Combining a modern murder and two seventy year old murders this is a good solid police procedural. Although set in Iceland with fairy folk for local colour this book could have taken place anywhere. It's hard to work out whodunit and the initial police case seems extremely hollow. The ending clears most things up. The book flits about between periods and points of view. Chapter names would help here ( )

With this book, Indridason launches a new series called the Reykjavik Wartime mysteries. At the outset, an old man is found dead in his flat, apparently dying in his sleep. The autopsy suggests otherwise and the police start to take an interest. Retired detective Konrad gets involved, struck by the fact that the old man was in possession of newspaper clippings about the death of a young girl in the Shadow District of wartime Reykjavik.

The action switches between Konrad's investigation into the old man's death and the original investigation of the Shadow District murder. Konrad finds very few records of that murder, and needs to rework the cold case to try and understand what happened to the old man.

This is a fairly straightforward police procedural, with the clever twist of the two parallel investigations. The pretext for Konrad getting involved at all seemed thin to me, and he is nowhere near as absorbing a character as the gloomy, obsessive Erlendur. The Iceland of this novel is also quite different to the forbidding place of Indridason's earlier work; there is much less sense of place here.

There are one or two plot points that are not cleared up adequately, but that may be something to be addressed in the later books. I'll keep reading, because this author is far too good not to stick with. ( )

This is a quality murder mystery 'Scandi Noir' at its best atmospheric clever descriptive and totally engaging from first to last page. A cold case murder mystery linked to a modern day murder. Superb characterisation throughout with the Author introducing a new detective who may come to rival Erlendur the hero of his previous series.
Absolute quality. ( )

Flóvent/Thorson Sequel & Konráð Prequel
Review of the Random House audiobook (May 18, 2017) narrated by Seán Barrett & translated by Victoria Cribb from the Icelandic language original "Skuggasund" (Shadow Swim) (November 1, 2013)

It was actually by chance that I read Indriðason's 2nd published Reykjavik Wartime Mystery The Shadow Killer (orig. 2015/trans. 2018) before this book, but now it seems like the perfect order to take. The Shadow Killer recorded the first meeting and the first joint case of Icelandic CID detective Flóvent and his erstwhile partner Canadian-Icelandic military policeman Thorson. The Shadow District is actually the sequel, as it documents their final case and then even jumps into the future to introduce Indriðason's other new series character retired detective Konráð.

It would be a spoiler to discuss Konráð's involvement too much. Basically he is retracing the steps of Flóvent & Thorson's last case together in 1944 before Thorson goes off to join the Allied invasion of Europe in the D-Day Landings in June. The case involves a woman found murdered in an area of Reykjavik known as the Shadow District. There are witnesses to the finding of the body who are reluctant to come forward at first and fall under suspicion as a consequence. The trail leads further to a dress and clothing repair shop and then the home of an Icelandic politician and his influential family. There may be a related killing which took place far away from the Icelandic capital. A student of Icelandic mythology becomes the prime suspect due to various clues. Due to the lack of wartime files, from Konrad's perspective we are uncertain whether the first investigation ended as a cold case or as a coverup. Eventually all is revealed and we find out the endings of both timelines.

I found The Shadow District to be both a compelling read and also an excellent bookend to the Flóvent/Thorson team and a terrific teaser for the Konráð series to come, which are not all yet translated into English. I'm now eagerly awaiting The Darkness Knows (Konráð #1 - Icelandic original 2017) paperback to be published here at the end of November 2022 (for some reason, my library does not have the 2021 hardcover).

The translation by Victoria Cribb, who has 30 books of translation from Icelandic to English to her credit (as of November 2022), read very well. The narration by Sean Barrett in all voices was excellent.

Trivia and Links
The 1944 portion of The Shadow District is set during the Allied Occupation of Iceland during the Second World War. Iceland had declared its neutrality at the start of the war. With the German takeover of Denmark (of which Iceland was still a territory at the time), Britain felt that it couldn't risk losing its mid-Atlantic port of Iceland to a further German invasion and instigated its own takeover. This was gradually phased into an American and Canadian occupation when British forces were required back home. Icelanders refer to this period as the Blessað Stríðið (Icelandic: Blessed War or Lovely War) and the consequent fraternization of Allied troops with Icelandic women as the Ástandið (Icelandic: The Situation).

You can read more about translator Victoria Cribb at The Loneliness of the Icelandic Translator, Publishing Perspectives, January 6, 2012 and at One of These Eccentrics Who Came to Iceland and Fell in Love with the Language, Icelandic Literature Centre, October 30, 2018.

Read about the British invasion of Iceland aka Operation Fork at Wikipedia here.
Read about the overall Allied occupation of Iceland at Wikipedia here. ( )

Ljúf og hlýlega skrifuð saga um lögreglumann á eftirlaunum sem aðstoðar félaga í lögreglunni við morðrannsókn. Arnaldur blandar saman rannsókn eldri mannsins og eldri morðrannsóknar sem tengist málinu. Mér fannst skemmtilegt hvernig rannsóknirnar á eldra málinu voru ekki látnar þræða sömu sporin heldur uppgötva hlutina á misjafnan máta. ( )