![]() ![]() ![]() An opening note explains that as befits such a small community, everyone refers to each other by first name, even in telephone directories, since surnames are mainly just patronymics. Iceland is a tiny place and a full third of its population of roughly 350,000 people lives in its capital Reykjavík, which is the main setting for the novel, though it does travel around a bit, in and out of the city. The references to the internet and DNA were probably a bit more cutting edge at the time though personally I found that this tended to favour the book about a culture so removed from that of most contemporary crime novels. The setting in 2001 was meant to be marginally ahead of the times as this was originally published the year before, but the English translation dates back to 2004 anyway (which could do with some improved proof reading incidentally). JAR CITY is the first in a series of books featuring police detective Erlendur. Following a hot lead from Mrs Peabody’s blog I have undertaken my first experience of volcano-free Icelandic crime (well, outside of banking …) and can’t recommend the experience highly enough. ![]()
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