Reviews for Voices (Reykjavik Thriller Series #3)

The average rating for Voices (Reykjavik Thriller Series #3) based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-01-07 00:00:00 Everette Adams Despite the holiday rush and the hustle and bustle in Reykjavik, police Inspector Erlendur is feeling anything but jolly in Arnaldur Indridason's Voices , the fifth installment of the series featuring Iceland's somber detective. Erlendur Sveinsson is called to a large, busy hotel at the peak of the Christmas season. A maid has discovered the body of the hotel doorman, who was dressed in a Santa suit in preparation for a children's party. The victim, Gudlauger, known as "Gulli," had been living in a tiny room not much larger than a closet in the hotel's basement for twenty years. Now, here he is, in his Santa costume sitting on his bed in a compromising position, stabbed to death. Sigurdur Oli, who has accompanied Erlendur to the scene, makes a number of inappropriate but funny remarks about the situation. The exchange between the two struck me as being more humorous than anything I'd read in previous Erlendur books. Maybe the image of Santa . . . Most of the book, however, is quite typical of Indridason's Scandinavian noir style. It is mostly dark, and the language is plain and understated, but the themes are complex. Without being able to explain his reasons, even to himself, Erlendur books a room in the hotel as he attempts to interview staff and guests. He meets with reluctance and resistance as he scrapes and claws for clues. Everyone he talks to claims not to have really known the man who was the doorman and unofficial handyman for so many years. At the same time, Erlendur must cope with his daughter Eva Lind, from whom he has been estranged for most of her life. She is a recovering drug addict, and now they have formed some semblance of a relationship, but each is frustrated with the other as they try to come to terms with their different lifestyles. More importantly, they struggle with their own pasts and self-acceptance while trying to discover what they mean to one another. Having read Jar City and Silence of the Grave , I had no doubt that Erlendur would eventually piece things together and solve the crime. The plot unfolds slowly. There is a lot of trial and error. We see pieces of Gulli's past revealed and possible suspects emerge, but there is always doubt until the very end. There are several subplots that may seem distracting or unimportant. Some may feel that they add unnecessarily to the length of the story. I feel, however, that they support Indridason's central theme: Family. In the two books I mentioned previously, Erlendur broods about a traumatic event from his childhood. Now, perhaps with Christmas near and his daughter badgering him with questions about their relationship, he is haunted by what happened when he was a boy, and he begins to realize how it has affected his entire life. We also see another detective, Elinborg, updating Erlendur about a child abuse case she was involved in. Then there is a woman who piques Erlendur's interest, and we see yet another case of family dysfunction. Finally, there is the maid Osp and her brother, whose family ties have disastrous ends. Is it a wonder Erlendur is depressed? Christmas, the season that so many associate with love, joy, and family togetherness, for him is lonely and difficult. Yet, Erlendur is a professional. He does his job, and he does it well. I think this may have been my favorite of the three books so far. I liked the depth of the characters, the questioning of the past, and perhaps the mixture of fear and hope about what the future might bring. 5 stars

Review # 2 was written on 2017-08-26 00:00:00 Brent Dunlevy In short: A poignant but rather far-fetched police procedural that offers more in the way of a credible psychological angle than a swift and particularly competent wrap-up. The upside is seeing Erlendur's reflections on his own life and mistakes along the way, and appreciating how a person's childhood can influence their later life. Voices is an investigation that takes the reader closer to Erlendur and his troubled daughter, Eva Lind, than ever before and it is due to this clearer understanding of a father-daughter relationship that I am so keen to continue with the series. After reading Jar City and meeting Inspector Erlendur and his sidekicks, Sigurdur Óli and Elínborg, I was keen to see them in action tackling another investigation. Jar City combined a fascinating and complex investigation with Erlendur providing the social conscience and overseeing a reflective treatment. First published in Icelandic in 2003, Voices was translated into English in 2006 by Bernard Scudder who has delivered a remarkably fluent and highly readable rendering. In the run-up to Christmas, Reykjavík is awash with visitors and festivities should be in full swing inside one of the cities largest and most illustrious hotels. Hotel doorman, pseudo caretaker and annual wearer of the Santa costume, forty-eight-year-old Gudlauger ("Gulli") Egilsson, is however discovered stabbed in him grim basement accommodation within the hotel. Still clad in his Santa costume, with trousers hanging by his ankles and a condom hanging off his limp penis, the inappropriate jokes are two a penny from Sigurdur Óli! In the equivalent of a prison cell sized room, it appears that Gudlauger has spent to last twenty-years and the lack of character and paucity of possessions does not offer much in the way of leads. Naturally the call to the police asks for discretion for the guests, however that is the last concern of Erlendur when he assesses the strange circumstances of the victim and the potential suspects. With a scant lack of concern for the victim, and his inconvenient timing, sympathy from his colleagues is distinctly lacking. The sole possessions to be found in the room is a book relating to the history of the Vienna Boys' Choir and a couple of vinyl records, which offers Erlendur limited opportunity to discover more about the man. It is therefore the presence of saliva on the condom which sees Erlendur taking his first steps and requesting samples, thus necessitating the presence of biotechnician and scene of crime officer