“In Iceland there’s rarely a real motive behind a murder. It’s an accident or a snap decision, not premeditated, and in most cases committed for no reason.”
In the fourth of the Inspector Erlendur series, Gold Dagger Award-winner Arnaldur Indridasson creates a challenging and thought-provoking mystery by revisiting the political complexities of Iceland during the height of the Cold War in the 1970s and 1980s. At this time, many Icelandic young people were resentful of the US presence and its huge naval air station in Keflavik, accusing the US of “spreading filth.” While the US and NATO were using this
base for strategic defense against possible USSR aggression, many students, often from poor families, were accepting the chance to study in East Germany at the University of Leipzig, then returning home with their socialist and communist messages.
For Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson, busy solving contemporary crimes, this past history has not had any immediate importance, but when an earthquake leads to the unexpected draining of Lake Kleifarvatn through fissures in the crust beneath it, a skeleton, weighed down with a Russian transmitter, emerges from the depths, a large hole in its skull. With no other evidence available, Erlendur’s only hope of identifying the remains rests with his investigation of missing persons from the late 1970s and 1980s.
Switching back and forth in time between Erlendur’s current investigation, and the lives, thirty years ago, of a group of Icelandic students in Leipzig, Indridason brings the past into the present by reopening old cases and re-interviewing the people involved. When Erlendur visits a woman who was abandoned years ago by Leopold, the love of her life, Erlendur finds that she is still mourning his loss, but when he checks out Leopold, he can find no information–no passport, no photos, and no record of anyone by that name anywhere in Iceland. When the point of view switches to that of an 
anonymous, now middle-aged ex-student who is living in contemporary Reykjavik, he tells us that he has often wondered whether the police would discover the truth about “the man in the lake,” consoling himself that everything happened so long ago that “what had happened no longer mattered.”
The students who went to Leipzig in the 1970s and 1980s discovered life there to be more difficult than they had imagined. They were expected to report on each other as part of “interactive surveillance,” in addition to attending compulsory “social” meetings, doing a week’s hard labor as “volunteers” during the summers, promising not to listen to western radio broadcasts (punishable), and being followed and spied upon themselves. Some gave up and left the university to return to Iceland. Others became even more committed to their socialist and communist goals. Some tried to remove themselves from their fellow countrymen, anxious to have privacy so they could just graduate and return home, while others enjoyed each other’s company, and even fell in love–until they began to become disillusioned by the constant surveillance and the harsh penalties for real and imagined crimes.
As the two plot lines evolve and begin to overlap, investigators Erlendur, Sigurdur Oli, and Elinborg reveal more about their own personal lives, becoming far mor
e developed than they have been in this series up to now. Erlendur, dour and seemingly unemotional, is still dealing with his drug-addicted children–daughter Eva Lind and son Sindri Snaer–his son now “clean,” and his daughter, who has suffered a miscarriage and undergone rehab, now back on drugs. Soon Erlendur, who survived a traumatic divorce many years ago, begins a chaste friendship with a woman to whom he is strongly attracted, one of the few people with whom he feels comfortable enough to talk about the past. An episode from his childhood, which he shares with his son, explains why he is so driven to investigate missing persons cases, and he begins to emerge as a “real human” with understandable complexities. Sigurdur Oli and his wife also have issues which elicit the reader’s sympathy, while Elinborg adds a happier and sometimes comical note with the publication of her first cookbook.
Atmosph
eric and filled with the dark stories which envelop its numerous Icelandic characters, the novel reflects main character Erlendur’s terse style, his abbreviated dialogue, and his no-nonsense approach to life. Author Indridason develops suspense about the old murder and its connection to the students from the outset and builds it carefully, as bits of information gradually arise in both the present and the past plot lines. The point of view of the mysterious student who has talked about the murder at the beginning keeps the suspense high, and as all the students come to terms with the differences between their idealistic expectations and the reality of their lives in East Germany, their increasing desperation becomes understandable. A first-class mystery set in an unusual time and place, with complications and plot twists far different from those of most other novels, The Draining Lake is an exciting continuation of this series and the characters who keep it fresh.
Notes: The author’s photograph appears on his Author page at www.randomhouse.com.au
The dramatic photo of snow-covered Reykjavik at dusk by Gavin Hellier appears on www.art.com and is available as a photographic print and as a poster. It also appears here: http://static.guim.co.uk
The final photo is of Ingvar E. Sigurdsson, the actor who plays Inspector Erlendur in the film of JAR CITY, the first of the Erlendur mysteries. This film, entitled Myrin in Europe, was WINNER of the Grand Prix Award as Best Film at the International Film Festival in Valenciennes, France (2008). The graphic trailer is here: www.youtube.com.
An interview with the author appears here: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk
Also by Arnaldur Indridason: JAR CITY
