are the result of reading Le Carré, Simenon, P.D. James, and Arnaldur Indriðason all within a single month.

Indriðason's Iceland is no socialist paradise. Far from it, until the years of prosperity that came after World War II, it is a stark land of poverty and dysfunction.

Silence of the Grave begins with the grim image of an infant chewing on a human rib bone. It turns out to be from a body that is found in a shallow grave in an easterly suburb of Reykjavik. Detective Erlendur Sveinsson and two colleagues are assigned to find out the relevant information, which we learn bits of in parallel as we read about relationship characterized by domestic violence between a man named Grimur and his wife Margret and their three children during the early years of the war.

At the same time, Sveinsson is seeking his daughter Eva Lind, a drug addict. When he finds her in a pool of her own blood near the Hlemmur bus station, she is in a coma and remains so pretty much for the remainder of the story.

While we learn about the "soul murder" of the Grimur/Margret relationship, we find out that Erlendur's relationship with his ex-wife Halldora and their daughter Eva Lind was also marked by coldness and cruelty.

I see Silence of the Grave as being an ultimately hopeful novel in a world of dysfunctional relationships. This is the first novel by Indriðason that I have read, but certainly not the last.

Above and beyond my love for all things Icelandic, I think that Indriðason (pronounced In-dree-THah-son with the TH as in THe) is one of the most promising writers of mysteries in the new century.
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Jan 01, 2013 Linda Branham Greenwell rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: psychological-thriller, mystery-crime, scandinavian-mystery

A skeleton is found on a hill in the outskirts of Reykjavik. It looks as if it has been there for a long time, but the excavation goes terribly slow because a team of archaeologists is carrying out the work.
While the bones are being excavated, Inspector Erlendur and his colleagues try to find out what happened 50 to 70 years ago. Slowly but surely they find out the awful truth.
There are several stories that they uncover - one is about a family consisting of a father, mother, 2 brothers and a h...more

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Jan 03, 2013 Tanja Seppä rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: murder-mystery, kindle

After a medical student noted a baby chewing on a human bone, a skeleton is found in a hill on the outskirts of Reykjavik. As it seems to have been there a long time, archeologists move to recover it, taking their time. So for most of the book the skeleton itself offers no clues - except for the hand sticking up, rather than being down with the rest, possibly indicating the victim was being buried alive. Inspector Erlundur and his team investigate this cold case.

Seamlessly blended into the inves...more

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Dec 30, 2012 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

What really made me love this book was how Inspector Erlendur struggled with his own his own tragic past (and present) while peeling back the layers of another family's horrid domestic situation during World War 2-era Iceland. Erlendur is not your average, hard-nosed gumshoe. He injects a hefty dose of humanity into the story, despite his efforts to objectively lead the criminal investigation. The outcome of Silence of the Grave offers some hope in the bleak world of domestic violence, or "soul...more

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About Arnaldur Indriðason

Arnaldur was born in Reykjavík on 28 January 1961, the son of writer Indriði G. Þorsteinsson. He graduated with a degree in history from the University of Iceland in 1996. He worked as a journalist for the newspaper Morgunblaðið from 1981 to 1982, and later as a freelance writer. From 1986 to 2001, he was a film critic for Morgunblaðið.

His first book, Synir duftsins (Sons of Dust) came out in 1997...more

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Quotes from Silence of the Grave

“He knew at once it was a human bone, when he took it from the baby who was sitting on the floor chewing it.” — 8 people liked it

“He went into the kitchen. It was eight in the evening. He tried to shut the bright spring evening out with the curtains, but it forced its way past them in places, dust-filled sunbeams that lit up the gloom in his flat. Spring and summer were not Erlendur's seasons. Too bright. Too frivolous. He wanted heavy, dark winters. Finding nothing edible in the kitchen, he sat down at the table with his chin resting in his hand.” — 4 people liked it

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Silence of the Grave (Reykjavík Murder Mystery #4)

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