Silence of the Grave

Arnaldur Indridason

During the building of a new housing project at the edges of Reykjavyk a skeleton is unearthed. Detective Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson and his team quickly learn that it is probably around 60 years old. The skeleton is deep enough that is was in a grave rather than someone who was caught out in the weather and not discovered. They start investigating a death that occurred in the 1940's to see if they can find out who the skeleton was and what happened.

At the end of the day Erlendur receives a phone call. "Help me." He recognizes his daughter's voice but doesn't know where she may be. He starts backtracking her hangouts and drug dealers. When he finally finds her, she is unconscious and goes into a coma. She is admitted to a hospital. He starts spending time at the bedside of the young woman who has claimed she hated him. The old skeleton gives him a way to escape his emotions. But despite it, he can't escape his own daughter.

As an archeology team carefully dig down to the skeleton, Erlendur and his detectives slowly learn that a house had been there, who owned it, and the history of the owner. They now have a potential victim. But there are other avenues as well. They want to find who may have rented the house as well, because the owner didn't live there long. Slowly, they pull the threads out of the decades old tangle to learn what happened to one family during World War II in Iceland.

Arnaldur Indridason paces the story line of Silence of the Grave with another family that is disconnected from Erlendur. The woman is an abused wife. Her daughter, his stepdaughter, is crippled. In order to keep his wife under his dominance, the man not only abuses her but continuously threatens the children, especially her "moron" daughter. The story easily moves back and forth between the investigation and the family's life.

Silence of the Grave is a good detective procedural novel. The underlying emotions and scenes color the book with darkness but don't overwhelm the reader. The story line leads the reader to the conclusion but leaves enough to keep the reader wondering just who will die and what happened next.

Sons of Earth
Silent Kill
Jar City
Silence of the Grave
Voices
The Draining Lake
Winter City