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    The Shadow District
    The Shadow District
    The Shadow District
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Shadow District

    Written by Arnaldur Indridason

    Narrated by George Guidall

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The Shadow District is the stunning first book in the compelling new series from award-winning Icelandic author Arnaldur Indridason, whom reviewers are calling "a master." A 90-year-old man is found dead in his bed, smothered with his own pillow. On his desk the police find newspaper cuttings about a murder case dating from the Second World War, when a young woman was found strangled behind Reykjavik's National Theatre. Konrad, a former detective, is bored with retirement and remembers the crime. He grew up in 'the shadow district', a rough neighborhood bordered by the National Theatre. Why would someone be interested in that crime now? He starts his own unofficial enquiry. Alternating between Konrad's investigation and the original police inquiry, we discover that two girls had been attacked in oddly similar circumstances. Did the police arrest the wrong man? How are these cases linked across the decades? And who is the old man? A deeply compassionate story of old crimes and their consequences, The Shadow District is the first in a thrilling new series of novels by the worldwide bestselling author Arnaldur Indridason.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateNov 7, 2017
    ISBN9781501946653
    The Shadow District
    Author

    Arnaldur Indridason

    ARNALDUR INDRIÐASON won the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Silence of the Grave and is the only author to win the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel two years in a row, for Jar City and Silence of the Grave. Strange Shores was nominated for the 2014 CWA Gold Dagger Award.

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    Reviews for The Shadow District

