The Girl by the Bridge (2018)

An outstanding work, an uncanny tale of evils past and present.

What affected me most was the rueful tenderness of Indridason's prose. ... Indridason's signature melancholy still wafts through the novel.

... it's great to see the second book in his series about the aging detective Konrád in our roundup. ... the bestselling Icelandic author of all time ... haunting thriller.

Arnaldur is one of those authors who makes it seem simple, but with The Girl by the Bridge, he really makes it seem like a breeze. The story flows so effortlessly that it's not hard to imagine the author sitting down at his computer one day and writing the entire novel in one go. Like Arnaldur's last book, What the Darkness Knows, the main protagonist is retired policeman Konrad. The plot centers around an elderly couple who are acquainted with Konrad and ask for his help with a young woman facing addiction. But Konrad can't stop thinking about a young girl who drowned in the Reykjavik city pond in 1961. The two storylines intertwine in a convincing way, everything enveloped by shame and tragedy. The characters are interesting, and Arnaldur expertly describes people and places in a compelling manner, never weighing down his prose with unnecessary details. The dialogue is also excellent, simple and completely natural. Although The Girl by the Bridge is a thriller, it doesn't overwhelm readers with speed and action. Rather, readers get to enjoy a well-written book that makes their hair stand on end at just the right places in the story. The story wends its way between past and present, and although Konrad is the main character, others get their share of the limelight too. Like so often before, the author's historical knowledge is readily apparent in those parts of the book set in the past.

The Girl by the Bridge proves once again that Arnaldur Indridason is a master storyteller.