A compelling, grim follow-up to Indridason's The Shadow District, this book follows Detective Konrad as he solves a murder during the British occupation of Iceland during WWII. Fans of Nordic noir may not appreciate the slower pace of this book, but it is still a satisfying read.

Thanks to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the e-arc I received in exchange for my honest review, sorry it’s so late but I finally got to it!

This is the second book in the Icelandic WW2 mystery series Reykjavik Wartime Mystery featuring the detectives Flovent and Thorson..

It was an interesting enough historical mystery read. Not sure I’ll continue the series.

You can never, ever go wrong with Arnaldur Indridason new release. This historical fiction set in Iceland ticked all the boxes for me.

I started this, it's a perfectly fine mystery with a good sense of the period, but somehow it didn't draw me in. DNF

I first discovered Icelandic author Arnaldur Indriðason about three years ago and I was immediately captivated by the tone of his novels and I've now got our small town library filled with his books. When I saw his name and this book available for request for reviewers, I was excited to make the request. What I didn't know was that this is part of a new series (the second book) known as the Reykjavik Wartime Mystery series. This definitely threw me off as I read the first few chapters ... Why are we in 1941? Where is Inspector Erlendur? ... Of course I caught on that this was not part of the Inspector Erlendur series and I just sat back to enjoy my mystery.

A man is found dead, shot in the head execution style, in a small apartment in Reykjavik. The bullet belonged to a Colt .45 pistol - standard issue for American GIs! Icelandic Detective Flóvent must work with U.S. Military Police Officer Thorson (a Canadian with Icelandic parents) since there is a strong possibility that the killer is a U.S. serviceman.

But the first surprise comes when the landlady informs them that the dead man is not the man who rents the apartment, as they first suspected. Now they must identify who was murdered while also looking for the killer. The deeper Flóvent and Thorson get into the case, the more disturbing the connections to the world war become.

I found this book to be very straightforward and without the entanglements of multiple subplots. My reaction, as I neared the end, that this was a very straight-forward detective mystery. We arrive on the scene with the detective(s) and follow them as they look into the case.

This makes it a slow-moving book. Slow is not always a bad thing. I enjoyed following along and making these discoveries. And the history of Iceland's involvement as a strategic location in WWII was very interesting.

I missed, though, the moodiness that is typically concomitant with Icelandic mysteries.

I've seen this book identified as a 'thriller' and as a 'police procedural.' 'Police procedural' - Definitely! 'Thriller' - not so much.

Looking for a good book? If you enjoy detective novels, police procedural stories, and WWII history, Arnaldur Indriðason's The Shadow Killer is just the right read.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

This was another thrilling read by a talented author. It was well written and had me gripped until the very end.
Recommended.

Published in Iceland in 2015; published in translation by St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books on May 29, 2018

The Shadow Killer is the second (and, so far, the last) in the Flóvent and Thorson series, following The Shadow District. The story again takes place during World War II. The novel describes the first meeting of Icelander Flóvent and Canadian (of Icelandic parentage) Thorson, so the novel takes place before the events recounted in The Shadow District.

A dead body is found in the apartment of Felix Lundun. The deceased was shot in the head, execution style, and a swastika was marked on his forehead. Felix, a traveling salesman, seems to have disappeared. Flóvent, the only detective in Reykjavik’s Criminal Investigation Division during the war, wonders if he might have been killed by an American, given the relative inexperience that Icelanders have with execution-style murders. The bullet came from a Colt .45, the sidearm carried by American soldiers. Since an American soldier might be involved, Flóvent is teamed with Thorson, who works for the American military police.

Circumstantial evidence, including a cyanide pill, suggests that Felix might be a German spy. Iceland in 1940 was occupied by the British who were trying to keep it out of German hands, while Icelanders were trying to remain studiously neutral. Felix’s father is a Nazi sympathizer but somehow managed to avoid the British purge. His father’s brother claims to have abandoned his interest in the Nazis, while Felix himself is reputed to be an anti-Nazi communist. Thorson has heard a rumor that Churchill might drop in on Iceland, a visit that might be of interest to German spies, if any are lurking about.

