Arnaldur Indridason - HYPOTHERMIA

review by Corinna on show 2nd Dec 2010
This is a murder mystery set in Iceland and one that after about one third of the book I found very readable and well constructed. If you thought the Swedish names of Stig Larsson were difficult you should just gloss over the unpronounceable names in this novel !!

The story starts with the apparent suicide of Maria, a local woman in a remote holiday cottage. As you might of guessed there is something odd about this tragedy. Detective Erlendur is given a tape by the friend who found the body. He begins an unofficial investigation into the death and gradually unravels the truth. The dead woman was married to a doctor and all in his past and present life is not as straightforward as you might imagine .

Erlendur like many fictionalised detectives has an unhappy domestic life. He is separated from his wife and in spite of repeated attempts by his daughter to reconcile them they mutually decide that this is not possible.
Erlendur is haunted by the disappearance of his brother who died in a blizzard when he was a boy, sadly his body was never found. There is a written account of the tragedy in which the author states that the surviving brother Erlendur as a result of the ordeal has been left gloomy and withdrawn. This family history has obviously affected the detective.

Whilst investigating the death of Maria, Erlendur is also giving some considerable thought to 2 other disappearances of young people thirty years ago. The book follows various clues and there are several characters who help him in his search for the answers about Maria, also he eventually solves the mystery of the missing youngsters.

There is much interesting scenic background – I had not realised there were quite so many lakes in Iceland. Altogether this is a very polished tale, but will reserve a complete view when I have read another of the Erlendur books. The author was a journalist and critic before turning to novels. He has written five other crime thrillers with the same detective and won numerous awards for them.
review by Corinna