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A review by lgpiper
The Darkness Knows by Arnaldur Indriðason
4.0
A German tour group, visiting one of Iceland's numerous glaciers, finds a body embedded in the ice. When the authorities investigate, they discover that the body is that of Svanhildur, a man who disappeared without trace some 30 years previously. At the time of the original disappearance, a police inspector, Konrád, tried diligently to find the culprit responsible, but failed. He could find no concrete evidence to prove the guilt of his prime suspect, Hjaltalín. All they had were some eyewitness accounts of an argument between Svanhildur and Hjaltalín the evening before Svanhildur was reported missing. In addition, the two appear to have had a falling out over a business connection. Neither of these issues provided the concrete evidence required to convict Hjaltalín, who maintained strenuously that he was innocent.
Now, thirty years later, Konrád is retired from the force and has no interest in pursuing the crime further ... well, except that he can't seem to keep from checking out a thing or two. Over time he becomes obsessed with the case, which had been the greatest failure of his career. He gets a few hints of new information. The sister of a man named, Villi, comes to Konrád to tell him that her brother used to talk quite a lot about having seen someone in the area where Svanhildur had been killed at the time Svanhildur went missing. But then, Villi was killed in a hit and run accident, and there had been no closure for the sister because no car, nor driver, had been found that could be tied to the hit and run. Might it have been related to Svanhildur's murder, an effort to shut Villi up?
And so it goes. We get some other people showing up who might have been involved. We also get some back story into Konrád's life along the way. How he had had an abusive father who was a petty crook, and who eventually died in an unsolved case; how Konrád had grown up bullied because he had a withered arm; how Konrád lost his wife Erna, and has never recovered from the loss; and a few hints at some other things here and there.
Overall, it's a rather interesting tale, set in an interesting location, Iceland. Presumably the setting is well drawn given that the author is an Icelander himself.
#TheDarknessKnows #NetGalley
Now, thirty years later, Konrád is retired from the force and has no interest in pursuing the crime further ... well, except that he can't seem to keep from checking out a thing or two. Over time he becomes obsessed with the case, which had been the greatest failure of his career. He gets a few hints of new information. The sister of a man named, Villi, comes to Konrád to tell him that her brother used to talk quite a lot about having seen someone in the area where Svanhildur had been killed at the time Svanhildur went missing. But then, Villi was killed in a hit and run accident, and there had been no closure for the sister because no car, nor driver, had been found that could be tied to the hit and run. Might it have been related to Svanhildur's murder, an effort to shut Villi up?
And so it goes. We get some other people showing up who might have been involved. We also get some back story into Konrád's life along the way. How he had had an abusive father who was a petty crook, and who eventually died in an unsolved case; how Konrád had grown up bullied because he had a withered arm; how Konrád lost his wife Erna, and has never recovered from the loss; and a few hints at some other things here and there.
Overall, it's a rather interesting tale, set in an interesting location, Iceland. Presumably the setting is well drawn given that the author is an Icelander himself.
#TheDarknessKnows #NetGalley