In Strange Shores, Arnaldur Indridason brings us back to his main character, the gloomy detective Erlendur. Erlendur has long been haunted by the death of his little brother when the two of them got lost in a blizzard when they were children. In trying to come to terms with his feelings over this loss, Erlendur returns to his childhood home, now an isolated tumble-down shack among the fjords. During his sojourn there, Erlendur becomes interested in the mysterious fate of Matthildur, a young woman who also disappeared in a blizzard.

Perhaps seeing parallels with his own story, Erlendur seeks out people who knew Matthildur, and begins to suspect that there might have been more to her disappearance than simply getting lost in the snow. As he digs deeper he uncovers some long-suppressed emotions about the case, while his own conflicting emotions about his brother's death whirl inside of him.

As always, Indridason gives us a complex set of characters, led by the taciturn and gloomy Erlendur. This book expands on the story of Erlendur's childhood loss that had only been touched on in previous books. The author excels at placing us in the bitter and forbidding landscape of the Icelandic fjord country, and gives us a whole new meaning to the term cold case. ( )

Strange Shores (Inspector Erlendur #9) by Arnaldur Indridason. Another book in the fine Icelandic series of crime novels featuring Inspector Erlendur. Following close after the events of the last novel which had Erlendur having thoughts about his childhood on the rugged lands of the eastern fjords, and the loss of his younger brother during a miserable blizzard, he decides to head out from his home in Reykjavik and try to discover what had happened. That was almost 40 years age and there is little hope of discovering anything new, but the search might soothe the ache he has felt for a long time.
While rambling the hills where his brother disappeared so long ago he meets a hunter which strikes up another thought process. In a terrible storm a troop of British soldiers got lost, all but one finally found. But during that same storm a young woman named Matthildur was also lost, her body never recovered. Now his personal search has this other mystery added to it. Was she lost in the storm or did she fall afoul of her husband’s wrath and the storm used as cover for a greater crime?
Erlendur likes to talk with people and when he smells a story he is compelled to follow it to the end, no matter what that end may mean to the people involved. There are still relatives of the woman about the fjords. They may be reluctant to talk about events so long in the past, but they do talk. It is a curious path the Inspector must follow to reveal the truth, and along the way he finds other answers to his own questions.
This is a busman’s holiday story, slow paced as there is no crime that is being followed up on, but relentless in it’s pacing. And there is the scenery of the rugged east Icelandic coast that is a fitting setting for the hard lives of the people in this tale. A nice addition to this very popular crime series. ( )

I found it difficult to get into this story of a disappearance from long ago and quite a lot of what transpired is predictable. Erlendur's search for his missing brother is interesting along with his presumed demise in the cold. ( )

Unfortunately read final book in three book series; Would have been much more understandable if the first two books had been read initially. See other reviews and ratings for better understanding.
Rating based on book as a stand-alone. ( )

Taphophobia is the key to this story which is gruesome and gripping. You can feel the cold and the hypothermia setting in. It is difficult to put down. ( )