{"id":8727,"date":"2017-02-12T13:53:51","date_gmt":"2017-02-12T18:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=8727"},"modified":"2026-03-22T09:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T13:13:10","slug":"the-draining-lake-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/8727","title":{"rendered":"The Draining Lake"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Draining Lake<\/a><\/em> (2004\/2007) Arnaldur Indridason<\/a> translated by Bernard Scudder<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A skeleton has been found in Lake Kleifarvatn–a skeleton with a hole in its skull and a rope tied to a piece of defunct Soviet spying equipment around its waist.<\/p>\n

The story shifts back and forth between the present-day search for the murderer and the POV of a young man full of the ideals of Socialism who has traveled to East Berlin in the wake of the war to study Engineering.<\/p>\n

In his mind\u2019s eye he had seen an ancient cultural German city. What he found was a sorry, gloomy post-war place. The Allies had occupied Leipzig but later handed it over to the Soviets, and the bullet holes could still be seen in the walls of buildings and half-collapsed houses, the ruins left by war.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The journal of the time in East German is just as fascinating as the search for the identity of the skeleton and how it ended up in the lake.<\/p>\n

PLUS the whole thing about the lake suddenly draining on its own.<\/p>\n

In general, Sigurdur \u00d3li is one of my least favorite characters in this series, but this cracks me up.<\/p>\n

\u2018He hardly did it himself,\u2019 Sigurdur \u00d3li blurted out. \u2018He wouldn\u2019t really go out onto the lake, tie himself to a radio transmitter, pick it up, fall over on his head and still take care to end up in the lake so he\u2019d be sure to disappear. That would be the most ridiculous suicide in history.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I also like how the characters have lives aside from the mystery. Of course Erlendur’s is mostly seeing Eva Lind spiral out of control, but we’ve been watching Sigurdur \u00d3li’s relationship with his wife develop and change (and as outside observers are able to predict how that’s going to work out over the course of the series) and in this book we get to see El\u00ednborg publish her cooking book. I think that’s one of the things that makes the series so good–besides the mystery–the gradual unfolding of the lives of the characters.<\/p>\n

Plus, we get occasional reminders that Erlendr isn’t a complete asshole.<\/p>\n

Nifty book that girl\u2019s written,\u2019 he added. \u2018I was just looking at it. Good photos.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u2018I think the girl\u2019s in her forties,\u2019 Erlendur said. \u2018And yes, it\u2019s a really good book.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Erlendur inspected the room. He knew virtually nothing about the man sitting on the edge of the bed in front of him, except that he was nasty and foul-mouthed and that his room smelled. He read Einar Benediktsson but Erlendur thought to himself that, unlike the poet, he had probably never in his lifetime \u2018turned darkness into the light of day\u2019.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Interesting terms:
\nswotted
\nNissen
\nlignite
\nChartreuse<\/p>\n

I think this is an especially fascinating mystery, and it’s hard not to believe that the person who ended up at the bottom of the lake deserved to be there.
\nRating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by Minotaur Books<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Draining Lake (2004\/2007) Arnaldur Indridason translated by Bernard Scudder A skeleton has been found in Lake Kleifarvatn–a skeleton with a hole in its skull and a rope tied to a piece of defunct Soviet spying equipment around its waist. The story shifts back and forth between the present-day search for the murderer and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,8,42,41,38,934],"tags":[116,438,52,117,513],"class_list":["post-8727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-10","category-mystery","category-police","category-reread","category-translated","category-trigger-warnings","tag-arnaldur-indridason","tag-bernard-scudder","tag-iceland","tag-inspector-erlendur","tag-suicide"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-2gL","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4641,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4641","url_meta":{"origin":8727,"position":0},"title":"The Draining Lake","author":"Michelle","date":"June 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Draining Lake (2004\/2007) Arnaldur Indridason translated by Bernard Scudder Lake Kleifarvatn is draining, and no one is quite sure why, but what they do know is that as it drains, things are being uncovered. In this case, one of the scientists discovers the body of a man who obviously\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The-Draining-Lake","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/The-Draining-Lake.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9511,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9511","url_meta":{"origin":8727,"position":1},"title":"Jar City, Audio Edition","author":"Michelle","date":"December 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Jar City (2000\/2004\/2011) Arnaldur Indridason translated by Bernard Scudder narrated by George Guidall This ended up being the next book to listen to in the car. Michael doesn't love mysteries as much as I do, but he does enjoy them, so I decided to try this one, since I do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio Book"","block_context":{"text":"Audio Book","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/audio-book"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Jar-City-e1511049281312.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8724,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/8724","url_meta":{"origin":8727,"position":2},"title":"Voices","author":"Michelle","date":"February 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Voices (2003\/2006) Arnaldur Indridason translated by Bernard Scudder A hotel worker is found dead in the tiny closet in which he lived in the hotel. His drawers are down and he has been stabbed repeatedly. \u2018Is he up or down?\u2019 Erlendur asked. \u2018Up or down?\u2019 the fat manager puffed. \u2018Do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Voices.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8714,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/8714","url_meta":{"origin":8727,"position":3},"title":"Silence of the Grave","author":"Michelle","date":"January 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Silence of the Grave (2003\/2006) Arnaldur Indridason translated by Bernard Scudder The second Inspector Erlendur book finds Erlendur, Sigurdur \u00d3li, and El\u00ednborg called to a construction site, where a boy has found a human bone. A quick inspection discovers more bones--a skeleton dating back to probably WWII. The skeleton is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Silence-Grave.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4299,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4299","url_meta":{"origin":8727,"position":4},"title":"Voices","author":"Michelle","date":"December 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Voices (2003\/2006) Arnaldur Indridason translated by Bernard Scudder There has been a murder in one of the fancy hotels. A particularly nasty murder, with a man in a Santa suit, in a compromising position, stabbed to death. 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