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  • Published: 1 December 2010
  • ISBN: 9780099532279
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $29.99

Hypothermia




When a woman is found dead shortly after attending a seance, Detective Erlendur, already haunted by an unsolved mystery from thirty years ago, begins his investigations.

One cold autumn night, a woman is found hanging from a beam at her holiday cottage. At first sight, it appears like a straightforward case of suicide; María had never recovered from the death of her mother two years previously and she had a history of depression. But then the friend who found her body approaches Detective Erlendur with a tape of a séance that María attended before her death and his curiosity is aroused.

Driven by a need to find answers, Erlendur begins an unofficial investigation into María's death. But he is also haunted by another unsolved mystery - the disappearance of two young people thirty years ago - and by his own quest to find the body of his brother, who died in a blizzard when he was a boy. Hypothermia is Indridason's most compelling novel yet.

  • Published: 1 December 2010
  • ISBN: 9780099532279
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $29.99

About the author

Arnaldur Indridason

Arnaldur Indridason worked for many years as a journalist and critic before he began writing novels. His books have since sold over 13 million copies worldwide. Outside Iceland, he is best known for his crime novels featuring Erlendur and Sigurdur Óli, which are consistent bestsellers across Europe. The series has won numerous awards, including the Nordic Glass Key and the CWA Gold Dagger.

The Shadow District – the first book in the Reykjavík Wartime Mystery series – won the Premio RBA de Novela Negra, the world’s most lucrative crime fiction prize.

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Praise for Hypothermia

one of the most haunting crime novels you can expect to read: unsentimental, yet informed throughout by Indridason’s extraordinary empathy with human suffering

The Times

The narrative grips, the writing, excellently translated by Cribb, is resonant and lyrical, and the atmosphere is chillingly creepy

Laura Wilson, Guardian

A personal odyssey, suffused with a melancholy that, like the icy chill, seeps into the bones

Alastair Mabbott, Herald

Indridason has a remarkable understanding of grief and its persistence... Indridason combines psychological acuteness with great stylistic economy and a pleasing pace

Jane Jakeman, Independent

An insightful human story, beautifully written and translated

Jessica Mann, Literary Review

Our love affair with Scandinavian crime continues with the latest instalment of Indridason's award-winning Icelandic murder mystery series

Daily Express

Descriptions of Iceland's stunning crystalline landscape are lyrical and the overall storyline thoughtful and original

Carla McKay, Daily Mail

An intelligent, gripping and moody tale with superior characterisation

Marcel Berlins, The Times

Indridason's best novel so far

Books Quarterly

This Icelandic novelist keeps on getting better

Sunday Times

Hypothermia is one of the most haunting crime novels I've read in a long time, unsentimental yet informed by the author's extraordinary empathy with human suffering

Joan Smith, Sunday Times

Arnaldur Indridason has built an international reputation with this series, and rightly so. Hypothermia is perhaps his best book yet, gracefully depicting the lengths to which people are driven by the need for answers. An outstanding novel

Joanna Hines, Guardian

The Icelandic master of crime Arnaldur Indridason is not yet as well known in this country as Sweden's Henning Mankell, but on this showing, it is only a matter of time...a wonderfully atmospheric tale

Sally Cousins, Sunday Telegraph

This is a humane, unsentimental study of grief and guilt, which is both moving and unsettling. It's also a softly gripping narrative, without ever resorting to fight scenes, car chases or torture

Brandon Robshaw, Independent on Sunday