Black Skies
An Inspector Erlendur Novel
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4.3 • 55 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From the villas of Reykjavík's banking elite to a sordid basement flat, Black Skies is a superb story of greed, pride, and murder from one of Europe's most successful crime writers.
Arnaldur Indridason, whom The Sunday Times calls "one of the most brilliant crime writers of his generation," has thrilled readers around the world with his series set in Reykjavik. In Black Skies, Indridason further cements his position as one of today's top international crime writers.
A man is making a crude leather mask with an iron spike fixed in the middle of the forehead. It is a "death mask," once used by Icelandic farmers to slaughter calves, and he has revenge in mind. Meanwhile, a school reunion has left Inspector Erlendur's colleague Sigurdur Óli unhappy with life in the police force. While Iceland is enjoying an economic boom, Óli's relationship is on the rocks and soon even his position in the department is compromised. When a favor to a friend goes wrong and a woman dies before his eyes, Oli has a murder investigation on his hands.
"A sophisticated and complex thriller."
--Kirkus
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Insp. Sigurdur li takes center stage in Indridason's solid eighth Inspector Erlendur novel (after 2012's Outrage), providing all the Nordic bleakness and moral ambiguity of Reykjavik police colleague Erlendur Sveinsson, with a trace of stolid conservatism added to sour the mix. Sigurdur li's great talent is to doggedly follow a trail, even at the expense of the relationships in his life and his own ethics. When someone fatally bludgeons L na Thorgr msd ttir with a baseball bat in her apartment, L na, like most Indridason victims, turns out to be far from innocent; she has tried to blackmail friends of Sigurdur li with photos of group sex. Meanwhile, a Reykjavik bum with a shattered and nearly incoherent personality tries to tell the inspector about a terrible crime. Indridason may be guilty of gratuitous characterization in a search for nuance, but the pathos is often moving, and Sigurdur li proves a worthy detective, if not so great a human being.
