Well this is surprising, and a testament to the power of a bit of a tidy up sometimes, because in the process of doing so I discovered I'd not published these notes ... a long time ago. Apologies to the author - this is a series of four books set in Iceland, from Kiwi Author Grant Nicol. The main character is Grímur Karlsson and it's well worth reading.
A dour, somewhat put upon character Karlsson is one of those dogged, downtrodden sorts of detectives that seems to specialise in falling into major cases, literally sometimes. The author has a particularly inventive touch here in the way he sets Karlsson up against the treacherous geography of Iceland, and the equally treacherous aspects of human nature - the greed, selfishness and addiction of too many people part of the reason for Karlsson's constant darkness.
The story revolves around Karlsson's search for a young girl who has run in to a cold dark night, whilst a cryptic message left beside a charred corpse in the centre of Reykjavik seems to be hinting at a possible gang war. The connections between these two occurrences eventually reveal themselves, leaving Karlsson with a trail that leads from junkies on the streets to the very top of Icelandic society.
This is the third novel in this series, which I've really enjoyed, and finding these notes reminds me that I've still got the fourth book here - bumped up the queues immediately now.
A Place to Bury Strangers
"A story as bone-chilling as the air his characters breathe…” A cryptic message left next to a charred corpse in the middle of Reykjavík leaves police worried they have a gang war on their hands. Across town Detective Grímur Karlsson investigates a missing girl from a nice suburban family and gets far too close to the truth for his own good. It becomes clear the two cases are connected and Karlsson doggedly pursues the trail that leads from junkies on the seedy streets of Reykjavík all the way to the very top of Icelandic society.
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