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30 November 2009

Mini Review: VOICES, Arnaldur Indridason

I'm hitting 2 birds with one stone here, so to speak.

First of all this post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme, for the Letter I.

Then it is also part of a new meme I'm running, Suggest a Christmas Title.

The doorman at a Reykjavik hotel who doubles every year as Santa at Christmas parties in the hotel is found dead by one of the hotel maids, stabbed to death, in his squalid basement room.
Christmas is fast approaching and the detective Erlendur is confronted by the problem of how or even if he is going to celebrate Christmas. Is there anything to celebrate? Strangely he moves into the hotel while the investigation of the murder is carried out just feeling he can't go back to his flat.


The 5th in the Erlendur series, VOICES was Indridason's 3rd novel to be translated into English. Originally published in 2003, it made it into English in 2006, translated by Bernard Scudder. Erlendur of course eventually solves the murder mystery but along the way we learn a lot about the ghosts of his own past, and gain insight into his relationship with his drug-addicted daughter Eva Lind. And even in the last 10 pages we are still juggling candidates for the killer.

My rating when I read the book over 2 years ago was my maximum: 5.0

Other reviews to check:
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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous30 November 2009 at 16:48

    Kerrie - This sounds like a really compelling book! Even from your short overview, it sounds as though it's worth reading. Thanks for this review.

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  2. Amy30 November 2009 at 17:57

    I loved this book and thought it was excellent. Thanks for the reminder I want to read more of the series.

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  3. Maxine Clarke1 December 2009 at 19:04

    I'm glad you liked this book. I've enjoyed all of Indridason's books, I'm a huge fan. Some people think this is his weakest (some recent discussion on FF about it) but I like it. I especially like the assumptions that everyone made about the "secondary" crime, the one about the young child - I can't remember all the details but there was a good twist when everyone realised they'd been looking at the case the wrong way round.

    I was predicting to myself that we'd get a few Indridasons this week, as I isn't a massively popular letter with which to start a surname (of course, not everyone is always doing surnames, as the posts so far show! Norman is yet to come though ;-) ).

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  4. Dorte H2 December 2009 at 03:17

    I also liked this one, but I am one of the readers who consider it his weakest.

    And I chose Indridason today for two reasons: He is the only writer I had with an ´I´ surname, and I had the post all ready from my former blog. No need to struggle when you have some ´fast food´ ready.

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  5. Nan5 December 2009 at 01:50

    Thank you for the introduction! I'm going to search out the first in the series.

    ReplyDelete

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