"A fascinating window on an unfamiliar world as well as an original and
puzzling mystery."
--Val McDermid

A man is found murdered in his Reykjavik flat. There are no obvious clues apart from a cryptic note left on the body and a photograph of a young girl's grave. Detective Erlendur is forced to use all the forensic resources available to find any leads at all. Delving into the dead man's life he discovers that forty years ago he was accused of an appalling crime. Did his past come back to haunt him? Erlendur's search leads him to Iceland's Genetic Research Centre in order to find the disturbing answers to the mystery. This prize-winning international bestseller is the first in a new series of crime novels set in Iceland.

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“A fascinating window on an unfamiliar world as well as an original and puzzling mystery.” 
--Val McDermid

“A chilling read.”
--The Times

“A chilling Icelandic saga of the DNA age. This careful, sparsely-written book operates at a deeper level than most crime fiction.”
--Independent

"Highly recommended... thoroughly gripping... impressively moving."
--Time Out

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ARNALDUR INDRIDASON was born in 1961, the son of an Icelandic author. Having worked for many years as a journalist and reviewer for an Icelandic newspaper, he began writing novels. He won the Nordic Crime Novel Award for Tainted Blood (originally published in the UK under the title Jar City) and, in the following year, for its sequel, Silence of the Grave. Tainted Blood is his first novel to be translated into English.

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