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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 839.6934
EAN num: 9780312358730
ISBN number: 0312358733
Label: St. Martin's Minotaur
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 320
Printing Date: September 30, 2008
Publishing house: St. Martin's Minotaur
Release Date: September 30, 2008
Sale Popularity Level: 21236
Studio: St. Martin's Minotaur
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An international sensation, published in over twenty five countries around the world, Arnaldur Indridason attained instant fame in the English-speaking mystery world after winning the Gold Dagger Award for Silence of the Grave. His other crime novels in the series, Jar City and Voices, have also been published to highest acclaim—U.S. readers who have already discovered this extraordinary writer are eagerly anticipating this latest Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson thriller.
Following an earthquake, the water level of an Icelandic lake suddenly falls, revealing a skeleton that is weighed down by a heavy radio device bearing inscriptions in Russian. Inspectors Erlendur, Elinborg, and Sigurdur Oli’s investigation takes them back to the Cold War era, when bright, left-wing students in Iceland were sent to study in the “heavenly state” of Communist East Germany.
But one of the students went missing, and her friends suspected that her “heavenly state” was all too real. Erlendur follows a long cold trail that leads back to Iceland, international espionage, and murder.
Another astonishing thriller from one of crime fiction’s brightest stars, The Draining Lake is Arnaldur Indridason’s most gripping book yet.
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Rated by buyers 
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In 'The Draining Lake', Arnaldur Indridason has produced one of the most captivating multilayered books I have read in years. On its face, the book is a police procedural that is exotic only in the sense of its Icelandic setting. Underneath the murder mystery, Indridason gives the reader a stunning and sobering recreation of the East German surveillance society in the 1950's. Indridason incisively describes what pervasive `interactive surveillance' did to people, outwardly and inwardly. Along the way he powerfully describes the power of love and memory.
The book opens with the discovery of an old skeleton that has been exposed by the slow draining of a lake near Reykjavik. The skeleton is all the more unusual in that it was tied to and weighed down by an old Soviet radio transmitter. The kind that might have been used by a spy. It has all lain at the bottom of the lake for some thirty years.
A second narrative describes life for a group of student Icelanders on scholarship at Leipzig in the 1950's. The students all arrive as devoted socialists. They experience a tightly controlled society where everyone is expected to spy on everyone else. The students' reactions to this totalitarian state vary. Some rebel, some are co-opted, some actively collaborate. Tomas falls in love with Ilona, a Hungarian dissident also attending school in East Germany. Their love, its fate, and Tomas's memory of it dominate this second narrative.
Meanwhile, Erlendur Sveinsson and his fellow police detectives begin to slowly unravel the knot and chase the various strands that emerge. (All the while Erlendur deals with his not entirely satisfying personal life.) The strands - and the two narratives - are eventually made to come together. This aspect of the story is a completely satisfying police procedural.
The book contains a murder mystery, a spy tale, and a love story, but it is the haunting description of life in East Germany that lifts the reading experience to higher level. And yet, Indridason's characters do not simplistically equate Stalinist regimes with socialism. Indeed, most have retained their ideals years later. A stupendously good read; intelligent and nuanced. Highest recommendation.
Rated by buyers -
"The Draining Lake" by Arnaldur Indridason is an engaging and historically informative mystery that opens with a skeleton that is revealed by the receding waters of Lake Kleifarvatn near Hafnarfjordur in Iceland. Forensics determine the body has been in the lake since at least 1970 and that the cause of death was most likely the blow to head as indicated by the hole in the skull.
The police investigation led by Erlendur Sveinsson quickly divides into two tracks: one track follows the disappearance of a farm equipment salesman who left his new car at a train station and vanished into the night; the other track follows the investigating team's efforts to determine why the body was weighed down with a Russian radio transmitter manufactured during the Cold War. Interwoven into these clues are two love stories: one narrated by the anonymous voice of the murderer as he tells his story from the beginning and another love story told by the woman who waited one night for the boyfriend who never showed up, a farm equipment salesman who drove a new Ford Falcon. Also interspersed in the investigative account are insights into the personal lives of Erlendur and his team.
The historical background on Iceland's place in the cold war, as well as a glimpse into the various facets of socialism as practiced in Europe after WWII, adds a unique dimension to the intriguing murder plot. The U.S. Cold War involvement in Icelandic politics is particularly fascinating for American readers.
All-in-all, "The Draining Lake" provides a very satisfying reading experience for readers of crime fiction. I highly recommend it.
Rated by buyers -
A corpse turns up in the newly dry bed of an Icelandic lake that is draining because of seismological events. Not terribly surprising, perhaps, but this corpse is weighed down by a Russian radio transmitter from the Cold War era. The victim cannot otherwise be identified beyond being the remains of a male of a certain age. Inspector Erlendur, dark and pessimistic in his views, gets this impossible case and soon becomes obsessed with it (as is his wont).
After much hard work and a lot of wheel spinning, Erlendur manages to connect the case to the relatively small group of Icelandic students who were awarded grants by the Icelandic Communist party and the East German Communist regime to study at the University of Leipzig in Communist East Germany (or the German Democratic Republic (DDR) as it was known).
The students there lived in a world of universal internal spying where even your best friend or brother could be an informant and failure to toe the proper line in even the smallest respect could have dire consequences. Living in such circumstances is stressful and depressing, not to say soul destroying. But did it give rise to a much later murder in Iceland?
As always with Indridason, the regular life of the cops is as much a part of the novel as is the crime solving. Their daily feelings and activities affect their work, as do their various world views. In Erlendur's case, both his life and his views are a bit dark. As is also the case with Erlendur, his psychological insights are central to making progress.
Very well written with people who live on the page, full of character and eccentricities, this novel fully holds the reader's interest while telling a story that is both moving and appalling.
Rated by buyers 
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A good story and a good read. Indridason writes with intelligence and respect for the reader. His material is always solid and I always come away from a read of him feeling my time wasn't wasted and anxious to recommend him to my friends. The Iceland settings of his books makes a perfect place for me to lose myself. Highly recommended.
Rated by buyers 
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I'm a fan of his, but this was not quite as good as the other ones of his that I have read. Keeping track of the characters was a bit difficult.
Bring on another one, tho.
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