"A deeply compassionate story of old crimes and their consequences, The Shadow District is the first in a thrilling new series by internationally bestselling author Arnaldur Indridason. THE PAST In wartime Reykjavik, a young woman is found strangled in 'the shadow district', a rough and dangerous area of the city. An Icelandic detective and a member of the American military police are on the trail of a brutal killer. THE PRESENT A 90-year-old man is discovered dead on his bed, smothered with his own pillow. Konrad, a former detective now bored with retirement, finds newspaper cuttings reporting the WWII shadow district murder the dead man's home. It's a crime that Konrad remembers, having grown up in the same neighborhood. A MISSING LINK Why, after all this time, would an old crime resurface? Did the police arrest the wrong man? Will Konrad's link to the past help him solve the case and finally lay the ghosts of WWII Reykjavik to rest?"--
The Shadow District is the first book in a new series Reykjavik Wartime Mysteries by Arnaldur Indriðason. Moving from past to present, the book explores the death of a 90-year-old man whom during World War II investigated the murder of a young woman. To add another layer to the story, Konrad, a retired policeman is looking into the death as he believes it was a murder, not just an old man who died peacefully in his sleep. Indriðason weaves a compelling story of wartime Reykjavik, just on the verge of independence from Danish rule, dealing with the onset of American soldiers fraternizing with Icelanders. While I noticed that in places the translation was “rough” I don’t believe that it detracted from the book. I am very interested to see the direction Indriðason will take this new series.