Since Felix is the obvious suspect, the reader will immediately understand that he is innocent, at least of killing the man whose body was found in his apartment. Flóvent and Thorson take occasional beatings as they plod forward with their investigation forward. Eventually the plot addresses theories (popular at the time) that criminals share certain physiological features, leading Flóvent to investigate certain Nazi-inspired experiments that were rooted in those theories. Meanwhile, Thorson is investigating the woman who had been living with the murder victim, a two-timer named Vera who seems to have manipulated every man she ever met.

As was true in The Shadow District, the background to the story involves the relationship between Icelandic girls, who are excited to meet foreign soldiers and sailors, and the Morality Committee, comprised of older Icelandic adults who are inclined to lock up Icelandic girls in reform schools if they dare to fraternize with foreign members of the military. Nazi (or in this case, Icelandic Nazi) theories involving racial purity and Nordic/Viking ancestry also contribute to the novel’s background.

That background, in fact, is more interesting than the plot or the primary characters. Naughty Vera at least has a personality, while Thorson and Flóvent might as well be ice sculptures. Their detailed investigation is at times too detailed to make for a riveting story, although The Shadow Killer does allow the reader to join the investigators in puzzling over clues and pondering potential motives. The solution to the mystery comes as no surprise. The story too often drags to warrant a full recommendation, but the background is sufficiently interesting to warrant a guarded recommendation to fans of cold-weather fiction.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

man is found murdered in a small apartment in Reykjavík, shot in the head with a pistol. The police’s attention is immediately drawn to the foreign soldiers who are on every street corner in the summer of 1941. So begins officers Flóvent and Thorson’s investigation, which will lead them down a path darker than either of them expected, and force them to reckon with their own demons. This book set in Iceland during the war brought back memories to me of a time when I was much younger and dated a man that was stationed at a base in Iceland. It is one of those places we don't think much about. But this book delves into the relationship between Icelandic citizens and the Allied forces that were stationed on the island and it paints a not altogether happy relationship.

As with all of Amaldur's books, it is well written and after a bit of a slow start, I was sucked right into the story. While there were some twists and turns as the two detectives try to solve the murder, I was able to figure it out before the end but there were some surprises.

Yes, it made me want to visit Iceland all the more after reading this book. And maybe I will be taking the sequel to this book to read.

having read all the English Erlendur books and the first in this new series, I was looking forward to the 2nd entry. this one takes place totally in the past during the lead up to WWII summer of 1941. this time the story involves a murdered salesman who is not easily identified, but soon love triangles, Nazis, experiments on children and more storylines are uncovered that could provide the answers. again Thorson and Flovent are on the case and these 2 characters and the best part of this series. I didn't enjoy this one as much as the first as I found a lot of repetitive scenes that didn't seem necessary and some over the top character dialogue. also the ending seemed a little abrupt even tho most the threads were tied up. 3 stars for this one but I will certainly seek out the next entry once translated. thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy.

Thx to Netgalley, Minotaur Books, and Arnaldur Indridason for this ARC. This started off a bit slow , but because I’ve read a Thke Shadow District, I knew it would pick up and it did ! I love reading about Iceland, and the Shadow district. Such interesting facts were included in this mystery and I’ve been to Iceland and loved it, so reading about it was wonderful. I have read a few other Icelandic authors works, but the shadow district is my favorite series. I’m definitely going to pick up more by this author.
His characters are interesting and the storylines intersect nicely. My review can be seen on Amazon, Goodreads, Twitter and Facebook.

THE SHADOW KILLER
Arnaldur Indridason; translated by Victoria Cribb
Minotaur Books/Thomas Dunne
ISBN 978-1-250-12404-3
Hardcover
Thriller

A confession, before we begin. I don’t reflexively reach for historical mysteries when i’m looking for something to read. I make an exception, however, when the name “Arnaldur Indridason” is on the spine. Indridason attracted a great deal of attention with his Inspector Erlendur, located in the exotic (for those of us in the United States) setting of contemporary Reykjavik, Iceland. Indridason recently switched tracks and started a new series set in the same geographical location but (primarily) against the background of World War II. THE SHADOW KILLER is the second of these. While THE SHADOW DISTRICT, the inaugural volume, bounced back and forth between the past and present, THE SHADOW KILLER remains firmly ensconced in 1941, and slowly enlarges some of the themes and characters introduced by its predecessor.

