Review: The Draining Lake

A new translated release by award-winning Arnaldur Indridason for this reviewer is a major publishing event. His latest ‘The Draining Lake’ is no exception. Like most series novels, it helps if you’ve read the preceding work, [which Bernard Scudder has translated admirably].

All of Indridason’s Detective Erlendur novels are investigations of murders that have tailed back to the past, often hiding their dark secrets in plain sight. We must also mention that it is the sheer tenacity of Erlendur and his team of two Reykjavik Police detectives, the U.S-educated criminology graduate Sigurdur Óli and female investigator Elínborg that drive the narrative forward. The shadow of Erlendur’s former boss and mentor, retired Detective Marion Briem, who now lives as a spinster, sucking oxygen from a gas cylinder (due to ravaged lungs from a lifetime of cigarettes) that haunt these melancholic tales.

This time the Icelandic detectives have a political mystery to uncover - the drained lake Kleifarvatin reveals the bones of a long decayed body, weighed down with what looks like an old Soviet radio transmitter. Soon they uncover what could have been a political murder dating back to Iceland’s past and the links to the Soviet Bloc. Structurally and thematically the novel is similar to Peter Robinson’s award-winning ‘In a Dry Season’ in so far as the novel alternates between a back-story relating to the murder, as well as the present-day investigation to uncover the truth as to who was hurled into the lake.

This Draining Lake, like Indridason’s previous work has a sadness pervading the proceedings. The melancholia relates to unrequited or lost love, both from the perspective of a group of idealistic Icelandic students who went to study in East Germany during the height of the Cold War, as well as the troubles that cloud Erlendur’s personal life. The detective is caught between the problems of his estranged and alcoholic son Sindri Snaer and his equally troubled daughter Eva Lind. His son moves into Erlendur’s flat but holds a deep resentment toward his father for deserting him and the family when he was a child. Eva Lind is equally bitter, coping with her drug-habit that caused her to miscarry; she views Erlendur’s love interest with the married woman Valgerdur with distrust.

The detectives discover that the key to the investigation lies in a missing car, a Black Ford Falcon owned by a man who mysteriously vanished many years ago, leaving behind his partner forever. When Erlendur and his detectives interrogate the woman, you can feel the hollow sadness that echoes throughout this side-story of lost love. Throughout this novel, there are several other characters that ponder what happened to loved ones that vanished from their lives, of which Erlendur is just one. The detective is still haunted by the loss of his brother in childhood, taken from him by an avalanche and whose body has never been recovered.

There’s more tragedy to follow as the action drifts back to the Icelandic students in Cold War East Germany for there will also be a tragedy, and one that will ripple back to Iceland’s present. The oldest of the Icelandic students is the aloof Hannes from Reykjavik, an idealist who soon realized that all is not well in the practicalities of communism. The socialistic political ideals that made him move to study in the Eastern Bloc, perhaps are no better than the ones on the far right of the political spectrum. While the younger students still have not realized that their every move is being watched and that their lives may be in peril from the same political ideology that attracted them. The four Icelanders - Karl, Emil, Tomas and Lothar meet up with a young Hungarian student Ilona, who like Hannes is starting to see through the deception around them and understands that perhaps communism is not the panacea that she dreamed of. But when Tomas starts to fall in love with the Hungarian girl, then hidden cracks appear in the relationships between the Icelandic students. These cracks soon become visible when Ilona is taken away by the Leipezig secret police, leaving a tormented Tomas who spends every waking hour trying to find what happened to Ilona – his only love. Tomas soon realizes that there are dangerous men encircling him, and not just in the East German Police, but perhaps among his Icelandic friends. The trail will naturally lead to the present where Erlendur and his team start to see how far the trail leads from the bottom of Lake Kleifarvatin, right back to secrets in communist East Germany. The morality being that blind-faith in any political system can get you killed, and that the naivety of youth can lead to death and punishment.

The closing chapters of this sad book reverberate with an emotional resonance that when the tale is done, the story becomes etched in one’s mind. Realistic, emotionally charged and filled with compassion, one walks away from this book with their value-system challenged and their viewpoint altered. Without doubt, this is one of my reading highlights of the year. However it filled me with sadness, but also indicated how strong the human spirit is, and how the flip-side of friendship is far from pleasant. Sometimes in this world it can be hard to distinguish a friend from a foe, and in some cases they may well be both at the same time; dependant upon the situation and the circumstance.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Ali Karim - RAM

Book Review: The Draining Lake