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Black Skies
Black Skies
Black Skies
Audiobook8 hours

Black Skies

Written by Arnaldur Indridason

Narrated by George Guidall

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

About this audiobook

Arnaldur Indridason has been crime writing's best-kept secret ... until now. A man is making a crude leather mask with slits for eyes and mouth, and an iron spike fixed in the middle of the forehead. It is a 'death mask', once used by Icelandic farmers to slaughter calves. He has revenge in mind. Meanwhile, with Detective Erlendur absent, his baseball-loving colleague Sigurdur Oli is in the spotlight. A school reunion has left Sigurdur Oli dissatisfied with life in the police force. Iceland is enjoying an economic boom and young tycoons are busy partying with the international jet set. In contrast, Sigurdur Oli's relationship is on the rocks and soon even his position in the CID is compromised: when he agrees to visit a couple of blackmailers as a favour to a friend he walks in just as a woman is beaten unconscious. When she dies, Sigurdur Oli has a murder investigation on his hands. The evidence leads to debt collectors, extortionists, swinging parties. But when a chance link connects these enquiries to the activities of a group of young bankers, Sigurdur Oli finds himself investigating the very elite he had envied. Moving from the villas of ReykjavIk's banking elite to a sordid basement flat, Black Skies is a superb story of greed, pride and murder from one of Europe's most successful crime writers.
LanguageEnglish
TranslatorVictoria Cribb
Release dateSep 17, 2013
ISBN9781470379544
Black Skies
Author

Arnaldur Indridason

ARNALDUR INDRIÐASON won the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Silence of the Grave and is the only author to win the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel two years in a row, for Jar City and Silence of the Grave. Strange Shores was nominated for the 2014 CWA Gold Dagger Award.

