IN OTHER WORDS....
TRANSLATED FROM OTHER LANGUAGES

by Doris Cassiday

“It’s nasty,” officers tell Detective Elínborg in Arnaldur Indridason’s procedural novel Outrage (Random House Canada; $29.95). Elínborg is the lead investigator while Detective Erlendur is away from Reykjavik on leave from the Criminal Investigation Department.

The victim, Runólfur, is found with his throat cut in a pool of blood. Date-rape drugs in his jacket pocket raise suspicion of misfeasance behavior. Further, a woman’s shawl is found in the bedroom. Sniffing the shawl Elínborg recognizes cigarette, perfume and Indian spice odors. She is especially fond of Indian cookery.

Since Runólfur comes from a small Icelandic village at a distance from Reykjavik, Elínborg takes a plane there to speak with his mother and acquaintances. His mother has little to add to the case but gives Elínborg the impression that she was a disciplinarian.

Meanwhile in Reykjavik the investigators visit rape victims to see if they recognize Runólfur or his home. The drug issue becomes a factor leading to Runólfur’s buyer friend. In fact the friend admits he knew the missing woman of the cold case investigated by the police a few years before.

A break in the case occurs when Elínborg focuses on the limping man a neighbor reported seeing in the area on the night of the crime. Tracking down the causes of limping and shoes/braces used to relieve the condition points to a man who has a daughter who also likes Indian cookery. To locate him, Elínborg admits, “I followed my nose.”

She confronts the man and listens to his explanation of the night in question, but is not convinced of his guilt even though the daughter had been at Runólfur’s house.

One more visit is made to the village and its inhabitants. This time a girl in a blue down parka helps Elínborg to uncover the secrets all knew but did not tell.

Although Indridason inserts the home life of Elinborg and her concern for her growing children as well as her interest in cooking, more importantly he portrays the psychological dynamics of a small town with exceptional care and understanding.

All elements of a procedural crime story are present and ready to be read as translated from the Icelandic by Anna Yates.

Bad Intentions (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; $24.00), by Karin Fossum, is a different procedural novel. True, the case is under the direction of Inspector Konrad Sejer and his associate Jacob Skarre. They carry out routine questioning, research and speculation conforming to the accustomed investigative format while Sejer feels burdened and struggles with personal memories.

The difference is in the carefully wrought development of character of the protagonists: Jon Moreno, Philip Reilly, Axel Frimann.

Jon is under treatment for repression at a psychiatric hospital. Philip is addicted to drugs, alcohol and reads the Koran. Axel is the force that leads and exerts uncanny control over the others.

At their weekend retreat at Dead Water Lake Axel instigates a night boat ride. When he and Philip row to the middle of the lake, Jon slips overboard disappearing in the murky water. Reilly wants to jump in after Jon but Axel holds him back. “You won’t make it. Don’t!”

Sejer and Skarre arrive to direct the search for Jon who is reported missing. Eventually Jon’s body is pulled from the lake. The story Sejer hears from Philip and Axel is that Jon’s neurosis is so severe he wanders off in the middle of the night. Sejer acknowledges, “It’s possible that Jon Moreno took his own life.”

However, Jon’s mother and Molly his friend at the hospital do not believe it was suicide. Molly assures Sejer Jon had plans for the future and kept a diary.

The case heats up when a body of a young Vietnamese boy is found in a different lake. Sejer senses a connection between the two incidents and proceeds with the investigation on that basis. Moreover, Skarre reminds Sejer that Jon, Philip and Axel were questioned at the time the Vietnamese boy went missing.

“We start the journey with good intentions…then, someone snaps their fingers and we find ourselves sidetracked.” Adding excerpts from Jon’s diary, Fossum describes the torment of guilt and the power of one member to control a group.

This is an intense narrative crafted in realistic terms translated from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund.

At the time he views seventeen shoes with the remains of severed feet in them lined up in front of London’s Highgate Cemetery, Commissaire Adamsberg is unaware of their importance in the murder case he becomes wound up in on his return to Paris. In An Uncertain Place (Penguin Books; $15) Fred Vargas gives Adamsberg, Chief of Serious Crimes Squad, the biggest challenge of his life in her macabre police thriller.

After his brief sojourn to London the Commissaire is summoned to an indescribable crime scene at a rich man’s villa. “It’s like a slaughterhouse! Where’s the body?”

Later, Commandant Danglard reports to the investigative team: “Concerning the body, it is estimated that it was cut into about four hundred and sixty fragments, and about three hundred of those were reduced to pulp.” Adamsberg halts the report and suggests a drawing to more clearly illustrate the parts of the body severely attacked – “brain, heart and liver.” A member of the team proposes, “It’s an attempt to destroy his spirit.”

The murdered man’s gardener, a rogue called Émile, becomes a suspect since he knows all about his employer’s holdings. In fact, he is to inherit the estate rather than the man’s son.

More evidence is gathered including a used Kleenex with DNA signifying a perpetrator other than those already identified. The search continues for the murderer along with an explanation for his madness.

Following a lead, Adamsberg goes off to Serbia by himself where he discovers a personal connection to his adversary and is placed in harm’s way.

This mind-boggling tale will be of special interest to the fans of vampires and their ilk. With her creative ability on high Vargas weaves a magical murder mystery translated from the French by Siân Reynolds.

Reprinted from Border Patrol, IACW/NA newsletter
© 2011, used by permission