An Excellent Story that Pulls the Reader Right in

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	• Jar City: A Reykjavik Thriller Arnaldur Indridason Picador, 2005 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 33 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

An Excellent Story that Pulls the Reader Right in

A sixty-nine year old man named Holberg is discovered murdered in his basement apartment in Reykjavik, Iceland, with a note the murderer had pinned to his chest saying "I am Him."

Murders in Iceland are very rare and usually quickly solved, but Inspector Erlendur Sveninsson believes there is more to the murder than meets the eye. There are barely any clues, but Erlendur does have a photo of a graveyard headstone and a few other leads. He chases the leads down and finds out that Holberg had been accused of a series of rapes in the past and to solve the murder in the present apparently Erlendur is going to have to solve the crimes of the past.

Erlendur is divorced, fifty, smokes too much, is not in the best of health and his drug addicted daughter barely speaks to him. He is a wonderful character. And how the plot revolves around organ removal and how they store them in jars in rooms they call Jar City, is fascinating as is Erlendur's police work. This is an excellent story and a very interesting look at some very serious issues.

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A rain drenched thriller . . .

Care was taken in the plotting of this rain drenched masterpiece. While organic in development, the story is full of twists and turns, insights into life's longings, fears, and hopes. You really feel Iceland: walking the dark, damp streets, feeling the spray of the sea, talking to the citizens . . . all of whom are related by blood or Viking bond. I was moved too at the personal side of the detective and his drugged-out daughter as they help one another in their search for redemption, a search we all share--no matter where we dwell.

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Welcome to a major new talent!

No police cold case could be colder than in Reykjavík at the edge of an Icelandic winter. But that's what Inspector Erlendur of the CID finds when he begins investigating the murder of the elderly Holberg, who turns out to have been a probable serial rapist nearly forty years before. His younger associates point out that the victim was killed by bludgeoning with a heavy ashtray, that all Icelandic murders are violent and unpremeditated, but Erlendur has a few hunches that take him off in a different direction. There's the child who died at age four, a photo of whose grave is in the victim's desk, and who died of a genetically transmitted disease. And there are the victim's missing associates. I have to admit that the author's rather gray narrative style didn't grab me at first and I almost put the book down after the first couple of chapters -- but I stayed with it out of curiosity, and was soon hooked. "Gray" is the word (echoed in the jacket photo), Iceland in the late autumn being cold and dark and rainy, the perfect setting for a murder. Be patient and the author's magic will work on you in this thoroughly haunting story.

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harsh weather, perceptive dectective

The weather is a character ---harsh, relentless, cold---in this small gem. The plot lines are multiple, thoughtful, and are at first like peering into an Icelandic storm. Hard to see but they emerge bit by bit: the consequences of rapes from 25 years ago; the abuse of a daughter; the separation of the protagonist from his own child; the facing of evil but not slipping into it. The best passage---the unearthing of a body, in both senses of the word. No easy resolutions, no simple answers. What more can a lover of dectective fiction want?

This novel rang true since it kept it simple.

It always amazes me when books are able to take me back in time before the digital age. This book was actually current, but for the use of cell phones I'm not sure you would have known that. It's a simple, uncomplicated mystery that was refreshing to read. Sometimes I wonder where all the fantastical ideas from authors come from. This novel rang true since it kept it simple.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7

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