Mystery lessons

In the United States, most of us know very little about Iceland, either about its history or its culture. It is a mystery few of us even care to solve. Yet Icelandic novelist Arnaldur Indridason, whose books are widely read in the U.S., helps solve this mystery with his mysteries.

His novels are set in Iceland, but at various points in the 20th century, thus giving readers a feel for what was going on in that island nation at the time. In The Shadow Killer (2018), it is the middle of World War II when the body of a man is found in another man's residence with a swastika carved in the forehead. A cyanide pill is found nearby, suggesting that either the dead man or Felix, the man in whose home the body is found, might have been a Nazi spy. But where is Felix? And is he the killer?

Indridason gives us not one but two investigators, each pursuing a different line of inquiry. One is Flovent, a relatively new man in Reykjavik's Criminal Investigation Department. The other man is Thorson, a man with Icelandic family ties, who works for the U.S. Military Police, the Americans now having a number of troops stationed in Iceland. The two men work independently, while meeting occasionally to compare notes.

While one man pursues the espionage angle — there are rumors that Winston Churchill might be coming to Iceland, suggesting the murder might somehow be connected — while the other investigates whether the murder might be a domestic crime, perhaps involving an attractive woman, Vera, with a habit of pitting one boyfriend against another.

I didn't find The Shadow Killer as compelling as most Indridason mysteries I've read. The pace seems a bit slow. Still it is a worthy read, as well as another fine lesson in Icelandic history and culture.