Customer Reviews

Hypothermia: A Thriller (Detective Erlendur)

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This thriller is peopled with ghosts, ghosts from the past as well as the recently deceased in a novel that reveals as much about Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson of Reykjavik, Iceland, as the subjects of his investigation. The moody, insightful inspector works on his own in an unofficial capacity, curious about the suicide of a woman at her summer cottage. As a child, Maria, saw her father drown in the icy lake near the cottage, vivid nightmares persisting throughout her life. Her mother, Leonora, is a source of great comfort until that woman's painful demise from cancer. In the intervening years before her own suicide, Maria is obsessed with life after death, the hope of communication with the other side. Unfortunately, Maria's husband offers few insights into his wife's state of mind, save generalized depression and a chronic fear of the dark.

Haunted by the disappearance of a younger brother in a blizzard when he was a boy, Erlendur appreciates the depth of family trauma, anxious to understand what caused Maria to end her life. Leaving detectives Sigurdur Oli and Elinborg out of an essentially unofficial investigation, Erlendur pursues tangential figures, friends, acquaintances, anyone who can help him recreate the woman's final days, burrowing to the heart of Maria's suicide, a tragedy with sinister implications. Tenaciously unraveling the twisted skein of Maria's final days, the inspector is abruptly reminded of his personal responsibilities by his grown son and daughter, most demanding the troubled and drug-addicted Eva Lind. The children are a poignant reminder a reminder of past mistakes, Erlendur likely more compassionate because of his flaws as a father.

Besides the ghost of his brother, two others occupy the inspector's thoughts through this harrowing journey, two young people near the same age that disappeared thirty years ago. Authorities have never found any trace of these lost loved ones, Erlendur's ghosts. In this unique segue from Erlendur's official status to his personal mission, Indridason reveals the more human face of his protagonist and the way a man's past can shape his future. Certainly, Erlendur is no stranger to the dark motives of others, yet he remains a deeply compassionate soul who steps carefully through the graveyard of broken lives in search of answers. Luan Gaines/2010.

This sixth installment in the Detective Erlendur series is the best of the lot. Mr. Indridason artfully reaps the rewards of his patient and methodical construction of his protagonist, the typical literary detective character who is gifted at the job but hates the work, who refuses to do a sloppy investigation but suffers the consequences of a sloppy family life. Erlendur has been marked by tragedy, but we have learned that his personal tragedies are closely related to his formidable investigative skills. Erlendur is not only looking for the bad guys, he is trying to find peace. For this reason his character has something to teach those of us who do not happen to be investigators.

Hypothermia is that rare bit of fiction that hits fundamental truths about life in such a way that it provides illumination. While it is always satisfying to read a good mystery that leads to the unmasking of the evil doers, life presents challenges that are independent of our own actions--it may be fair to suffer the punishments of bad decisions, but what about the bad decisions of others or simple bad luck? Such are the questions upon which this novel is founded and it is the deep examination of the Erlendur character that makes the series so worthwhile.

As a literary figure, Detective Erlendur now ranks with Wallander, Bosch, Beck and others. Because his character is so meticulously drawn, the author is able to instead focus on the internal struggles that make life what it is. The earlier books in this series were sometimes difficult because, like so much in life, they resolved one issue only to leave multiple questions hanging about. Erlendur is now at the height of his powers and is beginning to find peace with a troubled past. Problems can be solved; there is always hope and any story that can highlight this fact is of value.

I dare not go into the plot for fear of ruining a first-rate experience. I doubt that a reading of this volume independently of its five predecessors would be as satisfying and can easily recommend starting at the first volume and reading through the series. Be patient, the first few volumes were OK and sometimes the darkness of the character got to be a bit much, but your efforts will be rewarded many times over by the time you encounter Hypothermia.

Highly Recommended

I have read and reviewed six Arnaldur Indridason novels for this site. I gave them all five stars. I enjoy Indridason's work because he creates a simple, yet powerful, prose that can convey surprisingly profound ideas. For example, in this work Indridason constructs a brilliant instance of poetic justice as part of the conclusion.

