"The Draining Lake" by Arnaldur Indridason

     The name of an author I could not pronounce, coupled with the setting of a story in Iceland, attracted me to this book.  Books should offer new experiences to a reader, which this one certainly does.  However, the draining of Lake Kleifarvatn (an actual event in Iceland in 2001) has little more to do with the actual story than revealing the long-buried skeleton.  The real mystery, which is revealed as the story is casually told, revolves around the allure of socialism to the youth of the country’s forty-year earlier past, a story juxtaposed with the personal lives of the three police investigating the murder. 

     Every reader is free to draw their own conclusions to the relevance of including the personal lives within a story meant to uncover the perpetrator of a forty-year-old murder.  At points, the investigation does appear to draw to a standstill.  From my perspective, though, the real mystery of socialism’s allure is what keeps one turning pages.  To hear that debate honestly portrayed is reason enough to make this a recommendation.

      That era’s youth are drawn to it.  They are surrounded by it.  It encompasses them to such an intense degree to where they are drowning in it. Perhaps, there in lies the actual ‘draining lake’ for which this story earns its title.