    4/5

    135 ratings8 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Ein sehr alter Mann wurde in seiner Wohnung mit einem Kissen erstickt. Auf dem Schreibtisch des Mordopfers findendie Ermittler Zeitungsausschnitte über den Tod eines kleinen Mädchens, das vor vielen Jahren in Kriegszeiten erdrosselt wurde. Der pensionierte Polizist Konráð, der denFall aus seiner Dienstzeit kennt, schaltet sich ein. "Konráð findet heraus, dass der Tote bei der Militärpolizeimit der Aufklärung des Falls betraut war. Indriðasons Krimi(zuletzt 'Duell', ID-A/IN-1 5/14) wechselt zwischen den Mordermittlungen des Jahres 1944 und den aktuellen Ermittlungen. Der Leser kann dabei mitverfolgen, wie die Kriminalisten in ihrer jeweiligen Zeit Stück für Stück der Lösung des Falles näherkommen. Auch der historische Hintergrund - Island während der Zeit der amerikanischen Besetzung - ist interessant und stimmig eingefangen" (M. Schuler zur Buchausg., ID-A 51/15). Walter Kreye ist die
    • 5/5
      The Shadow District (2013) (Flovent/Thorson #1) by Arnaldur Indridason. I have to tell you right up front that I really enjoy books that are well written and have a strong foreign setting. The place of the novel has to come alive in the telling and I have to feel as if I were walking down these streets on the strange shores of someplace I have never been. The Shadow District delivers not only on the promise of this other place but of this other place in two different times.A very old man is found dead in his apartment. At first it looks like he died in his sleep but it is soon discovered he was suffocated. The police hardly have enough officers to cover the day to day so there is an outreach to a retired investigator, Konrad.The story then proceeds in an orderly fashion but jumps between the present day of the book and WWII Reykjavik. Back then a G.I. and his girlfriend, trying to find some private space, discover a young woman’s body behind the National Theater. Though they run off their are soon being questioned by police. The team of Flovent, native Icelander, and his military partner, Thorson, from Canada, seconded from that country’s military to the U.S. occupying forces, begin the search for the strangler.The WWII setting is rife with detail. The U.S. Army has amassed a huge force there in preparation for the invasion of Europe. The book talks about “The Situation” meaning the ongoing and troubling fraternizing between the G.I.s and the young women who are somewhat in awe of these polite and well mannered, not to mention “foreign” young men. The local parents are almost willing to go to any lengths to stop what nature is calling to be dome.Konrad, in the present day, works the details of the old man’s life and discovers he was a structural engineer. But during the war he was a Canadian police officer. His parents were originally from Iceland and he is fluent in the language. This leads Konrad to the old investigation, but there appears to be almost no original paperwork from the case.This story flutters between eras, highlighting a very sharing relationship between the two investigators from the war, and Konrad’s own past, having been a child of a low-level criminal and living only a few streets away from the crime scene. He hears echoes of his childhood throughout the story and is slightly surprised to discover his own father involved in the case to a degree.This book is very nicely written, keeping the biggest secrets until the final chapters but scattering many, many clues along the way. And there is talk of the hidden people, or as the Irish call them, The Wee Folk, which links the dead girl with a possible second victim in a distant part of Iceland.Also the descriptions of the island nation make me want to hop a flight tonight.Or perhaps I’ll watch Ben Stiller’s version of Walter Mitty. A much more economical choice.
    • 5/5
      The first book in a fantastic new series from a real master in Nordic Noir. I finished this marvellous book in two sittings it really was that good. Looking forward to the Next instalment of this brilliant series. Definitely on my To Read Again List.
    • 4/5
      The first in a new Icelandic detective series by the author of the Inspector Erlendur books. The new cases take place during WWII, when American forces occupy Iceland to keep it from falling into German hands. One of the detectives works for the newly established Reykjavik detective squad, and the other is a Canadian/Icelandic military policeman assigned to the American base. Here the story of their last case is told, interspersed with a present-day mystery surrounding the murder of one of them when he's a very old man. It's determined that his death may be a result of him looking into two cases from the war effort, and the retired policeman taking a look for the overworked present-day force has to piece together what the dead man was looking for and what he found that might have caused his death. It doesn't help that almost all records of the older cases are missing.The book is quite good, although unfamiliarity with the names makes it a bit confusing at times to keep the two stories straight, but that's not the author's fault. If you like the Erlendur books, or just good Scandinavian mysteries, give this a try. The second book is already out.
    • 4/5
      A present day murder of a 90 year old American expatriot in Iceland is taken on by a reetired police detective, who relates it to an unsolved homicide case that happened during World War II.
    • 5/5
      Novels that use double timelines are hard to pull off - especially when both cover an investigation of the same crime. And Indridason manages to do exactly that in the first novel of his new series.In the last days of WWII, a girl is killed in the Reykjavik. 70 years (or so) later, an old man dies in the same city. It first looks like a natural death but is soon proven to be a murder and the newly retired Konrad decides to help the understaffed police department. And before long he realizes that the current death is connected to the one from the war - and that the man died because he was close to solving the old murder. The area where the girl was found is called the The Shadow District - and Konrad has more than one reason to investigate - he grew up in the same area and he had heard of the story before. So his memories of the past are mixed with the new investigation and with the two detectives back during the war trying to find out the truth. And the two investigations run in parallel - but without crossing too often - the files do not exist anymore so Konrad needs to reconstruct what happened; some of his discoveries could have helped Flovent and Thorson; some of what they knew would have solved the mystery for Konrad. And yet, it is only the reader that knows both sets of facts. And the man that died is featured both in the past and in the present - because he belonged to both.It is not a perfect novel - some of the coincidences were are a bit too much to believe. But at the same time they somehow worked. And Iceland during the war, on the brink of change, was fascinating. So is the Icelandic folklore - which becomes part of the story in more than one way. It is yet another novel that could not have happened anywhere else. Apparently there are more novels in the series. I do not know if they have the same structure but even if they do not, I will read the next entries.
    • 3/5
      An old man dies peacefully in his sleep. Or did someone else give him a little help? The Reykjavik cops want to close the case, but a retired detective is intrigued by news clippings of an old murder found in the deceased man's belongings, and before you know it he's back in investigative mode. Indridason's 'The Shadow District' is a standalone that doesn't star his usual characters, but the setting is the same: Iceland, with its eerie beauty, single 'big city', small remote towns, and some folk who still believe in fairies and elves. I've read a number of Indridason's novels and, although he's not the most descriptive writer around (I think the translation process may have something to do with that), once I finish I begin to think about a vacation to his country. Sounds like a fascinating place.The Shadow District is written along parallel tracks. The news clippings referred to a murder that took place during WWII that was never closed, so alternating chapters follow the police who were conducting the original investigation. Other sections address the work done by the retired policeman to not only find out what really happened to the deceased and why the crime that took place during the war was not only never solved, but most information about it in the police files had vanished. Underlying the plot was 'the Situation', which was a sort of Icelandic code phrase for the fact that a lot of women and young girls dated members of the armed forces from the 'occupiers' (Americans and Brits, mostly) and was a possible motive behind the original murder.I enjoy reading procedurals set in other countries, as they have different methods, laws, etc. that sometimes have an impact on how investigations proceed. In this case, I have 3 main issues. I can't see how a 'retiree' cop could be allowed to basically take the lead (although he was really the only one investigating) on a murder case. In the investigation of the original murder, a suspect was basically thrown in jail and held overnight for questioning, which wouldn't be allowed here (I don't think, anyway, based on the evidence). Lastly, the confession at the conclusion was pretty unrealistic- no real evidence was out there.The Shadow District is a decent crime novel, but Indridason has better in his catalog. The writing is pedestrian and moves at a slow pace, but the story is interesting and the conclusion is satisfying. I can't say I agree with how they wrapped up the investigations, but it's still a worthwhile read.
    • 5/5
      Konrad, a retired Icelandic police detective, is assisting in the investigation of the suffocation of an elderly gentleman. Looking through his personal effects, Konrad finds yellowing newspaper articles regarding the murder of a young woman whose body was discovered outside Reykjavik's National Theater during WW II. Konrad is intrigued. Searching old police files, he finds scant information on the original case investigated by Icelandic Detective Flovent and Canadian Military Police Thorson. Early on, readers learn the deceased gentleman is Thorson, who having unexpectedly uncovered new information on the seventy year old murder follows these new leads. As Konrad retraces Thorson’s recent investigation, readers also follow the initial case as it moves forward. The author of the Inspector Erlendur series (Into Oblivion) continues his modus operandi of covering a current and cold case in this new series set during the war years. The inspectors, both during the 1940s and present, are formidable characters. The blend of police procedural with Icelandic folklore is intriguing. The premise captures readers and the dogged pursuit of the truth with its twists and turns keeps them riveted as the two cases converge. Not as dark as Erlendur novels, this is a welcome addition from a master of mystery.