A travelling salesman is found murdered in a small Reykjavik apartment, shot in the head with a pistol. The police quickly set their sights on the foreign soldiers on every street corner that summer of 1941, soldiers whose interactions with the locals—especially the local women—have been creating a great deal of trouble.

The Shadow Killer is Arnaldur Indridason’s nineteenth book. Flovent and Thorson, partners on the Reykjavik police force during the Second World War, were previously introduced in Arnaldur’s award-winning book The Shadow District. This novel tells the story of their first case: the Icelandic-Canadian soldier Thorson is a novice at criminal investigations, while Flovent is more  experienced—the only person, in fact, on the city’s detective force.

• Nominated for The Drop of Blood – The Icelandic Crime Novel Award 2016
• Recommended by The New York Times 2018
• Selected as one of the six best recent thrillers, by Guardian 2018

“One of the most brilliant crime writers of his generation.”
The London Sunday Times

“Indridason’s austere, clear-cut prose coldly reveals ‘all the disruption the military occupation had brought to this sparsely populated island and its simple society.”
New York Times on The Shadow Killer

“How does the guy do it? This is a question you regularly ask yourself, year after year, as you read Indridason’s latest book … New leading characters have emerged, who it seems highly likely will continue to appear frequently as future protagonists. We have come to know them, we care about them, and we want to find out more. Isn’t that what all this is about?”
DV NEWSPAPER

“An artfully constructed plot … The writer is a master of his art and manipulates the narrative thread and the reader by creating a suspense-laden atmosphere that is maintained right up to the last page.”
SIRKUSTJALDID

“Exciting and exceedingly well written, with descriptions of society and criminal cases that keep the reader firmly captivated.”
FRETTABLADID