Feeling unfulfilled in his career after attending a school reunion, Sigurdur Óli struggles with setbacks in his relationship and position in the Icelandic police department only to have a favor for a friend go wrong, catapulting him into the middle of a grisly murder case.

When a lonely old man is found dead in his Reykjavik flat, the only clues are a cryptic note left by the killer and a photograph of a young girl's grave. Inspector Erlendur discovers that many years ago the victim was accused, but not convicted, of an unsolved crime, a rape. Did the old man's past come back to haunt him? As Erlendur reopens this very cold case, he follows a trail of unusual forensic evidence, uncovering secrets that are much larger...

"When a [homeless man] he met regularly on the night shift is found drowned in a ditch, no one seems to care. But his fate haunts Erlendur and drags him inexorably into the strange and dark underworld of the city"--Amazon.com.