Review of Strange Shores, by Arnaldur Indridason

Strange Shores by Arnaldur Indriðason

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have long been a fan of the mysteries of Icelandic writer Arnaldur Indridason, especially of his Inspector Erlendur series. In Strange Shores, the author takes us to the remote and wintery ruin of Erlendur's childhood home and the daunting terrain where his brother disappeared as a child. The scenes in the ruined farmhouse will recall to mind many readers' lost childhood homes and our desire to know what has become of them. In the novel, the ruin becomes a symbol of the past and the familiar people who once lived there, and more than that, a portal into another world. Weaving together two missing persons cold cases with visits to eccentric witnesses and an old cemetery, Strange Shores is the climax of Erlendur's years-long obsession with these remote fjords and his brother's disappearance. Of all the detectives in Scandinavian mysteries, Erlendur is perhaps the most tormented. And of all Indridason's novels, this one is perhaps the most visionary.



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