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The Shadow District

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The Shadow District

By: Arnaldur Indridason, Victoria Cribb - translator
Narrated by: Sean Barrett
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About this listen

Old crimes, new consequences.

The Past

In wartime Reykjavik, a young woman is found strangled behind the National Theatre, a rough and dangerous area of the city known as 'the shadow district'. An Icelandic detective and a member of the American military police are on the trail of a brutal killer.

The Present

A 90-year-old man is discovered dead on his bed, smothered with his own pillow. Konrad, a former detective now bored with retirement, finds newspaper cuttings in the dead man's home reporting the shadow district murder that date back to the Second World War. It's a crime that Konrad remembers, having grown up in the same neighbourhood.

A Missing Link

Why, after all this time, would an old crime resurface? Did the police arrest the wrong man? How are these cases linked across the decades? Will Konrad's link to the past help him solve the case and finally lay the ghosts of wartime Reykjavik to rest?

The Shadow District is the first in a major new series of novels from the worldwide best seller Arnaldur Inridason.

©2017 Arnaldur Indridason (P)2017 Random House Audiobooks Crime Thrillers International Mystery & Crime Mystery Thriller & Suspense Crime Thriller Fiction Suspense Detective

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This was a decent story, if a little lacking in excitement. It takes place in wartime Iceland, well away from any incidents in the war. The investigation seems to move rather slowly and the detectives seeking evidence that will support their own ideas and preconceptions. The entitled members of Icelandic society seem remarkably keen to close ranks to prevent them being ‘drawn into’ the investigations. Certain aspects of the tale take place some years after the war, as one of the detectives returns to the country and looks into the girls’ deaths that had not been satisfactorily explained during the war. A small place in the story is found for Iceland becoming an independent republic.
The tale is told to good effect by the narrator, Sean Barrett, who does his best to make it interesting.

A wartime tale of murder in Iceland.

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I really enjoyed this book set in wartime and present day Iceland. The main characters are believable and relatable and I love this narrator very much.
My only downside to this story is that sometimes, I found it was a little hard to tell which time zone you were meant to be in. This might be because it's an audiobook and it would be more obvious if you were physically reading it yourself. It took me a while to get my head round all the different names and some of the names are used in both the past and present which doesn't help with the time zone issue.
Overall though, I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it. Onto book 2!

Great narration and good story

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Beautifully written with excellent characterisation. This story has you guessing all the time. Good use of historical setting and does not lose you in the time changes as the mystery deepens.
Simply excellent reading by Sean Barrett which keeps the narrative flowing and clear.

Gripping and unusual storyline

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I have read many books by this author but this is the first I have listened to. Thoroughly enjoyable and lovely to have those Icelandic names pronounced properly! Recommended to anyone who likes a police procedural story but this one is particularly cleverly and elegantly structured.

A great story, brilliantly read

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Detectives during WW2 struggle to solve a crime.In the present day a detective seeks answers to the death of one of those detectives. It's clever and interesting and the setting is thought provoking. Good narration. All in all an enjoyable listen.

A story set in two time periods

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Great story, a Scandi Noir., believable characters and Sean Barrett did the usual sublime narration.

Excellent and intriguing

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Absolutely gripping listen, fantastically read. It kept me totally enthralled throughout with all the twists, historical references, & the depth of the characters. Brilliant.

well written

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As a fan of Scandi - noir, always please to find an author new to me in that genre.
The Shadow District is very intriguing cold case tale that switches easily between it's two settings, wartime Iceland & present day Reykjavik.
The demise of an elderly man, deemed murdered, sets retired detective Konrad on a quest that leads him to the investigation into death of two young Icelandic women during WWII. The circumstances of both cases were never satisfactorily resolved, despite the the Huldufólk, Iceland's elves / little people, linking the two girls stories. Realising the present day murder, maybe due to the discovery of new evidence, he retraces the dead mans footsteps.


Blame it on the Huldufólk!

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A really good mystery, couldn't wait to get back to it when I had to stop listening. Made even better with the usual excellent narration from Sean Barrett.

Really enjoyable.

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An old man is quietly murdered in his flat. Who killed him? Why? A compassionate murder mystery crossing between past and present to resolve an old whodunnit. Lovely sense of place in modern and wartime Iceland.

Good mystery story

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