Arctic Chill by Arnaldur Indridason

Ten-year old boy Elias is found stabbed to death near a block of flats near his home in Reykjavik. Elias is of mixed Thai and Icelandic origin. Is it the reason for what happened to the young boy? Is his killing related to the recent argument over immigration in his school? Or is his half-brother implicated? Is there some other unknown reason for killing? Is his death related to drug dealing in the school grounds? Detective Erlendur along with his team tackle this case.

I read Hypothermia by Arnaldur Indridason last year. While the mystery was very obvious, the book was quite haunting and Arnaldur creates quite a chilling atmosphere in Hypothermia.

As the dead boy is of mixed origin, Arnaldur takes on the issue of immigration in Iceland. We get arguments from all the sides. The anti-immigrant teacher, who vehemently hates immigrants and is quite vocal about it. The hardworking immigrant trying to make a decent life trying to stick to her language and facing problems learning a new language. The immigrant teenager who does not belong anywhere, who feels he is 'neither nor'. Neither an Icelander nor a Thai. The tolerant Icelander who does not mind immigrants and pro-immigrant Icelander who welcomes immigrants from his own personal experience. Yes! Yes! This is a crime novel but this is the major issue that it deals with. Erlendur meets all these arguments during his investigation. But this is not the only angle the investigation takes. Erlendur finds that there may be a paedophile residing in the area and not difficult to guess who. The case becomes complex when Sunee, Elias's mother doesn't trust the police and hides information and her other son. And there is the question of Sunee's elusive boyfriend. Is he somehow involved? Why didn't Erlendur impress on Sunee that she cannot hide important information?

Erlendur's back story of losing his brother in a blizzard is repetitive as I read all that in Hypothermia, though Hypothermia follows Arctic Chill and I never read books in order. Couldn't help wondering if his back story will feature in all his stories in detail. Arctic Chill is not as haunting or chilling like Hypothermia but here I couldn't guess the killer. Well, nobody could. I am looking forward to read other Reykjavik murder mysteries especially the one that won the CWA Gold Dagger. This one didn't win, the cover is misleading. This book is published in English in 2008 and translated from Icelandic by Bernard Scudder and Victoria Cribb.

This is my post for Letter A for Crime Fiction Alphabet 2013 and counts towards various challenges.

The Eye Collector by Sebastian Fitzek

When the story starts with an epilogue and the first chapter is the end, one can't help asking, if this is just a gimmick or it serves a purpose. Eavesdropping into the Police Radio ex-cop and now reporter Alexander Zorbach discovers that the Eye Collector is at work again. And the countdown begins. The Eye Collector of Berlin is a serial killer, who kills the wife, kidnaps the child and challenges the husband to find the child before the stopwatch in his dead wife's hand stops, playing a deadly game of Hide and Seek. When the husband fails, he sends back the dead child with only one eye, as his name suggests.

Alex gets embroiled in this case. He meets Alina Gergoriev who is blind, who tells him a story that he is not sure if he can believe. Alina tells him that at certain times she has visions about the past. Alina is a massager and on touching her latest client, she sees a vision. She sees him killing the wife and kidnapping the child and is sure that he is the Eye Collector. How did Alina trace Alex? They start investigating the vision and get involved in the case more and more. Will Alex and Alina save the child before the stopwatch stops? Can Alex trust Alina?

This is a fast-paced book with very short chapters and good size font that is really easy on the eye. The events follow one after another, that the thoughts lingering in the back of my mind surfaced only at the end, so whatever happened in the end is not really a surprise, the whole story had been moving towards this conclusion. Still there are other surprises and twists and turns. Given the title I had to think that the book would be gory and graphic. It isn't. At least, he does not go into the mechanics of eye collection. Fitzek uses mythology to explain why the eye collector is doing what he is doing. Do serial killers take a short course in mythology?

By using Alina as one of the key characters in the story, Fitzek points out in his acknowledgements, he wanted to answer his and our questions about blind. Have you ever wondered how do the blind dream? Do they see images like us or is it different? Do they 'watch' TV? How do they distinguish colours? Fitzek points out that he had conducted research and got information to answer some of these questions and to remove some of the preconceived notions we may have about them from watching movies and reading books.

