A young woman in Petsamo, Finland waits for her fiancé to arrive from Copenhagen. They plan to board the Esjan, sailing home to Iceland and far from the war that has only just made its way to Scandinavia. But her fiancé never arrives. It’s spring 1943, the Second World War is at its height, and there’s already a great deal happening in Reykjavik when a corpse washes up on the shore at Nautholsvik beach. At the same time, a young man suffers a vicious attack behind a bar frequented by American soldiers, and a woman known to keep company with the soldiers seems to have disappeared.

Petsamo is Arnaldur Indridason’s twentieth novel and his third book about police officers Flovent and Thorson.