Silence of the Grave

Starred review from June 26, 2006
In Indridason's excellent second mystery (after 2005's Jar City
), a skeleton, buried for more than 50 years, is uncovered at a building site on the outskirts of Reykjavík. Who is it? How did he or she die? And was it murder? The police wonder, chief among them the tortured, introspective Inspector Erlendur, introduced in Jar City
. While an archeologist excavates the burial site, several other narratives unfold: a horrifying story of domestic abuse set during WWII, a search for missing persons that unearths almost-forgotten family secrets involving some of the city's most prominent citizens, and Erlendur's own painful family story (his estranged, drug-addicted daughter is in a coma, after miscarrying her child). All these strands are compelling, but it's the story of the physical and psychological battering of a young mother of three by her husband that resonates most. And the denouement of this astonishingly vivid and subtle novel is unexpected and immensely satisfying. Indridason has won the CWA Golden Dagger Award. Author tour.

George Guidall makes everything he narrates better, and his performance of the Inspector Erlander Icelandic mysteries is no exception. A gravelly voice for Erlander exposes his loneliness and melancholy. Although the detective is working on a case revolving around a decades-old skeleton buried in a housing development, he's preoccupied by his drug-addicted daughter, who is in a coma. The doctors tell Erlander to talk to Eva Lind, and Guidall makes clear his initial discomfort, which transitions to an eventual unburdening. In a parallel story, a woman and her two sons are physically and psychologically abused by her husband, Grimur, during WWII. Guidall noticeably slows down the pacing for the scenes of domestic abuse, amping up the suspense and conveying the terror of the next battering blow. A.B. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine