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A review by ericbuscemi
Voices by Arnaldur Indriðason
4.0
I added this book to my to-read shelf after reading this article, 'The top 10 crime novels in translation.' And to that, after finishing it, I say good call, Guardian!
This was an intriguing tale of the murder of a hotel doorman who dressed as Santa Clause for hotel holiday events, and was found, in the basement room of the hotel where he squatted, wearing the top half of his Santa costume and nothing but a condom on his bottom half. It had a likable, if tortured, protagonist in Detective Erlunder, and an enjoyable mystery, which was very cozy in that despite everyone's ability to come and go from the hotel as they pleased, the detective himself never left until after solving the crime, actually sleeping in a room of the hotel and eating at their buffet for the duration of the mystery.
I'm deducting a star for the story lingering on a few unnecessary plot diversions that didn't really take away from the story, but didn't add much either. But all in all, I would recommend this story, especially to those that already like Nordic crime fiction, such as [b:The Millennium Trilogy|7822895|The Millennium Trilogy|Stieg Larsson|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1275608877s/7822895.jpg|6814263], [b:The Keeper of Lost Causes|10822858|The Keeper of Lost Causes (Department Q, #1)|Jussi Adler-Olsen|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388270380s/10822858.jpg|7211561], and [b:The Hypnotist|9835731|The Hypnotist (Joona Linna, #1)|Lars Kepler|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388193356s/9835731.jpg|7184205].
A final note: While the book's title doesn't make much sense from reading the dust jacket blurb of the book, it is actually fairly central to the story's theme and will make much more sense after reading.
This was an intriguing tale of the murder of a hotel doorman who dressed as Santa Clause for hotel holiday events, and was found, in the basement room of the hotel where he squatted, wearing the top half of his Santa costume and nothing but a condom on his bottom half. It had a likable, if tortured, protagonist in Detective Erlunder, and an enjoyable mystery, which was very cozy in that despite everyone's ability to come and go from the hotel as they pleased, the detective himself never left until after solving the crime, actually sleeping in a room of the hotel and eating at their buffet for the duration of the mystery.
I'm deducting a star for the story lingering on a few unnecessary plot diversions that didn't really take away from the story, but didn't add much either
Spoiler
The secondary case the other detective was working, the flashbacks to Erlunder's tragic childhood past, the romantic subplot involving the crime scene technician, etc.A final note: While the book's title doesn't make much sense from reading the dust jacket blurb of the book, it is actually fairly central to the story's theme and will make much more sense after reading.