Jar City

Jar City (2000/2004) Arnaldur Indridason translated by Bernard Scudder

Inspector Erlendur is a detective inspector with the Reykjavik CID. He’s a divorced loner with a terrible relationship with his two grown children, both of whom have issues with drugs.

The body of an old man is discovered in his apartment. It looks like a crime of passion, but a cryptic note makes the crime seem like much more. And a look at the old man’s past turn up plenty of reasons someone might want to kill him. Except the obvious suspects have been dead for years.

I love mysteries, and I’ve come to love mysteries set in other other countries, so I picked up this book. A trade paperback copy. Several years ago. And never picked it up to read, solely because it’s a trade paperback.

So when Amazon came out with its KindleMatchBook, I picked up an Kindle version of the book. This I read almost immediately.

First, make sure you read the introduction about Icelandic names–everyone goes by their first names (or first and middle names), even formally and professionally. I admit that my unfamiliarity with Icelandic names did make keeping track of characters a bit difficult; I totally took advantage of the Kindle x-ray tool, to remind me of who’s who in the story.

I really liked the mystery, though I can’t tell you precisely what bits I especially liked without giving away part of it.

As is typical for police thrillers, Erlendur is a bit of an asshole.

“Are you worried about your paternity?” Erlendur asked…

“Everyone always said I never resembled my father or mother or anyone else in my family.”

“I’ve always had that feeling too,” Erlendur said.

“What do you mean?”

“That you were a bastard.”

But an amusing one, at times.

Quite enjoyable and I do want to read more of this series.
Rating: 7/10

Published by Minotaur Books

 
 

• Browse the archives:
  
• Fairest In All the Land » »
• « « Libriomancer