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A review by sofijakryz
Voices by Arnaldur Indriðason
4.0
This time detective Erlendur investigates a murder that‘s a bit unconventional: somebody kills a Santa Clause in one of the hotels in Reykjavik, leaving poor Santa‘s body in an extremely compromising position.
Why kill Santa? Santa part-timing as a doorman and a jack of all trades? A man barely worthy of note?
As usual – no suspects, everyone‘s hush hush barely mentioning any hints on what may have happened here. However, Erlendur finds a solution: he inhabits the hotel for the sake of investigation.
The storyline of „Voices“ was probably more convoluted than that of „Jar City“. More multilayered (a couple deus ex machina details aside). However, I found „Voices“ less tense in atmosphere – there are plenty of hotels all over the world and it turns out they all look pretty much the same.
The story is slower too. More flashbacks, which, even though revealing the wild and cruel side of Iceland and the events that led Erlendur to his current situation, were somewhat on the boring side. It feels like everyone who ended up detective in fiction have to have lost someone.
Flashback‘s on Erlendur‘s past aside, the story is also intertwined with another case investigated by Erlendur‘s colleague (a little boy gets cruelly beaten up). This story is told through his colleague‘s or his own flashbacks. I ended up having mixed impression: on one hand, this case reads so realistic, being quite shocking with desperation and telling exactly why it‘s so difficult to work in the police. On the other, it was irritating that this story ended up as some sort of filler to seal waiting gaps in the main case. Looked almost like it was considered as a separate story at some point, however, was deemed it would be too dragged out for a book or something. I somehow ended up willing to read through it asap just to get to the main story.
What else?
Pro: irritating former boss (thumbs up).
Con: police officer stressing on cookies more than on the case :(
Overall... Well, the story is actually quite good. And yet, something was missing.
Maybe I‘m just not quite in a detective story mood?
Why kill Santa? Santa part-timing as a doorman and a jack of all trades? A man barely worthy of note?
As usual – no suspects, everyone‘s hush hush barely mentioning any hints on what may have happened here. However, Erlendur finds a solution: he inhabits the hotel for the sake of investigation.
The storyline of „Voices“ was probably more convoluted than that of „Jar City“. More multilayered (a couple deus ex machina details aside). However, I found „Voices“ less tense in atmosphere – there are plenty of hotels all over the world and it turns out they all look pretty much the same.
The story is slower too. More flashbacks, which, even though revealing the wild and cruel side of Iceland and the events that led Erlendur to his current situation, were somewhat on the boring side. It feels like everyone who ended up detective in fiction have to have lost someone.
Flashback‘s on Erlendur‘s past aside, the story is also intertwined with another case investigated by Erlendur‘s colleague (a little boy gets cruelly beaten up). This story is told through his colleague‘s or his own flashbacks. I ended up having mixed impression: on one hand, this case reads so realistic, being quite shocking with desperation and telling exactly why it‘s so difficult to work in the police. On the other, it was irritating that this story ended up as some sort of filler to seal waiting gaps in the main case. Looked almost like it was considered as a separate story at some point, however, was deemed it would be too dragged out for a book or something. I somehow ended up willing to read through it asap just to get to the main story.
What else?
Pro: irritating former boss (thumbs up).
Con: police officer stressing on cookies more than on the case :(
Overall... Well, the story is actually quite good. And yet, something was missing.
Maybe I‘m just not quite in a detective story mood?