The primary plot of THE SHADOW KILLER is driven by the discovery of a body of a murder victim, who, it develops, is an unsuccessful travelling salesman named Eyvindur. The location is an interesting one, given that it is the apartment belonging to Felix Lunden, a former childhood friend of Eyvindur’s. Felix has gone missing, as has Vera, Eyvindur’s former girlfriend. Further complicating matters is the manner of death. The bullet that sent Eyvindur to his eternal reward is one that is from a firearm commonly carried by the U.S. soldiers who are occupying Iceland in increasing numbers in order to protect the country from invasion by Nazi Germany. Felix as well as his father have the repute of being Nazi sympathizers, which makes things even more interesting. Flovent, the sole police detective in Reykjavik, is paired up with Thorson, a Canadian military policeman of Icelandic descent who is tasked with investigating the case due to the possible involvement of a member of the U.S. forces. THE SHADOW KILLER is accordingly somewhat of an origin story, given that Flovent and Thorson were already somewhat established as investigative partners during the events of THE SHADOW DISTRICT. The pair functions as a team, but due to the complexity of the investigation (as well as the prickly relationship between the U.S. forces and the citizens of Reykjavik on a number of issues, including the attentions of the local women) the two men separately investigate a number of the elements of the case. They don’t lack for suspects. Vera, a highly manipulative individual with a history of causing trouble wherever she goes, may have enlisted an American soldier to do her former boyfriend in. Felix may have been the target of a blackmail scheme concocted by Eyvindur. There is also the possibility that Eyvindur was the victim of a case of mistaken identity, with the missing Felix being the real target. It’s a complex mystery with a number of moving parts, but Indridason’s deliberate narrative pace keeps an otherwise complex presentation from galloping away as the various players each and all ultimately get caught in their own juices, as it were, by story’s end.

This new canon, which is becoming known as the Flovent and Thorsen series, appears at this point to be more plot-driven than the Erlendur series, one that is primarily concerned at this point with exploring the backdrop of Iceland during World War II as opposed to developing the primary characters. We do learn a bit about Thorsen in THE SHADOW KILLER, and perhaps Indridason (with the able assist of translator Victoria Cribb) will explore the backgrounds and personalities of both men in future volumes. In the meanwhile, the complex elements created by the U.S. presence in Iceland during World War II will undoubtedly provide plenty of grist for future stories. Recommended.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2018, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

World War 11 intrigue

World War II Reykjavík. It's 1941, a man is found dead, a cyanid pill in his suitcase. Iceland as an area of interest is host to armed forces from both the British and Americans
The murder investigation by a member of the understaffed Reykjavík police with the support of a Canadian RMP officer (officers Flóvent and Thorson) turn up a strange trail of events as they look at the why and what of the man they seek.
Lives are turned inside out, harsh events from the past come to light. Their discoveries impact the current political situation and war effort.
Another enthralling entry into in to the Nordic Noir genre.

A NetGalley ARC

Arnaldur Indridason is Iceland's premier crime fiction author. (There are other good ones, but he has been at it the longest - unless you count the sagas). Many of us came to love his Inspector Erlendur series, which has come to an end. This is the second of a series set in the past, during World War II as British and then American forces occupied Iceland in order to protect shipping lanes and forestall Nazi operations. This occupation created a cultural crisis for the small island nation, and this series explores the corrosive effect of this cultural collision through two detectives - one Icelandic, the other a Canadian of Icelandic heritage working with both British and American forces - who are inveatigating a murder that involves the "situation" (the rise of prostitution) and a grumpy old Nazi sympathizer and his salesman son. Though billed as a thriller, this is a thoughtful police procedural more interested in looking at life in a particular place and time than in thrills - which was fine by me.

It seems that there’s an insatiable appetite for crime novels which are also war stories – historical fiction which uses the international upheaval of WW2 as its dramatic backdrop. I blame Bernie Gunther… but find these philosophical investigations as compelling as any contemporary thrillers. It’s as if we still can’t come to terms with what happened in the decade from 1935 – and, of course, we’re all living in a situation shaped by the political machinations of that time.

