I chose Reykjavik Nights because I was in Iceland many, many years ago and loved the people and country. I have read other Icelandic authors...Yrsa Sigurðardóttir and Michael Ridpath among them so I was anxious to try a new Icelandic Noir book. Although this is the 11th book written by Arnaldur Indridason (well, the 11th translated into English), it is the first book of his I have read and takes the reader to the beginning of the career of his main character, Erlendur Sveinsson, a detective inspector. In this book, he is just beginning his career with the police in Reykjavik. This prequel to the series featuring a younger Erlendur gives a great description of his doggedness about his earlier cases. Working nights, he discovers the city is full of car crashes, robberies, drinkers and fighters, but the night appeals to him as it allows him to develop ideas about other crimes. From what appears to be an accidental death of one man and a disappearance of a woman Erlendur works to solve two murders. Since Erlendur has no real standing with the detectives in the CID of his own police force, he is on his own to solve two murders only he believes happened.
Erlendur is a very private person with tragedy in his past, he has long been ammassing a strange library of papers about people lost in the wilds of Iceland, and in this book finds his semi-girlfriend pregnant with his child which interupts the balance of his life. The end of the book leaves the reader wide open for what is to become of Erlendur and the few people around him.
One thing which strikes me as odd is the author's reference to his main character by his first name, Erlendur. For quite a while I thought this was his last name, but that confused me since I understand how Icelandic names are developed...generally, a person's last name indicates the first name of his/her father (patronymic) for men or in some cases mother (matronymic) often for women. The author of the Erlendur Sveinsson novels, Arnaldur Indridason, had a father who was a prominent Icelandic novelist, Indridi Thorsteinsson, you can see where Arnaldur Indridason last name came from his father's first name. The first author I mentioned, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, is female which you can see by the ending of her name...Sigurðardóttir is a surname of Icelandic origin, meaning daughter of Sigurður. I have wandered off which is often my wont. I enjoyed the book and will be reading Jar City the first book by this author.
Erlendur is a very private person with tragedy in his past, he has long been ammassing a strange library of papers about people lost in the wilds of Iceland, and in this book finds his semi-girlfriend pregnant with his child which interupts the balance of his life. The end of the book leaves the reader wide open for what is to become of Erlendur and the few people around him.
One thing which strikes me as odd is the author's reference to his main character by his first name, Erlendur. For quite a while I thought this was his last name, but that confused me since I understand how Icelandic names are developed...generally, a person's last name indicates the first name of his/her father (patronymic) for men or in some cases mother (matronymic) often for women. The author of the Erlendur Sveinsson novels, Arnaldur Indridason, had a father who was a prominent Icelandic novelist, Indridi Thorsteinsson, you can see where Arnaldur Indridason last name came from his father's first name. The first author I mentioned, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, is female which you can see by the ending of her name...Sigurðardóttir is a surname of Icelandic origin, meaning daughter of Sigurður. I have wandered off which is often my wont. I enjoyed the book and will be reading Jar City the first book by this author.