A review by liberrydude
Black Skies by Arnaldur Indriðason

4.0

No Erlendur here, it's all Sigurdur Oli in this tale in which the moral of the story is: as a cop never do a favor for a friend. Siggi goes to talk to a woman who is blackmailing one of his friends with sexual pictures. He walks in on the woman lying on the floor and just misses becoming a victim himself. This plot line is the heart of the book and it goes along many twists and turns until it culminates. There are also some "unrelated" plot lines that end up leaving you wondering about the validity of the six degrees of separation theory on human interaction. Sigi is troubled during this investigation. He might be accused of conducting an unauthorized personal investigation. It looks like his marriage is over. His father is diagnosed with cancer. He's starting to rethink his conservative philosophy on life and how career criminals are treated by the police and courts system. Sigi is sort of a snob but like many detectives he's unrelenting and in this tale he uncovers a huge conspiracy inadvertently. It's the usual dark Icelandic police procedural in which the criminal and sometimes mundane personal lives of the characters keeps you turning the pages. Wondering if we've seen the last of Erlendur. Has he disappeared in the countryside, a victim of his own depression, or perhaps a former nemesis. This is the second book that alludes to Erlendur being incommunicado somewhere in the countryside.