In the latest variation on this theme, well-established Scandi crime author Arnaldur Indriðason detours from his series of modern-day police procedurals to examine this impact of war from an unusual angle, away from the usual setting of Continental Europe. This story highlights Iceland’s abrupt introduction to the harsher realities of 20th century life; strategically important but geographically isolated. Socially remote, too – and that’s just one of the aspects of Icelandic history which Indriðason examines in these contemplative, meandering (yes, not unlike this review) murder-mysteries when a dispersed population suddenly underwent an accelerated expansion of urban and industrial development.

In the Shadow series, Reykjavik is reeling, not from the onslaught of an armed invasion but from the cultural upheaval that comes when a ‘protective’ military takes up garrison; when the young people comes flooding in from the countryside, abandoning the seasonal pace of a simple life for the accelerated sophistication of urban existence.

Before the war, many young women never left their local farmsteads. Six months later, the ports were stuffed full of Allied servicemen. A generation gap appeared almost overnight, as horizons stretched beyond the stark lava fields to the bright lights of big cities.

Too many of the new arrivals discovered only poverty, exploitation, deceit and abuse. No ‘Morality Committee’ could stem this tide, and in The Shadow Killer the policemen must mop up the mess when blood is spilled in civilian situations. Into this situation, Indriðason deposits a dead body, a missing person, an inexperienced investigator and a military man – inevitably under pressure from his superiors. Local policeman Flóvent and soldier Thorson (Canadian of Icelandic descent) start tugging on loose threads. Pretty soon they have a tangle of personal betrayals, eugenics experiments, Nazi sympathisers and emotional abuse to unravel.

The plot proceeds at a measured rate – this certainly is no fast-paced page-turner, and nor is it a whodunit where the reader stands much chance of pre-empting the dénouement. It is, however, the type of criminal investigation where you can immerse yourself in the intricacy of the story.

This is the second book in the Shadow series, not that it matters if you haven’t read the first. The characters seem barely related to the protagonists in The Shadow District; I’ve read both, but wasn’t really clear about the timeline. The relationship between Flóvent and Thorson seemed curiously muted in Killer, and for most of the time they work in parallel, not in partnership.

If Flóvent and Thorson tend to fade into the background, it’s so that the stories of the witnesses, suspects, conspirators and victims can take centre stage. Their tangled sins and secrets might serve to mislead, or to bring us closer to the truth. Either way, their revelations give us an insight into the lives of a unique people at a time of extreme stress.

If you prefer your crime novels to be all about the central detective and his/her domestic situation, then the Shadow series may not suit you. Fans of the Erlendur investigations might struggle to find a key character to latch onto in these stories. For me, it’s the country itself – Iceland is the protagonist, fighting an internal war which sets the past against the future. It’s a nation in flux, torn between the competing ideologies of the Allies and the Axis, and depicted with quiet dexterity by an accomplished author.

8/10

"The Shadow Killer," nicely translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb, is the second installment in Arnaldur Indridason's Reykjavík Wartime Mystery Series. The action takes place in 1941, at a time when American troops are replacing the British forces in Reykjavík, the site of "the largest Allied base in the North Atlantic." Indridason introduces us to Eyvindur, a traveling salesman who comes home after trying to sell his wares. "He had returned clutching only a handful of orders," too few to please his employer. He becomes even more dejected when he discovers that his girlfriend, Vera, with whom he had quarreled two weeks earlier, has packed her belongings and left the flat they shared.

The author then moves to the scene of an execution-style murder. Flóvent, an Icelandic detective in Reykjavík's Criminal Investigation Department, is called to a crime scene where an unidentified man lies on the floor with "a bullet hole in the back of his head." Flóvent teams up with Thorson, a Canadian who speaks fluent Icelandic and has been seconded to the U. S. Military Police Corps, to look into a murky mystery that involves Nazi sympathizers, a cruel and manipulative experiment, and women caught up in what was euphemistically known as "the Situation." This refers to the social interaction between soldiers and young Icelandic females who compromise their reputations in return for gifts, romance, and a bit of excitement.

