Erlendur/Reykjavik Mystery Series by Arnaldur Indridason
Relax & read - mystery list descriptions do not reveal major plot points.

Character's Personality:  Erlendur is a stoic, reserved, and melancholy man in his fifties, filled with guilt over his estranged, grown children who are both drug addicts and losers. After an acrimonious divorce, his hateful ex-wife poisoned the kids against him. In his own childhood, Erlendur's family uprooted themselves from their rural home, the setting of their family legends and history, and moved to Reykjavik in hopes of eking out a better living, and it left him rootless and displaced, a feeling to haunt him all his life.

Character's Occupation: Police detective

Character's Culture / Ethnicity: Icelandic

Character - Other Notable Traits: 

Location and Time Period: Contemporary Reykjavik, Iceland

Mystery Subgenre: Police procedural

Objectionable Material: Profanity, medium violence

Other Supporting Characters:

• Elinborg - one of Erlendur's detectives, a calm, compassionate woman in her forties who likes to cook, believes in supernatural phenomena, and who can establish a warm rapport with almost anyone.
• Eva Lind - Erlendur's manipulative and needy daughter who, unlike her brother, seems to want a relationship with Erlendur
• Sigurdur Oli - one of Erlendur's detectives, a high-strung man in his thirties, obsessed with fashion, trendy gadgets, and superficial relationships with good-looking women.  He gets impatient with the drudgery involved in police work.

Series Description: (brought to you by kat impatientreader.com)

Series List: Purple Copyright Date  = I've read it Title links go to Amazon.com product pages.

1. Jar City (2004).  Erlendur and his detectives work two simultaneous cases:  an evil old serial rapist gets murdered, and a bride disappears from her own wedding. Poor Erlendur is also worried about his daughter Eva Lind, a drug addict, who approaches him for help. An engrossing mystery with one or two distracting tics:  why go to such lengths to keep Marion Briem's gender ambiguous?
2. Silence of the Grave (2005).  When a human bone is found in a Reykjavik suburb, it connects to a tragedy decades ago involving domestic violence. This is a disturbing book that takes the viewpoint of the battered wife with great compassion.  A powerful, complex story that improves upon the promise of Jar City.
3. Voices (2006)
4. The Draining Lake (2007)
5. Arctic Chill (2008)

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