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Reviews for Black Skies

Rating: 3.665158371040724 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

221 ratings18 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What fascinates me again and again in [[Arnaldur Indriðason]] is that he can pack an Icelandic topicality into an exciting thriller. Also this time he succeeded. It's about dubious money laundering. but you realize this only over time, since everything begins with a blackmail attempt that ends in a murder. Sigurdur Óli tries to help a friend and unfortunately has to realize that he does not tell him the whole truth.The story is fast paced and told exciting. It also shows the problem of the Icelandic financial market, which was in trouble for a long time.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Number 8 in the English-language version of the Inspector Erlendur series set in Iceland, and this one focuses on one member of the 3-person group in which Erlendur usually works. The story takes place during the same time as "Outrage", the previous book in the series, and directly following a particularly nasty case the trio had solved in the excellent "Hypothermia", the sixth in the series. Although the main character is less likable, the book is quite good and concerns three events Sigurdur Óli is investigating: the bludgeoning death of a would-be blackmailer in her home, the disappearance and subsequent death of a banker during a tour of the glaciers with some co-workers, and the decades-old abuse of a young boy and his attempts to come to terms with it when he spots his abuser while living on the streets of Reykjavik.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Despite unlikeable characters this was a really gripping read, I didn't want to put it down.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Arnaldur's writing seems to improve with each addition to the Erlender series. While all of the books in the series are atmospheric with very strong characters, this one is perhaps the most poignant yet. It definitely has some of the most well-written character development. Arnaldur also continues to improve his plot lines, never settling for a single murder mystery formula.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The first Erlendur mystery I listened to was Strange Shores, but it was good enough to make me seek the earlier volumes. I like Erlendur and Elinborg well enough, but I've never liked Sigurdur Óli, whom I regard as an insensitive jerk.Despite the fact that Sigurdur Óli is the main character in this entry, it's very good. I particularly enjoyed learning about what was going on with banking and the Icelandic economy just before the Wall Street Crash of 2008. We learn some things about Sigurdur Óli's family and childhood that help explain why he's such a jerk. He actually experiences a moment of enlightenment that suggests he might improve in the future. I understand, but don't condone another police officer's reaction to Iceland's lenient treatment of persons who commit brutal beatings. Sigurdur Óli's attitude was not what I expected from him.The subplot of Andres the alcoholic with the tragic past from Artic Chill is dealt with here. The way he handled his former abuser isn't right for real life, but does nicely for fiction. (Well, it did for this former victim of much milder child sexual abuse. I don't know if a reader who wasn't molested would get any satisfaction from it.)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the eighth novel in the Detective Erlendur series translated into English and although Erlendur does not appear in this story, with just a couple of mentions, his presence is there. This time Erlendur's colleague Sigurdur Óli is the primary narrator as the previous novel, Outrage, concentrated on Elinborg.Sigurdur Óli has not been such a sympathetic character in previous stories, perhaps because he is enamoured with all things American, having spent some time in America, and also because of his deteriorating relationship with his wife, Bergthora.I enjoyed this story as I felt that my understanding of Sigurdur Óli increasde and he became a more sympathetic character.Of course, I also enjoyed the crime stories which were decently plotted (including blackmail, murder, white collar banking crime (it was published in 2009) and a small but effectively used side child abuse story), with expected and unexpected twists and turns, and the Icelandic setting (I have stayed at Hótel Búdir on Snaefellsnes!). But I really read the Detective Erlendur stories for Arnaldur Indriðason's style and descriptive abilities, which were both on good display.This is best read as part of the series and I am now keen to read the concluding episode, Strange Shores.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    All others by this author I've enjoyed, but with this one I had to push myself: too depressing and gruesome in subject matter.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is the 8th book of this 10 book series; I have read the first eight and would probably have been current in the series had they been released quicker. But USA readers have to first wait for the English translation, then wait for a US publisher to finally produce a book that may have been available in the UK for a year or more. Most of the books in the series have been excellent, and I've rated a couple five star. The series protagonist is not in this book, rather we get to follow one of his officers, Sigurdur Oli, as he becomes involved in three or more cases/situations. One deals with a possible illegal plot on the part of some bankers. Another focuses on a pair of wife-swappers, potentially blackmailers. A third deals with child abuse and pornography. There are threads that run through these stories that may tie one or more of them together. For example, child pornography may be tangentially a factor in the banker case. Indridason is an excellent writer and his prose is always first rate. Usually the plots are more interesting than in this book, although there are flashes of the usual excellence. Throughout the series the characters have been only somewhat interesting and therefore the attraction for this series for me was always a good tale, not so much what might happen to a character in the next book. Right now, things feel a little stale and I think I'll give this series a rest for a while.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In Black Skies, the spotlight falls upon Erlendur's unlikeable off-sider, Sigurdur Oli. Trying to help a friend facing blackmail, Oli winds up caught in a web of corruption, sexual depravity and murder. As expected, the story is well-paced, rivetting stuff, and goes some way towards humanising the arrogant Oli. But reading a Reykjavik mystery without Erlendur is a bit like going to a Rolling Stones concert without Mick Jagger onstage. I for one hope our 'hero' returns from the fjords in Indridason's next installment.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Intriguing thriller with a not entirely likable inspector who learns some unpleasant truths about himself as he struggles through the mysteries confronting him. The sense of place adds a colorful element and US readers should find several interesting parallels and contrasts to US life. The author does a good job of showing how the inspector's experiences slowly lead him to reassess his attitudes, as well as demonstrating how events often spiral out of control when intentions are less than pure. Human frailty is explored on several levels and will leave most readers with a lot to think about.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A fine detective novel, with a well-woven plot.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was a return to form for me. I didn't enjoy the previous novel as much as the rest of the series, because it focused on Elinborg and lacked a little punch. Black Skies, however, was pacey and helped me warm to Sigudur Oli, who had grated on me in previous books. The development of his back story made sense of a lot of his foibles. The circumstances of the job he's on as the book opens explains a lot! The exposition on the Icelandic banking crisis is well written. Arnaldur had clearly done his research. I can't wait for the next instalment in the series.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is Indridason's commentary on the boom and crisis of recent Iceland financial economy and while it isn't as strong as it could be, that crisis was so all-consuming for Iceland that it must be difficult to reflect on it. Which is why the best book on the whole debacle is bizarrely, Laxness' The Atom Station, written deacdes before. Black Skies is a skillfully constructed novel, with a number of sub-plots and themes running throughout. It also raises the question, in many different ways, of what corruption is. A good read, and again a Reykjavik that most tourists don't see, the hidden (even repressed) underside of Iceland, like all the grit and boulders and debris that leave the actual marks on the landscape beneath the shiny white glaciers visible to the eye.