It's about Reyjavik Police Inspector Erlendur Sveinnson, virtually always referred to as simply "Erlendur." He decides to dig into the events surrounding an apparent suicide-by-hanging. The authorities are quite willing to dismiss it as a suicide because that's where the evidence clearly points. But Erlendur operates on hunches and vague feelings. Or he may want to find out more about what led to a traumatic event; that was what initially propelled him here. And once he is interested he does not give up until he has the answers.

His investigation into the hanging leads right where I thought it would at about the twenty-percent mark. Although I'm not very good at solving fictional mysteries, I did see this one coming. Yet, there were enough surprise elements at the end to make it all worthwhile. And there's that poetic justice I mentioned earlier.

This novel further explores Erlendur's relationship with his troubled daughter, Eva Lind. There's a lot about ghosts and beliefs regarding the afterlife. A séance or two. Icelandic lakes are the scene of tragedy and mayhem.

In addition to the hanging, Erlendur looks into a couple of missing person cases that date back for decades. Indridason fans know exactly why Erlendur is obsessed with missing persons: this dark theme runs through his stories. I don't want to spoil it for the uninitiated.

I really like Indridason's detective. Inspector Erlendur is a gloomy policeman obsessed with missing persons. His obsession dates back to his childhood when he and his brother got lost in a violent Icelandic blizzard. His brother was never found.

Erlendur follows up on missing persons for decades, no matter that the cases have long since been closed and filed.

For some reason he takes the same compulsive interest in the suicide of a woman named María, who hanged herself. María, it seems, was deeply depressed by the deaths of her parents and obsessed with the afterlife. Although there's nothing suspicious about the suicide, Erlendur can't stop himself from snooping around among friends and relatives and probing the secrets of María's past.

Temperatures are dropping, but Erlendur rather likes being enveloped in the peaceful cold and darkness of an Icelandic winter. He's a bit of an iceberg himself, but with a warm core of compassion ever threatening to melt his defenses. The disruptive demands of Erlendur's private life (which are somewhat amusing) contrast beautifully with the steadily building tension of his investigations.

Icy waters play an important role in this quietly creepy story, as do dubious ghosts and visions. The plot is a masterpiece of vague suspicions and shaky speculations, leading to terrible discoveries.

I have thoroughly enjoyed every novel by Indirdason, and this one is quite perfect.

Hypothermia is the theme as well as the title of Indridason's latest mystery, as he once again brilliantly ties several cases together into a cohesive narrative. The story opens with Reykjavik detective Erlendur investigating what by all accounts is a simple suicide of a troubled and depressed woman: the coroner and the police all believe the death is what it seems to be. Erlendur, in a routine investigation into the deceased's past learns details that cause him to question the cause of death: a fear of the dark; a father's accidental death the woman witnessed as a girl.

Simultaneously Erlendur revisits two seemingly unrelated cold cases of a missing young man and a college student - both of whom simply disappeared within a few weeks of each other over 20 years earlier. Driving Detective Erlendur to solve these missing persons cases is his own tragic history: the disappearance of his younger brother in a snowstorm.

The common threads of disappearing without a trace, the lack of resolution such vanishings bring and the metaphor of this with the biting Icelandic cold are expertly woven together. The story is a bit slow as the three investigations (fourth, counting Erlendur's continuing obsession with his own missing person's case) are each presented, each with its own connections between characters, stories and histories, and the gradual overlap of the events are gradually brought together. For those familiar with Indridason's work, this is typical, and this is why I am such a fan. Unlike his previous work I was able to piece together the resolution and reveal before the author was prepared to do so, but this in no way detracts from the overall strength of the story. Recommended.

I've been reading Yrsa Sigurdardottir while waiting for Hypothermia to be released. That's been a rewarding and decidedly more cheerful stroll through murder in Iceland. But as much as I loved the protagonist Thora, I jumped into Hypothermia with both feet just to be with Erlendur, my gloomy and idiosyncratic old friend.

