Enjoyable despite everything - Rated 
It's hard to pin down why Indridason's novels are such gripping page-turners.
The detectives, the best Iceland has to offer apparently, are naïve, remarkably dense and seem to spend most of their time clutching at straws. Obvious leads which scream at the reader from the first pages onwards are studiously ignored until the plot reaches its unravelling. One policeman who can't recognise the smell of hashish? Very unlikely, even in Reykjavík. A whole coven of policemen who can't recognise the smell of hashish? Impossible! Maddeningly, nobody ever gives a straight answer to a question, be it part of the investigation or part of a personal conversation - it's like a murder in a land populated only by politicians. The plot is stretched to breaking point, padded out by somewhat intrusive accounts of other crimes and from the detectives' own lives. Indridason's obsession with child-abuse book after book after book is a little wearing, and some sloppy translation, editing and/or proof-reading have also all left their marks behind.
But, that said, his books are enjoyable to read. This work is less sombre and better written than some of his other works. I would just advise, though, that to get the best from the Elendur series they be read in the order in which they were written.
A gripping police procedural - Rated
Voices is the third Arnaldur Indriðason book to be translated into English featuring the troubled detective Erlunder. Set in the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik, it's a powerful police procedural that pulls no punches in its depiction of a sordid crime and its aftermath.
The story opens with the murder of a hotel doorman in the room in which he has lived for the past 20 years.
"The man was sitting on the bed, leaning against the wall. He was wearing a bright red Santa suit and still had the Santa cap on his head, but it had slipped down over his eyes. A large artificial Santa beard hid his face. He had undone the thick belt around his waist and unbuttoned his jacket. Beneath it he was wearing only a white vest. There was a fatal wound to his heart. Although there were other wounds on the body, the stabbing through the heart had finished him off. His hands had slash marks on them, as if he had tried to fight off the assailant. His trousers were down round his ankles."
Erlunder, together with the help of his two colleagues, Sigurdur Oli and Elinborg, immediately launches an investigation into the crime, but this is hindered on two fronts: first, no-one seems to know much about the victim despite the fact he had worked at the hotel for so long; and second, the manager wants the crime to be hushed up to save the hotel's reputation and to "avoid arousing fear among the guests". This is all complicated by the time of year: it's Christmas and the hotel is packed with rich foreigners "most of them tourists wearing traditional Icelandic sweaters, hiking boots and thick winter clothing".
The investigation takes place over five days (each of the days is a section of the novel) during which Erlunder holes up in the hotel, taking a room in which the radiator does not work, in order to thoroughly immerse himself in finding out what happened. But this also allows him to avoid the pain of spending another Christmas at home alone with his wayward daughter, Eva Lind, a recovering drug addict.
This lends the book an especially claustrophobic atmosphere, because the world outside barely intrudes on the hotel, its secretive staff, the guests -- one of whom is under suspicion -- and the piecing together of clues.
But the Santa murder is not the only narrative thread in this wholly gripping novel. In a second, interwoven storyline, Elinborg pursues a case in which a young boy is hospitalised after he was beaten up by school bullies. She firmly believes the father is the culprit and does all she can to prove her theory.
Meanwhile Erlunder slowly patches up his relationship with his daughter, revealing some of his inner demons -- specifically the grief surrounding the death of his younger brother when Erlunder was 10 -- for the first time. He also warms towards a female biotechnician helping out on the case and allows himself to go on a proper date, the first since he divorced his wife 25 years ago!
These additional elements do not, however, detract from the heart of the story. If anything, they enhance it, because it gives Indriðason the chance to really flesh out his characters, to explore their own troubles and heartaches, to make them more three-dimensional and real. To achieve this without sacrificing plot or narrative drive is quite an achievement.
It's also quite an achievement to write a novel with three diverse storylines centred on one theme -- the death of childhood -- without knocking the reader over the head with it. And to neatly tie up everything at the end and to present a solution to the crime that had not once occurred to me (I usually guess these things long before the last page), also says a lot about the author's talent as a crime writer.
On the whole Voices is a gripping read, intelligently written and plotted, that is emotional without resorting to sentiment or reader manipulation, and is satisfying without being formulaic or predictable. More please.
Exceptionally human crime story - Rated
At one of Reykjavík's largest hotels, the doorman/caretaker is found dead with multiple stab wounds, just before he was due to play Santa Claus at a children's party. He is unclothed and wearing a used condom. Although he has been there for 20 years, no one in the hotel seems to know anything about him or wants to talk about it. They just prevaricate.
The police have difficulty tracking down anyone who knows him. But eventually they find a hotel guest who has come to Iceland specifically to buy rare LP records from him, and his family who disowned him, and they are both telling lies. With senior hotel staff also engaged in lies and cover-ups, the blank canvas becomes painted with no shortage of suspects.
I'm not a crime fiction fan, but I don't mind the occasional entertainment by a top quality author. It is mainly my interest in Iceland that drew me to Arnaldur's books. And I've ended up buying several. I like them, because they reek of the Icelandic character and the nature of Reykjavík. It is an intensely compelling and human story. The hotel doesn't want a fuss at one of the busiest times of year, and no one wants it to drag on into Christmas itself. Erlendur's family issues as ever threaten to become involved. His investigation is sometimes exposed as less careful than it ought to be, meaning that important evidence might have been lost. The truth, when it finally emerges, is genuinely plausible, rather than some clever and complex plot. To that extent, I would say it is a much better book than Tainted Blood/Jar City (alternate names for the same book), which relied on a complex plot device, albeit one which is highly specific to the special conditions of life Iceland.
First-rate Nordic crime fiction - Rated 
If you're familiar with Arnaldur Indridason's 'Reykjavik murders' series, then you'll already know what a fine writer he is. If you haven't come across these novels before, they will appeal to anyone who enjoys Ian Rankin or Henning Mankell. Indeed the main character, Inspector Erlendur, does bear an uncanny similarity to Rebus and Wallander. Like them, he is a melancholic, middle-aged man who has been through an acrimonius divorce, has a difficult relationship with his daughter and spends many an evening alone in his flat eating warm-up meals. However, Erlendur is no pale imitation of other detectives and Indridason has successfully created a character who is intriguing and likeable in his own right. And after all, who wants a happy detective?
'Voices' in the third novel in this series and in my opinion, it's Indridason's best yet. Not only is the plot highly original, but I really felt that Indridason has found his voice as a writer, establishing a style that is very much his own. The judicious use of flashbacks manages to provide an extra dimension to the investigation and in this novel we also gain more of an insight into Erlendur's personal history.
Iceland may not seem the most fertile ground for a series of crime novels given it's reputation as one of the safest places in the world, but it is precisely this civilised backdrop that makes a murder twice as shocking. And if you thought that Iceland was all about geysers rather than geezers, prepare to be surprised!
With one novel a year, there is no danger of the 'Bergerac effect' where a seemingly safe place suddenly becomes more dangerous than the Bronx and Indridason's plots are plausible and compelling. If you like thoughtful, well-written crime fiction, then try this writer.
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