Product Description

A brilliant new mystery from the winner of the CWA Gold Dagger and Indridason's best book yet.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15918 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-02
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

New Statesman
'Indridason skilfully hides the identity of both the victim and
the killer until the very end. More than this, though, he manages to make a
Cold War tale ring with contemporary relevance'

www.tangled-web.co.uk
`The Draining Lake is another remarkable Reykjavik Murder
Mystery... Arnaldur Indridason's best book yet.'

Observer
`Atmospheric...A haunting, compassionate work'.

Customer Reviews

Draining to read
Set against the background of the Cold War, this novel uses the discovery of a skeleton in an Icelandic lake as the trigger for the investigation of a series of missing persons. Integral to the plot is the experiences of a group of Icelandic students in Leipzig (in former East Germany) in the 1950s. As in previous novels, Indridason is using a crime investigation to explore lots of themes - socio-economic change in Iceland, ageing and death, bereavement and betrayal. Like his earlier work, there is little that could be described as upbeat. However, whilst the story is bleak, it is fascinating and compelling.

INCISIVE BOOK, EXCELLENTLY TRANSLATED...
This is the first Indridason book which I have read and I found it excellent.

The action moves back and forth from the finding of a skeleton in a draining lake to the lives of the detectives and then to the lives of the students in communist East Germany. By the time that the lake begins to fill again, many old tragedies have been exhumed and explored....

The characters are alive and the concerns and interests of the young students are explored in detail and we come to care about the experiences of Lothar, Emil, Hannes, Tomas and particularly Ilona whose story is the connecting thread which holds them all together (or splits them apart).

The detectives, Erlendur, Elinborg and Sigurdur Oli,are real people and friends:
"What's the book called?" Erlendur asked.
"'More than Just Desserts'" Elinborg said. "It's a pun. Justice - get it - and desserts, and it's not just desserts..."
"Very droll" Erlendur said, casting a look of astonishment at Sigurdur Oli, who was trying to smother his laughter.

They have their moments of fun and laughter but also their personal tragedies:
"Erlunder lay staring up into the darkness...He thought about his brother, for whom he had been searching in vain all these years. His bones were lying somewhere.
Perhaps deep in a fissure, or higher up in the mountains than he could ever imagine....
'Don't you ever get tired of all this?'
Tired of this endless search."

Of course, the search is a metaphor for Erlendur's search for meaning and also for his profession which entails a constant search.
In this case, to find the identity of the body with the hole in its skull and also for some reason for its death.

It is only at the end that it all becomes apparent and yet another case has been solved. But many other questions have been answered and relationships have been explored.

The late, much lamented Bernard Scudder has translated this book with a sensitive touch, maintaining the tone and essence of the story and conveying to us the effect of the cold, icy environment on young and old alike.

Do buy it, it's well worth reading...

Dark
I am not a fan of Indridason's writing style, nor of the quality of the translation. His dialogues especially are stilted and dark, full of aggression, antagonism and rudeness even when the speakers profess to be cheerful. The multiple threads of the book, the lives of the protagonists and the mystery itself, are snipped into chunks and intermingled throughout the book, making it sometimes difficult to follow the plot line. I would prefer more concentration on the mystery and could do without the details about the lives of the detectives, which, for me, detract from the book.

Despite these reservations I have always enjoyed Indridason's works, and this one is no exception. One further comment - as the story lines of the lives of the detectives develop through his books, it is best to read them in order of being written.