One characteristic of Scandinavian noir is the way that inhospitable weather plays a role in the story, and this has never been truer than in Arnaldur Indridason's The Darkness Knows. In the Icelandic crime-writing standard-bearer's invigoratingly atmospheric thriller, the frozen body of a man who's been missing since 1985 is found on the Langjökull glacier.
As in The Shadow District, detective Konrád is lured out of retirement to consult on a case, but in The Darkness Knows he has a personal stake. The man preserved in the block of ice, his death caused by a blow to the head, is Sigurvin, whom Konrád failed to find when the businessman disappeared three decades earlier. Now Konrád has a second chance: "Although he had long ago stopped searching, he'd never managed to put the case entirely behind him," he admits to himself. Another enticement to get involved: Hjaltalín, who was the prime suspect in Sigurvin's disappearance all those years ago, and who is taken into custody upon the body's discovery on the glacier, has made a request to speak with Konrád personally.
The theme of atonement in The Darkness Knows isn't restricted to the professional realm: as Konrád follows what seem like long-shot leads, he delves deeply into his own personal shortcomings and demons. Indridason (Black Skies; Strange Shores) also manages to imbue his keen and nimble thriller with a cautionary note about global warming's effects--on Iceland in general and on the glacier that hosted the murdered man in particular. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer