The loner Erlendur has recently joined the police force and the beat on the streets in Reykjavik is busy: traffic accident, theft, domestic violence, contraband… An unexplained death won’t leave him be. A bum he met regularly on the night shift is found drowned in a ditch and no one seems to care. But his fate haunts Erlendur and drags him further into the strange and dark underworld of the city.

Reykjavik Nights is Arnaldur Indridason’s sixteenth novel and follows the first case of the policeman Erlendur, who readers know from the author’s earlier books. Indridason’s books have been immensely popular both in Iceland and abroad and have received excellent reviews.

• Nominated for the DV Newspaper’s Cultural Award 2013
• 2015 Petrona Award Shortlist for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year in UK
• Nominated as the best crime novel of the year in The Netherlands 2015 by Vrij Nederland

“Icelandic author’s latest novel, REYKJAVIK NIGHTS, nicely illustrates the qualities that make his books so deeply pleasurable.”
Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times

“… intriguing … fachinating … a real pleasure …”
Mark Sanderson, Evening Standard

“A prequel to the series featuring detective Erlendur Sveinsson, REYKJAVIK NIGHTS gives a snapshot of 1970s Iceland, with traditional culture making way for American influences. Young police officer Erlendur takes on the ‘cold’ case of a dead vagrant, identifying with a man’s traumatic past. Indridason’s legion of fans will be delighted to see the gestation of the mature Erlendur; the novel is also the perfect starting point for new readers of the series.”
The 2015 Petrona Award judges’ comments on the shortlist

 STARRED REVIEW
“In this riveting prequel set in late-1960s Reykjavík, Indridason plumbs the backstory of his series lead, somber Insp. Erlendur Sveinsson. As a young cop, Erlendur patrols at night, writes speeding tickets, and escorts drunks to the station house. When Hannibal, a tramp he’s acquainted with, dies of apparently natural causes, Erlendur starts to investigate on his own time. In the process, he learns about Reykjavík’s down-and-out population—which Indridason presents humanely and without sentimentality—and about becoming a detective. His obsession with Hannibal and what happened to him foreshadows the concerns of the more mature Erlendur in books set years later, such as 2014’s Strange Shores. Erlendur connects Hannibal’s case to that of a missing woman and a criminal enterprise that may strike readers as amateurish (one tactic is stolen from the then-new TV detective show Ironside). The investigation slowly but surely gathers powerful, page-turning momentum. This installment stands on its own, but it’s all the more impressive for giving new insight into Erlendur.”
Publisher’s Weekly

“Reykjavík Nights delivers a high-quality crime story with an integrated social message in the manner that we’ve come to expect from Indridason, and it sits well within the series. The mark of a good prequel, in some respects, is whether a reader coming to Indridason’s work through this book are likely to move on to the main series. It’s certainly possible, and there’s plenty here to tempt you to read more. But for most of us, the merit of Reykjavík Nights is the insight it gives us into the development of an already familiar detective. It is a welcome addition to the truly great Erlendur novels, Jar City and Silence of the Grave, which speak for themselves as to why Scandinavian crime novels have become so popular.”
SARAH WARD, LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS

“Since childhood, when he and his brother were lost in a blizzard in the mountains where he grew up, and he was found but his brother was not, Arnaldur Indridason’s Inspector Erlendur has been obsessed with disappearances. Throughout this superb series by the Icelandic author, we’ve seen how deeply that tragedy has affected the glum detective. In Reykjavik Nights, we learn how his special interest propelled him into the top ranks of investigators.

This prequel is set in the days when he was a young traffic cop, dealing with car accidents, street fights and such. When a homeless man he knows named Hannibal is found drowned in a pond near a waste-ground, and then a young woman goes missing, and both cases are allowed to go cold, Erlendur doggedly investigates them — even with no authority to do so. Hannibal’s story, it turns out, is worth knowing.

Like his protagonist, Indridason is calm, methodical and unassuming. With Reykjavik’s nights — “so strangely sunny and bright, yet in another sense so dark and desperate” — as a backdrop, what starts out as a modest tale of an unfortunate death develops into a deeply involving tale of chronic neglect, drug addiction, spousal abuse and the unsavory nature of fate. For Erlendur, it may be something of a curse that he can never free himself of his obsession — even his leisure reading is consumed by books about horrible disappearances. But it’s also something of a blessing in giving him a clear-cut role in life.”
Lloyd Sachs, Chicago Tribune

“It’s an engrossing read, beautifully paced, richly textured, with something of the haunting melancholy of those long Icelandic nights. A real treat.”
Christine Poulson, crime writer

“The whole construction of the plot and storyline is carried out with skill and conviction …
The story also possesses the sensitivity for setting, history and circumstances that characterises Indridason’s best works; it is, in sum, extremely successful fiction both as a crime novel and as a description of life in Reykjavík. Indridason’s fans can, therefore, heave a sigh of relief: Erlendur Sveinsson certainly hasn’t been lost forever, he comes back to his early haunts, and it suits him well.”
Ulfhildur Dagsdóttir, bokmenntir.is (Reykjavik City Library)