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A review by poleksya
Jar City by Arnaldur Indriðason
2.0
After finishing The Silent Patient, I was in a crime, thriller, mystery mood and needed something quick and short for a long bus ride, so Jar City was a perfect choice.
A body of a lonely man was discovered in his basement apartment. At the first glance it looks like a robbery, but Detective Erlendur Sveinsson thinks otherwise. As he starts to dig into this case more details from the victim's past start to surface.
I don't think police procedural are my thing, I much prefer when thrillers don't focus on a detective and police work, but this one was really well done. It's not something I'll go back to and re-read it, but I enjoyed it and also I've never read a book on Iceland before, so that's a plus I guess.
The crime is very well done, dark and heartbreaking, but after two thirds of the book you can easily guess the ending. After that point, I got a little bored by it and took me a while to get back to it and actually finish it.
My other problem with this book are the main characters, the detective and his assistants. It's hard to connect to them, they appear cold and distant. Detective Erlendur is a really closed out person in general, but still it would be nice to be able to connect to him on some level.
All in all, I enjoyed it enough to pick up a sequel. If you love Nordic Noir, check this one out and don't worry about this being a third book in the series, it's stands alone pretty well on it's own.
A body of a lonely man was discovered in his basement apartment. At the first glance it looks like a robbery, but Detective Erlendur Sveinsson thinks otherwise. As he starts to dig into this case more details from the victim's past start to surface.
I don't think police procedural are my thing, I much prefer when thrillers don't focus on a detective and police work, but this one was really well done. It's not something I'll go back to and re-read it, but I enjoyed it and also I've never read a book on Iceland before, so that's a plus I guess.
The crime is very well done, dark and heartbreaking, but after two thirds of the book you can easily guess the ending. After that point, I got a little bored by it and took me a while to get back to it and actually finish it.
My other problem with this book are the main characters, the detective and his assistants. It's hard to connect to them, they appear cold and distant. Detective Erlendur is a really closed out person in general, but still it would be nice to be able to connect to him on some level.
All in all, I enjoyed it enough to pick up a sequel. If you love Nordic Noir, check this one out and don't worry about this being a third book in the series, it's stands alone pretty well on it's own.