The Draining Lake

Book excerpt: 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 Reykjavík thriller from one of crime fiction's brightest stars, The Draining Lake is Arnaldur Indridason's most gripping book yet.