Yes! The reverse story telling does serve a purpose and is not a gimmick. Originally published in German, The Eye Collector is translated into English by John Brownjohn and published in 2012.

The Fire Engine that Disappeared by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo

The Fire Engine that Disappeared is the fifth book in the Martin Beck series, police procedurals, written by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. In this book Martin Beck of Stockholm plays a very small role and his team solves the mystery.

A man commits suicide in Stockholm and the police find Martin Beck's name written on a paper in his home. Was the man planning to call Martin Beck to inform him about anything? The case is suicide and is closed.

A man is under surveillance and his apartment complex bursts into flame. While the policeman in charge Gunvald Larsson saves the lives of eight residents, the man under surveillance and two others are dead. The fire Engine takes forever to reach the spot. The Fire Engine seems to have disappeared. But this is not the only fire Engine that disappears. Ronn, one of the officers in Beck's team, gifts his son a Fire Engine which also disappears. The boy has been unwell and did not leave the home for a while but his foot long fire engine has disappeared. Will Beck and his team solve the problem of the real and toy Fire Engines that disappeared?

I liked the underlying humour and turn of phrase in the book. For Example,

The question of the cause of the fire was Melander's headache, apart from the fact that he had never had a headache.

The blow that produced a veritable constellation of stars was delivered before lunch on the following day, that is, Wednesday, the twentieth of March, and it was Kollberg who quite undeservedly received it.

Interaction between the pathologist and Kollberg is funny. First the crime scene personnel pick up everything and anything and put in an evidence bag for analyses and then Ronn calls up and says the case has been closed and they can throw everything away. Then Larsson calls up to say that the case isn't closed and it's very important. Then Hammar tells him the case is closed. Then Beck calls up enquiring if they found something unusual. When the Pathologists has something important to say he cannot reach any one of them.

As a police procedural the story portrays the conflicts between different police personnel. While Kollberg believes that 'Larsson is not what you'd call a great brain', Larsson believes Sckake is a fool. While they disparage one and another and definitely dislike one another, they all work together efficiently producing results. Melander does the crime scene. Larsson solves the mystery of the (real) Fire Engine that disappeared with help from Ronn. Skacke, who hopes to become the Chief of Police, does the door to door, 'Operation Door-Knocking', to find the mysterious caller. Finally, it is police inspector Mansson of Malmo, third largest city in Sweden, who unties the major knots in the story and also solves the mystery of the toy fire engine that disappeared. Interesting Police Procedural.

I read the second book in the series The man who went up in smoke last year. I look forward to reading all the other books in this series.

Translated from the Swedish by Joan Tate and first published in English in 1971.

Evil Water by Inger Wolf

When two bodies of missing women were found in two suitcases near a farm, it wasn't just me who wondered, “how do you get a woman into a suitcase anyway? Is that really possible?”, Inspector Daniel Trokic of Århus, in Denmark, also shared my feeling.

Trokic and his team identify the women before long. They had been missing for months. What are the Y marks on the remaining skin of the rotten bodies? Trokic's team meet an entomologists and botanists to help with their investigation which leads them to a disused brown coal mine. What is the connecting link between both the women? How did the killer choose his victims? Will there be more victims? Will Trokic and his team stop the killer in time before he strikes again? What is the Africa connection? Does the Y signify something?

As murder methods go, here is one that is really bizarre and creepy, literally. Inger Wolf plays on our fears and disgust for slimy creatures and adds some obscure African traditions to create a scary tale. I didn't guess who the real killer is, though they were some clues around, and I should have guessed, given the number of mysteries I read. So the mystery is quite satisfying.

I like the ways the some of the ends are tied up. But there are some loose ends. Who is Bernard? How did Frederick know about the parasites? I don't think the police would be foolish enough to release or leak so much vital information to newspapers. So how did Frederick link the cases. He seemed to have made a huge leap connecting the cases, why didn't Trokic or somebody question him to find out how he made the link. There are other such small issues but they do not spoil the enjoyment of the novel. A creepy journey into a dark alley.

Originally published in Danish translated in English by the author Inger Wolf, herself, Evil Water is available as an ebook from Amazon.

DISCLAIMER: I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated for my opinion or this post.