Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger Award

Inspector Erlendur returns in this gripping Icelandic thriller. When a skeleton is discovered half-buried in a construction site outside of Reykjavík, Inspector Erlendur finds himself knee-deep in both a crime scene and an archeological dig. Bone by bone, the body is unearthed, and the brutalizing history of a family who lived near the building site comes to light along with it. Was the skeleton a man or a woman, a victim or a killer, and is this a simple case of murder or a long-concealed act of justice? As Erlendur tries to crack this cold case, he must also save his drug-addicted daughter from self destruction and somehow glue his hopelessly fractured family back together.

Like the chilly Nordic mysteries of Henning Mankell and Karen Fossum, Arnaldur Indriđason delivers a stark police procedural full of humanity and pathos, a classic noir from a very cold place.

"[Indriđason applies] his austere style to a crime of such emotional breadth and sociological complexity that it acquires the sweep and consequence of epic storytelling. ... Inspector Erlendur is one of the most compassionate detectives to come this way in a long time."—The New York Times