STRANGE SHORES

Detective Erlendur’s final case finds him in the wilds of Iceland’s hills, staring into his past and not happy with what he sees.

The disappearance in the area of his younger brother, Bergur, when they were children, has haunted him all his life (he blames himself for not holding onto the other boy’s hand tighter in a storm), and he returns here regularly, trying to find an answer, and some peace.

But this time he finds himself drawn into the puzzle of another disappearance – that of a young women, Mattildur – lost during a vicious storm that took the life of some British soldiers on manoeuvres, and left behind a brooding sense of suspicion among those who had known her.

Erlendur begins to trawl through the few people left who had known Mattildur, gradually prising apart their suspicions and defences and uncovering strands of long-held hatreds, grievances and secrets nursed over the years.

This is about a man’s obsession; an obsession with one puzzle drawing him into the hopes of finding the solution to another, much more personal one. Spurred on by the vague hope of finding out where his brother went, Erlendur cannot escape the feeling that Mattildur’s disappearance is not as simple as the people she left behind would have everyone think.

Against the backdrop of an inhospitable landscape, where communities do not always talk to each other, let alone to outsiders – even to one who has a connection through a common tragedy – this is a tale of dogged detective work that chips away at what is left of the past until only one solution is possible.