Jar City
SynopsisPlot
When a lonely old man is found dead in his Reykjavík flat, the only clues are a cryptic note left by the killer and a photograph of a young girl's grave. Inspector Erlendur discovers that many years ago the victim was accused, but not convicted, of an unsolved crime, a rape. Did the old man's past come back to haunt him? As Erlendur reopens this very cold case, he follows a trail of unusual forensic evidence, uncovering secrets that are much larger than the murder of one old man.
Story
About this book
Jar City opens with the death of a solitary old man in his Reykjavík apartment. Inspector Erlendur, a police detective in Iceland's capital, arrives to find little physical evidence aside from a cryptic message left at the scene and a photograph of a young girl's gravestone. These two fragments point backward in time rather than forward, connecting the victim to an old accusation of rape that never resulted in a conviction.
Erlendur begins to reopen that decades-old case, tracing forensic evidence through a small society where personal histories are difficult to hide permanently. Iceland's population is compact enough that biological and genealogical records can link people in ways that larger countries rarely allow. The investigation pulls Erlendur through medical archives and family connections, gradually exposing secrets that extend well beyond one man's death. The title refers to a collection of preserved biological specimens, and the story uses this archive as a central plot element.
Arnaldur Indridason is an Icelandic author whose Inspector Erlendur series has been translated into numerous languages. Jar City, originally published in Icelandic, is one of the earlier entries in the series and helped establish the books internationally. The novel is set almost entirely in and around Reykjavík.
