Black Skies - Softcover

Indridason, Arnaldur

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099563371 ISBN 13: 9780099563372

Publisher: Vintage Books, 2013

Synopsis

A suspected blackmailer is found murdered in this gripping crime story from the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger winner, Arnaldur Indridason.
     Detective Sigurdur Oli is in trouble.

     After a school reunion exposes the chasm between his life and those of his much more successful contemporaries, leaving him bitter and resentful, one of his old friends asks him to pay an unofficial visit to a couple of blackmailers. He readily agrees, only to arrive to find one of the pair lying in a pool of blood. When the victim dies in hospital, Sigurdur Oli is faced with investigating a murder without revealing his own reasons for being present at the murder scene.

     Moving from the villas of Reykjavķk's banking elite to a sordid basement flat, Black Skies is a superb story of greed, pride and murder from one of Europe's most successful crime writers.

About this title

About the Author:

ARNALDUR INDRIDASON worked for many years as a journalist and critic before he began writing novels. Outside Iceland, he is best known for his crime novels featuring Detectives Erlendur and Sigurdur Óli, which are consistent bestsellers across Europe. The series has won numerous awards, including the Nordic Glass Key -- an award also won by Scandinavian crime authors, Henning Mankell and Jo Nesbo -- and the CWA Gold Dagger.

From Booklist:

With series favorite Detective Erlendur away on leave (as in Outrage, 2012), Indridason again spotlights Erlendur’s Reykjavik police colleagues, offering a strong series entry infused with his trademark emotional turmoil and psychological insight. Detective Sigurdur Óli is questioning his life’s direction after learning that Iceland’s recent prosperity (soon to disappear following the debt-crisis-fueled collapse) has made several of his schoolmates wealthy, and his long-term relationship becomes a casualty of the emotional distance his job requires. When his friend Patrekur asks him to unofficially discourage a blackmailer, he’s uncomfortable with violating regulations but reluctantly agrees. Unfortunately, when his visit interrupts a murder attempt on the extortionist, there’s no chance of hiding his involvement from the department. Suspicion falls on Patrekur, and Sigurdur scrambles to restore his unblemished record by proving he’s not an unwitting alibi. At the same time, a lost soul from a past case claims he has found his childhood abuser, hinting to Sigurdur that he’s ended his preying on children. Black Skies continues the series’ exploration of Iceland’s social ills, this time exploring how national prosperity has brought with it a different kind trickle-down effect: greed and malignant power working their way throughout society. --Christine Tran

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage Books
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0099563371
• ISBN 13: 9780099563372
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464