Translated by Quentin Bates with financial support from the Icelandic Literature Center. Published by Corylus Books.
Sólveig Pálsdóttir’s “Ice and Crime” series features Reykjavík detectives Guðgeir Fransson and Elsa Guðrún. Silenced received the 2020 Drop of Blood award for the best Icelandic novel of the year and was Iceland’s nomination for the 2021 Glass key award for the best Nordic crime novel of the year. Shrouded is the series’ fourth book to appear in English.
“Shrouded” marks the welcome return of Guðgeir, Guðrún and their CID colleagues. What draws me into the books and enhances the mystery storyline are the relationships between the two lead detectives and their team. They support each other, don’t let petty issues get in the way, and care about resolution and justice. The detectives use their individual knowledge, skills, and idiosyncrasies to solve cases and I find that very intriguing.
The story begins with Arnhildur; I’ll bet most of us know someone like her. She dislikes change of any kind. She wants to know “why can’t we just do it the way we always have?” A colleague remarks:
“Arnhildur invariably ate the same thing for lunch every single day, and barely missed a day during her whole working life. She walked the same way to and from work, so she was very set in her ways.”
People see her as a very traditional, ordinary and solitary woman. But Arnhildur’s past includes a dreadful secret that spirals out to affect all of the people in her life.
The story begins with Arnhildur uncharacteristically attending a seance in the hope of contacting her grandmother. The seance seems to have been successful but we aren’t given any details. However, Valthór, the medium, plays an important role in the story and helps to connect “Shrouded” to its supernatural elements.
On the way home, Arnhildur is brutally murdered. It sounds like a simple premise, but “Shrouded” is anything but. When Arnhildur’s body is found, Guðgeir and Guðrún take on the case. The more they find out about Arnhildur, the more bewildered they are. Her husband Jacob (father of her daughter Unnur) disappeared many years ago and his whereabouts are unknown. Arnhildur, a woman who has never owned a computer, has printouts of a police presentation about online fraud, blackmail, bullying and other crimes. And there is ample evidence that she was in severe financial straits, but they don’t know why.
Her family can’t provide any answers. The victim has been bitterly estranged from her sister Regina and brother-in-law Skarphéðinn ever since Arnhildur’s daughter, now 32, was thrown from a horse at their riding school and sustained serious brain damage. Arnhildur openly blames the couple for the accident; afterwards they lost the farm and all their savings. Regina tells the detectives:
...our finances wrecked, our reputation ruined…my sister certainly didn’t hold back when it came to blackening our names…”
Because they need the money, Regina and her husband have been pleading with Arnhildur to sell the house she lives in, which they co-own. However, Arnhildur owns a majority and won’t even discuss selling it, even though she could also use the money and the house is in bad shape. This only adds to the mystery surrounding Arnhildur; why not give in and sell the house for a good profit? The CID adds Regina and her husband to the list of suspects.
The more the detectives find out, the more complicated the picture becomes. Someone has been taking indecent photos of Arnhildur’s daughter Unnur at the assisted care facility where she has lived since the accident. Could someone have been blackmailing Arnhildur with the photos? Does this tie in with her sudden interest in internet crime? There’s a lot more to Arnhildur than anyone would think.
The detectives meticulously uncover and untangle the myriad threads of Arnhildur’s life. They find clues in the present and far in Arnhildur’s past. Newly discovered relatives, bitter remembrances, hidden fears, and hints of the supernatural combine to make “Shrouded” a compelling read. I really enjoyed the otherworldly touches: childhood memories of divination, messages from the departed, and a tall, ghostly figure who watches Arnhildur’s house at night.
Guðgeir and Guðrún, the skeptic and the believer, use their different approaches to discover meaning in what they find. The story took me in directions that I wasn’t expecting but when all was revealed, everything fell into place. I thought I knew who the murderer was several times, only to be proved wrong. And just when you think you know what happened…you really don’t. That’s one reason I keep coming back to the “Ice and Crime” series. Here is a guide to that series in order of publication.
I would be remiss if I did not mention Quentin Bates’ seamless work. I appreciate the thoughtfulness and subtlety of his Icelandic translations.
Although each book can be read as a stand-alone, I like to read serial mysteries in order. One of my favorite aspects of the books is watching the evolution (or devolution) of the continuing main characters. For my review of “Harm” in the same series click here.
Please buy/order “Shrouded” and other books in the “Ice and Crime” series from your local independent bookstore, or go to Bookshop.org and order there!