Assigned to make contact with the husband of a suicide victim who died in another jurisdiction, Erlendur becomes obsessed with the tragic life story of the victim, Maria. He feels compelled to delve deeper into Maria's sorrow, her yearning for proof of life after death and her secrets. He is seemingly unaware that the source of his obsession is that her life's trauma occurred at age 10, the same as his when his brother went missing in a winter storm.

Being Erlendur, he also compulsively returns to the cases of a young man and woman who went missing within a few weeks of each other nearly 30 years prior. Apparently he does so to deepen his own feelings of inadequacy and gloom; he is drawn to missing person cases, although he does not seem overtly aware that he is trying to bring closure to the families that he and his family never achieved. Poor Erlendur! He just isn't happy until he's miserable and rarely troubles himself with existential thought or insight.

However, Eva Lind, his troubled and demanding daughter, is working hard to achieve emotional well-being and seems determined to pull Erlendur right along with her.

As always the writing is superb. The characters are finely and deeply drawn. The plot is intricate and mesmerizing. What else would we expect from Arnaldur Indridason?

Will Erlendur resolve these cases? Will he put his past in its place and live with it. Will he ever be happy and smile routinely? I guess we'll have to wait and see, but gosh! I hope not!

I received a free copy of this book from First Reads and I couldn't put it down. The pace of the story was perfect and Indridason's characters were wonderful.

Erlendur is an inspector with the Reykjavík police force who becomes intrigued with the case of an apparent suicide. Although nothing seems particularly suspicious, he cannot let the case go and methodically follows the threads of the case to see where they might lead.

While pursuing the leads on this case, he also recommences his work on two long dead cases of a young man and a young woman who went missing 30 years ago. The father of the missing boy is dying and before he dies, Erlendur wants to uncover the mystery surrounding the boy's disappearance.

With excellent pacing, Erlendur slowly uncovers the truth behind the suicide and the disappearances. This book is a great read!

Although I've never read any of Indridason's prior works, I was so impressed by this book that I will be reading his other books as well. I highly recommend Hypothermia!

The past usually plays a large role in this author's Reykjavik mysteries, and "Hypothermia" is no exception. To begin with, the reader is treated to another recurring event in the life of Erlender Erlendsson, a detailed description of how he and his younger brother were once lost in a raging snowstorm. The 10-year-old Erlender was found buried in snow, suffering from frostbite. His younger brother was never found, something that has haunted him all his life.

Erlender becomes fixated on two very old missing persons cases and a current apparent suicide. The cases seem to be unrelated, but his intuition grasps at straws and as he keeps unofficially probing the current case, he discovers a possible clue to the 30-year-old mystery of the disappearance of a young woman and a younger man. A clue to the links between the various themes, of course, is in the book's title.

Erlender is among the few protagonists in today's fiction who haunts the reader with his moods and introspection to such a degree. Written with a smooth eye for detail, the translation is on a par with the prose. Another beautifully presented Erlender mystery to join the previous five, and one that is highly recommended.

'Hypothermia' is definitely one of Arnaldur Indridason's better novels, and that is saying a lot. It's really more of a brooding psychological story about death, depression and the hope for some measure of relief in life after death. The characterizations are uniformly excellent. This is one mystery without much in the way of blood and action. But it is a story that sticks with you, and you'll learn a lot about Iceland and Icelanders.

Bottom line: yet another excellent effort by the author. Strongly recommended.

I have read all of Indridason's books available in English. The translation by Victoria Cribb is smooth, equal to or surpassing those of the late Bernard Scudder. Compared to the earlier books, I found Hypothermia less of a mystery/thriller and more of a psychological study of Detective Erlendur. Also something of a departure, Erlendur's police department colleagues, his girlfriend and son are barely present, and despite the title, "cold weather" plays only a minor role. The traumatic event of Erlendur's childhood, though important in the earlier books, is more fully developed as the compelling force of his life and career. Indridason introduces us to Erlendur's ex-wife, and a the mystery of their relationship, parenting, and its effect on the children begins to resolve. Recommended, most avidly to readers familiar with the series.