As Kleifarvatn lake’s water level slowly drops – no one really knows why – a skeleton is discovered, tied to an old radio transmitter and with a whole in its head.
In parallel with Detectives Erlendur, Elínborg and Sigurður Óli’s murder investigation (and Elínborg’s cookery book launch), we hear fellow Icelander Tómas’ experience as a Easy German Communist Party sponsored student at the University of Leipzig during the 1950s.
The two stories converge due to Erlendur’s dogged digging into the disappearance of a tractor salesman in 1968.
For context and more background on the Reykjavík / Erlendur mysteries, read Crime Fiction Lover’s A Guide to Arnaldur Indriðason’s Detective Erlendur.
Publisher’s page: The Draining Lake – Arnaldur Indriðasonr