Indridason expertly captures the atmosphere in Iceland during a turbulent time. Flóvent and Thorson interview witnesses who may have useful information to impart, but not everyone is willing to reveal what he or she knows. Therefore, it takes this pair of investigators quite a while to figure out what is going on. The deaths in this grim narrative stem, for the most part, from wrongheaded choices made by reckless individuals. "The Shadow Killer" is talky and rambling at times, but Indiridason holds our attention with his richly descriptive prose and character-driven portrayal of the destructive consequences of lust, greed, jealously, and hatred.

Indridason returns to wartime Reykjavik with The Shadow Killer. An Icelandic salesman is found murdered in an apartment, shot by a US service weapon. This fact convinces detective Flovent to involve Thorsen, a Canadian member of the US military policy (whom we met in The Shadow District). While Thorsen is detailed to help with the investigation, his military superiors are also placing pressure on him.

The investigation soon turns up Nazi connections with the owner of the flat, who cannot be located. Another possible angle is the victim's girlfriend, who appears to be involved in The Situation. (This refers to the Icelandic women who took up with foreign soldiers during the war. It's made clearer in The Shadow District, but Indridason should have repeated that background here for people who have not read the first book).

As always, this is a good plot with a few surprises, but I felt that the pacing was a bit ordinary and the switching of viewpoints between the two investigators each chapter felt a bit routine. There is nobody in this book, or its predecessor, that is remotely as compelling as Indridason's great character, Erlendur. I don't think Indridason is at the top of his game here; there is so much more that he could be doing with this material.

I received a free Kindle copy of The Shadow Killer by Arnaldur Indridason courtesy of Net Galley  and Minotaur, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and my fiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book as it sounded interesting and I was looking for something a little different and reviews of this author's other works has been positive. This is the first book by the author that I have read.

This is a book that has been translated into English and as such, it may have impacted my overall impression of the book and author. The story takes place in Iceland during the early 1940's and features the British, American and German involvement on the island. There is a murder that winds its way through the book to a successful conclusion. The book itself is an easy read and held my interest, but is by no means a page turner (this where my caveat about the translation comes into play).

I recommend this book in particular if you are a fan of Scandavian murder mysteries.

The Shadow Killer is set in Iceland in 1941 during the change over from the British to U.S. troops. Tiny Iceland, which had been largely isolated, was first invaded by about 25,000 British troops. When the novel begins, the British are about to depart and the Yanks are taking over in even larger numbers.

A time of great upheaval--the war, the Allied troops, the cultural and social confrontations. A young man is found murdered with a bloody swastika on his forehead. The weapon, a Colt 45, is associated with the American forces.

Flovent, an Icelandic policeman, and Thorson, a Canadian seconded to the American Military Police are united again in the investigation. (I have not read The Shadow District, the first book in this series). Both Flovent and Thorson are likable characters who lack the super-crime-solving abilities of many detectives. They do the best they can in a difficult situation fraught with all kinds of social and political ramifications from both Icelandic and military interference.

NetGalley/St. Martin's Press

Mystery/WWII. May 29, 2018. Print length: 368 pages.

I didn't love this one as much as The Shadow District, but it was still a really solid work of historical fiction and police procedural. I think my lack of enthusiasm here is mainly to do with the fact that I didn't care much for any of the characters outside of the ones we already knew, Flóvent and Thorson. However, the angle of Icelandic WWII history he covers here is an interesting one - German-Icelandic people during the war and their relationship with the two counties. Also interesting is that the 1940s element takes place before the 1940s plot of The Shadow District, and while Arnaldur had a modern plot to parallel in the first book, he looks back to the 1930s in this one. Meanwhile, he throws in a bit more about Thorson's character that could lead in an interesting direction in further books. I do love how this author imbues a fairly straightforward police procedural with so much information on Icelandic history and culture, and yet it's so subtle that the reader absorbs it without fulling realizing. Great stuff. Definitely looking forward to the next installment!

You could read this as either historical fiction or as a procedural but it's a fascinating mixture of the two. Iceland was occupied by a succession of the UK, Canada, and finally the US during WWII, which led to all sorts of issues. Not something I'd previously known and so this alone made it a good read for me. Flovent, Iceland's only detective, and Thorson, a Canadian MP, find themselves working a murder case where there are multiple suspects and political/nationalist interests. While the pace is slow, it befits the story. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I'm a fan of Indridason's more contemporary novels but this was a real treat.