Valgerdur, a lady of a similar vintage who also catches the eye of Erlendur. Despite the obstacles in his path, the indefatigable Erlendur's unwavering persistence to discover the who and the why at the heart of this matter reveal an unexpected and fascinating life history, with the victim's shortlived spell as the most admired Icelandic boys soprano coming to an end when nature intervened at twelve-years-old and his voice broke on stage. Tracing the victims history back to Hafnarfjördur Children's Choir and his former choirmaster, Gabríel Hermannson, Erlendur learns of a life forever blighted by a man's failure to live up to his father's expectations, and marked by crippling bullying and the pattern of self-destruction that such circumstances can set in motion. The most surprising reaction to Gudlauger's murder comes from his remaining estranged family, a wheelchair bound father and sister, Stefanía Egilsdóttir. What lies behind the decades long estrangement of Gudlauger from his family home and why are his relatives so bitter? Due to staff cutbacks and the lack of necessity for a full-time doorman the victim had been made redundant but subsequently failed to move out from his digs. The manager and staff are all keen to dissociate themselves from the matter and reveal how little they knew of the victim, despite his service and residence of over twenty-years. The slow stripping back of the goings on at the hotel are stymied by the stroppy chambermaid who found the body, Ösp, only telling a fraction of what she knows (in essence, itself a lie) and belatedly throwing accusations of theft, the subsequent reluctance of the reception manager to make himself available for questioning and the availability of prostitutes for guests. Of the guests, it is the rather shifty and eccentric British vinyl collector, Henry Wapshott, who professes to a specific passion for the music of boys's choirs and tells of his journey to Iceland on the agreement of meeting the former household name soprano and purchasing any remaining records in his possession. However, when it turns out that it is not the first visit that Wapshott has made to Iceland, or indeed the hotel, his avoidance of providing a DNA sample and attempts to skip the country force Erlendur to get to probe just what Wapshott is so keen to keep hidden. With no sign of Wapshott's down payment amongst the possession of the dead man, there is clearly much more to a never-ending unravelling. As Erlendur, reluctant to return to his lonely flat over Christmas, checks into a room at the hotel he is overcome by a malaise as he sees parallels with his own life history and Gudlauger's, in the death of his younger brother which marred his childhood and left him with survivors guilt. In a sense, Erlendur knows that part of him died that day with his brother freezing to death, and this has in turn impacted his own failure and resolve to be part of his children's lives. Opening up about the raw memory and finally facing the way in which it has affected his life, it feels like Erlendur is attempting to address effectively robbing both his offspring of their childhoods when he walked out of their lives in their early years. Erlendur has much in common with the brooding and rather introspective detectives familiar to Nordic Noir. Middle-aged, divorced for twenty-years, he is a world-weary figure, with a dogged determination and a man who expects little from his remaining years. His failure to keep contact with either of his children at a young age still haunts him and he feels largely responsible for their addiction battles, with son, Sindri Snaer, having been through rehab for alcohol and daughter, Eva Lind, continually engaged in fighting her addiction to drugs and recovering from losing a stillborn daughter, all caused by her reliance on drugs. Whilst his son is a distant stranger, Erlendur and Eva Lind share an occasionally fiery relationship, marked by honesty and an acceptance of each other's faults. Erlendur's unstinting support of Eva Lind with her withdrawal never turns into preaching and readers will be of the opinion that he has been through his own internal struggles. Erlendur is a determined and persistent detective with a compassionate and realistic approach to the failings of society and hence, tackling crime. The case itself is more fascinating for combining an intriguing back story of the victim, rather than particularly plausible and what Indridason lacks in terms of strict adherence to procedural rigour he more than makes up for with his his powerful psychological angle. The overriding tone of this affecting and poignant police procedural is rather reflective, with Elínborg simultaneously engaged in giving evidence and attending the trail of eight-year-old assault victim Addi, with his father on trial for causing his brutal injuries and Elínborg taking the case rather personally. Seeing another young life altered chimes with Gudlauger's situation and evidences how instrumental childhood memories can be in affecting a person's future. Voices is monumentally more fascinating not for pinning down the perpetrator which is rather loosely detailed, but for the human interest element of the plot and a chance to reflect on the fragility of family life. I wasn't impressed or particularly convinced by the convoluted denouement, which stretches credibility but I do not think tying down the specifics was Indridason's primary focus of a poignant novel. Voices comes highly recommended for its insightful and profound take on family life, and how the increasing dependence on drugs and the associated problems of addiction, such as prostitution, have changed modern society. All of this resonates with Eva Lind's own situation and the stillborn child that threatens to derail her attempts at getting clean. I am keen to see how the future course of this chequered father-daughter relationship progresses after Erlendur's recognition of how his own childhood has impacted his adult life and indeed, Eva Lind's own journey. Voices is an emotive story with an excellent psychological commentary and can be read as a standalone without previous knowledge of the series and the timely use of flashbacks illustrates the situations of Gudlauger, Addi and Erlendur well.