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    *** Spoiler alert ***I liked this book despite the fact that Erlendur was off-stage for the whole novel. Sigurdur proved interesting enough to carry a complete detective novel. The exotic location was interesting as were the characters and how they reacted to Iceland's boom. The ending was open but I still felt it gave the required catharsis.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In retrospect, what strikes you about Indridason's books is how well crafted they are. The stories build layer on layer. They also demonstrate how small the Icelandic community actually is - although the residents don't necessarily know each other directly, they do belong to overlapping groups. Just as Iceland is a microcosm of the world's DNA, so it presents a laboratory of crime.For the second title in a row Indridason's grumpy detective Erlendur has gone missing. (See OUTRAGE). This leaves his team to their own devices a bit, and Sigurdur Óli is not a team man at the best. A school reunion leads to him investigating a blackmailing case for an old school friend, his mother persuades him to look into the daily pilfering of an elderly friend's newspapers, and when a tramp comes looking for Erlendur he decides to follow up himself.Sigurdur Óli is a very human detective who quite often makes mistakes and at least twice in BLACK SKIES he realises that he has woven events together in the wrong way and leapt to the wrong conclusions. Nor does he reveal to the rest of the team what he is up when he really does need help. He always seems to keep back little bits of information that he should be sharing. On the other hand he is what I think of as a fractal investigator, seeing small leads as worth investigating and that is partly what makes this book such a good read, as he goes off in directions the reader has not contemplated.Having said that, I think I ready now for Erlendur to return, or to at least find out what has happened to him. His absence is a device that the author can surely sustain only for a couple of novels. In OUTRAGE it gave readers the opportunity to become better acquainted with Elinborg, and in BLACK SKIES with Sigurdur Óli. Of course, one of the advantages of this ploy is that a reader new to Indridason does not have to worry about not having read the earlier novels in the series.There is a strong sense of setting in BLACK SKIES, not just the Icelandic setting, with characters known by single names, but also an explanation of the events that eventually lead to the global financial crisis and the collapse of the Icelandic economy. Like many contemporary crime fiction authors Indridason has embedded strong social comment in the novel.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I’m a fan of the Icelandic mysteries of Arnaldur Indridason featuring Detective Erlendur. There have been six in the series (commonly known as the Reykjavik mysteries) translated into English. A seventh book, "Outrage", featured Detective Elinborg, Erlendur’s female colleague, because Erlendur has gone missing, ostensibly visiting the East Fjords, but no one has heard from him. "Black Skies" is a parallel to "Outrage", covering the same time period during Erlendur’s absence. The focus this time is on Sigurdur Oli, Erlendur’s male colleague.Sigurdur Oli is asked by a friend to intervene on behalf of a couple who is being blackmailed by a woman named Sigurlina Thorgrimsdottier. When Sigurdur Oli goes to speak to her, he finds her “lying on the floor in a pool of blood, with a large gash in her head” (26). The investigation of her death is the major case Sigurdur Oli sets out to solve in this book. There are of course the requisite twists and turns.Character development is the book’s strong suit. As Elinborg’s character is developed in "Outrage", Sigurdur Oli’s is in this book. He is anything but compassionate: “he rarely felt any sympathy for the luckless individuals he came across in the line of duty. . . . His usual attitude was that these people were responsible for their own plight. . . . He had often been criticized for his cynicism and detachment but this meant nothing to him” (189 – 190). Sigurdur Oli’s relationship with his long-time partner Bergthora is fractured because of his personality: “He had meant to get a grip of himself, to listen to her point of view, to try not to be rigid and difficult” (193), but is unsuccessful. He can only “put on a show of caring” (161) and resolve “to be polite and tactful, though neither was his forte” (211). We are given insight into why Sigurdur Oli is as he is. He spent most of his childhood living with a mother who thought her son “was too good for that, meaning the police” (6) and “’far too good for Bergthora’” (245). It takes him by surprise when Bergthora tells him, “’You’re both so . . . cold. Such snobs’” (52) but later he realizes he must try to be “Not like his mother” (193). He also has another epiphany: “Sigurdur Oli knew that he had been blind and was painfully aware why: he had believed himself to be sufficiently tough, sufficiently impartial and a sufficiently good policeman . . . But it had turned out that he was none of these” (306). The inclusion of a dynamic character makes this book more than just an entertaining mystery.The book is also interesting in terms of its touching on Iceland’s monetary crisis. Sigurdur Oli is told, “’Some people say we’re heading for a crash if we go on like this. The incredible expansion we’ve been witnessing is based almost entirely on foreign credit and there are various signs that these sources are either going to be blocked soon, or just dry up. If this global recession they talk about does happen, the banks will be in big trouble. . . . Icelandic tycoons who have acquired large holdings in the banks via their companies are taking loans from them . . . And having carved up all the biggest companies in the country between them, they’re now busy buying anything they can lay their hands on abroad, all funded by cheap borrowing. Not to mention all the games they play to boost the value of their companies, which is often based on nothing more than an illusion. On top of that they make inroads into public companies by selling their own assets to them at inflated prices. Meanwhile the bank executives award themselves options worth hundreds of millions of kronur, and then gamble by taking out loans to buy shares in the banks themselves. . . . It’s always the same handful of people doing these deals, giving and taking loans. The danger is of course that if one link is broken, the whole edifice will come tumbling down like a house of cards’” (242 - 243). What a clear, concise summary!At the end of the book, Erlendur is still missing. His daughter is concerned because before he left, “’He seemed so down’” (55) and she hasn’t been able to contact him. Neither Elinborg nor Sigurdur Oli have heard anything (132 – 133). Will the next book in the series be an investigation into Erlendur’s disappearance?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Erlunder is absent for the second book in a row ('Outrage' being the previous), which disappointed I must admit, Sigurdur Óli taking centre stage in this one. He is not what you might call a likeable character, a bit of a loner, initially arrogant maybe, but still interesting because of his scarred personal life and past. Written in 2009 soon after the Icelandic financial crash, but set in 2005, the shaky foundations of personal and institutional financial growth inevitably play their part in the storyline. There are two stories running in parallel, or rather three; one a story of blackmail, wife swapping (!), murder and greed, another of child abuse and its tragic effect, plus Sigurdur Óli' personal story, his relationships and evolving character. If not in my view quite up there with Indridason's best, it is nonetheless a good read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Arnaldur is one of my favourite authors, at least when it comes to Scananavian crime novels, and his Inspector Erlendur is my favourite fictional police detectives. Therefore I was a little disappointed that Erlendur is away in this story and he has left Sigurdur Oli behind to handle the cases. I find Sigurdur a little boring, though the cases he works on in this book are interesting enough. I hope that Erlendur will reappear in the next book nn the series. This is the 9th book I have read by this author and I rate this book in the middle range of those books.