4 stars

I read the Kindle edition.

The year is 1941 and Flovent is an investigator with the Reykjavik police. He is a relative newcomer to murders in a city that is relatively free of that sort of crime. The victim has been shot in the face, his billfold id missing and his name is Felix Lunden. A swastika is traced on his forehead in his own blood.

In his spare time, Flovent has been lobbying for photographs to be taken at crime scenes and for Iceland to institute a fingerprint system for criminals.

Thorson who is a Canadian MP attached to the American military catches the case of an American singer who is beaten up after a performance for insulting some American GI’s. He thinks it’s all a pain in the behind. He’ll be glad to stick the guy on a plane and send him back home to New York. The reader then learns that he is fluent in Icelandic and has parents who originally came from Iceland.

Thorson is then partnered with Flovent and they investigate the murder of Felix Lunden. Flovent, who is somewhat of a specialist in firearms, believes that Felix was shot with an American military pistol – a Colt .45. Thus it could be an American who shot him.

When a witness identifies the dead man as not being Felix Lunden, Flovent and Thorson have an even greater mystery on their hands. As part of their investigation, Flovent goes to interview Felix’ father Rudolph. He is a thoroughly unlikeable fellow. He is combative and abusive and demands Flovent get out of his house. He also seems more than a little paranoid. Rudolph was earlier held for questioning as a German who may have ties to the Nazi government. This is interesting because in a suitcase found at the death scene, a cyanide capsule was found. Whose suitcase was it? Thorson and Flovent then go to visit the German consulate, a now-abandoned building under the case of the Swedish Embassy. (This was a fascinating part of the book, with the old pictures and papers found there.)

They continue to interview possible witnesses, and relatives of Felix Lunden. They are still trying to locate them. A man comes to tell the police that one of his traveling salesmen was missing. The officer calls Flovent some days later and reports to him. Flovent tells him to quickly have the man come to the morgue. It’s a matter of some urgency. The wholesaler identifies the man as Eyvindur Ragnarsson who was one of his worst salesmen ever.

The police investigation uncovers a dastardly Nazi plot, double agents and more name calling and backstabbing than the reader can shake a stick at.

Flovent is a relentless interrogator. He is also more than a little naïve, but very hard working and conscientious. I felt that there was not sufficient information given about Flovent, and especially Thorson to flesh them out as people. I was disappointed in this part of the novel. The book is very well written and plotted though. I have read almost all of Arnaldur Indridason’s books, and I liked them all. I enjoyed this book and very much look forward to reading the next novel that Mr. Indridason pens.

I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for forwarding to me a copy of this great book to read and enjoy.

I want to thank NetGalley and Minotaur Books for providing a free copy (in the Kindle e-book format) of this novel which i was expecting for some time as a devoted fan of Icelandic, and Nordic in general, crime fiction. Arnaldur Indridason, the writer of the excellent Inspector Erlendur book series, transports us to the gloomy times of the Second World War and also offers a historical account of the situation in the capital of Iceland, the city of Reykjavik, where British and American forces had established army barracks and bases in order to protect the Icelanders from a probable Nazi invasion. ''The Shadow Killer'' is the second novel in the new series by A.. Indridason, the first was ''The Shadow District'', and even though it is definitely not his best book, it still preserves the high-quality standards which made Indridason one of the very best of Nordic crime fiction's novelists. His prose is simple and austere and manages to engage the reader in the plot, while the dialogue seems natural and unforced. The plot is not overly complicated and is easy to follow, as always in Indridason's books, and while one cannot claim that ''The Shadow Killer'' is the typical page-turner, it still remains an enjoyable reading experience. The central flaw of the book concerns the characters, as there can be no real comparison between Inspector Flovent and Inspector Erlendur, who is one of the most beloved, though grumpy and fastidious, protagonists in Scandinavian crime fiction. Flovent's character seems to be flat and uninteresting and personally, i didn't care or feel any sympathy for him, throughout the development of the story. The same is applicable to Flovent's sidekick, the Canadian-Icelander Thorson who is awkward and seems constantly out of place.
The story itself concerns a murder of an Icelander called Eyvindur who works as a traveling salesman and is married to Vera, an unfaithful wife who is involved in intimate relationships with British soldiers. Eyvindur is found shot in another man's apartment and the duo of Flovent and Thorson are puzzled as to who really was the target of the killer, Eyvindur or Felix (the apartment's owner).? Is it a case of mistaken identity or not? The investigation will bring to light political intrigues and secrets as well as military espionage agents who took action by the time of the Second World War in Iceland.on behalf of the Nazi regime.
''The Shadow Killer'' is an easy read, without being the nail-biting suspense novel some may expect, and is a worthy addition to the bookshelf of every Scandinavian/Nordic Noir fan around the world. Indridason's writing style guarantees a prime reading experience.

Shadow Killer
I love its set in the 40s after the war. As am American, you grow up thinking everybody loves us. Apparently, not so much. Lol. We were known as part of The Situation, a euphemism of Iceland girls mixing with British or American sailors.

I found the story a little slow for about a third of the book. But then it picked up and reading this was like being in a pinball machine. Everytime you think you've figured out the killer, FLIP, you bounce around to another direction. Then you have finally for sure figured it out and then FLIP. This carried on till the very end. All in all, I enjoyed this historical mystery. The characters are well drawn out and would merge then go alone then merge again. Good ending.

The Tabor family appears to have it all, at least on the surface. Harry Tabor, a man who has helped many immigrants settle into life in California, his wife, Rona, a psychologist and their two daughters, an attorney and an anthropologist, respectively, are attending a party where Harry is to be named Man of the Decade. But as in most family’s there are cracks in the perfect veneer. All of them are living with secrets, none more so than the man of the decade. The secrets don’t really seem that big to me, so this isn’t so much a suspense story as it is a story about family dynamics