THE QUIET MOTHER by Arnaldur Indridason features murder cases from the present and the past that retired detective Konrad is deeply connected to and driven to solve.

Konrad inserts himself into the death of a woman named Valborg for which he feels extremely guilty as she once asked him to find her son, which he was not able or willing to do at the time. As he attempts to help his former colleague, Marta, with the investigation, he opens up old wounds concerning the decades-old murder of his father that was never solved.

The opening chapter feels like something out of the Alfred Hitchcock film Rear Window. We are brought into the scenes of various apartments on a Reykjavik street thanks to a peeping Tom with a high-powered telescope. We see a couple engaging in infidelity, a man committing another act of domestic violence upon his wife and family, and a woman (who turns out to be Valborg) being murdered by an unknown assailant placing a bag over her head and suffocating her.

"The finale and ultimate solution is both shocking and satisfying, even though some questions are still left open."

Throughout the novel, we learn Valborg’s sad backstory involving the child she gave up for adoption and never knew. It was only years later when she reached out to Konrad for help in finding him that he became aware of her situation. Now, he is going beyond his means as a retired detective to assist Marta in getting justice for Valborg. This journey will challenge Konrad as it takes him into not only Valborg’s past but a shared past that crosses lines with his father’s homicide. The man’s body was found outside his place of employment after meeting up with someone whose identity remains unknown.

The investigation begins with the people who may have seen something the night that Valborg was killed, starting with the peeping Tom. Other indiscretions are uncovered but nothing that reveals someone with murderous intent. Konrad then takes on the case that he had refused in the past: the identity and location of Valborg’s son. This will put him on the trail of the midwife who helped birth the boy and then immediately put him up for adoption. Stepping back a bit further, Konrad learns that the child was born out of an act of rape, which took place at a club that his father used to frequent and later was burned to the ground.

Each chapter in THE QUIET MOTHER provides clues and revelations, whether set in the present or the past, and deepens the mysteries that drive Konrad and Marta in their dual investigations. Indridason is an expert at plotting and draws readers in deeper and deeper with each new moment until you find yourself becoming just as obsessed as Konrad is in discovering the truth.

The finale and ultimate solution is both shocking and satisfying, even though some questions are still left open. Konrad is such a great character, and his tactics are reminiscent of any classic noir detective to the point that you forget you are reading a mystery set within the confines of Iceland.