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    House of Evidence
    House of Evidence
    House of Evidence
    Audiobook10 hours

    House of Evidence

    Written by Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson

    Narrated by Peter Berkrot

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    On a cold January morning in 1973, inside a stately old house in Reykjavik, blood pools around Jacob Kieler Junior from a fatal gunshot wound to his chest. Detective Jóhann Pálsson, an expert in the emerging field of forensics, is called to the scene and soon discovers something more unsettling than the murder itself: the deceased’s father, Jacob Kieler Senior, a railroad engineer, was shot to death in the same living room nearly thirty years earlier. The case was officially closed as a botched robbery.

    Pálsson soon uncovers diaries that portray Kieler Senior as an ambitious man dedicated to bringing the railroad to Iceland no matter the cost. Sensing a deeper and darker mystery afoot, the detective and his colleagues piece together through the elder Kieler’s diaries a family history rich with deceit…

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    TranslatorBjörg Árnadóttir and Andrew Cauthery
    Release dateDec 11, 2012
    ISBN9781455880515
    House of Evidence
    Author

    Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson

    Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson is the author of several books, including Daybreak, which was the basis for the 2008 Icelandic television series Hunting Men. House of Evidence, his third novel, was nominated for the Glass Key Award, given by the Crime Writers Association of Scandinavia, in 2001, and The Flatey Enigma was nominated for the same prize in 2004.

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    Reviews for House of Evidence

    3.5/5

    56 ratings10 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I found this read difficult at first because of the characters names, but soon just fell into making up my oown. Good read, perfect plot. Totally unexpected ending. Well done ypu.
    • 3/5
      I truly wanted to fall in love with House of Evidence by Viktor A. Ingolfsson, but unfortunately that never happened. I am a fan of Icelandic murder/crime novels and I also enjoy history, so in theory I should have truly enjoyed this complex crime novel, but I did not. While I did not dislike House of Evidence, I have read better books and in all fairness I have read far worse. This leaves me in a difficult spot of would I recommend the book to other readers or not. I honestly do not know. The story is complex, which I liked, but there is a lot of information added into the storyline that I had no interest in, so my advise would be to read other reviews or head to the nearest library.
    • 3/5
      At first, I found the police procedural business quite interesting: I've never known the forensic Scene-Of-Crime boys followed in such detail! But with the interleaving of the victim's diaires, I began to smell the distinctly fishy odour of padding. The diary entries do effectively demonstrate the descent of a mind from enthusiasm, via obsession, to something like madness; but their sketchiness serves merely to tell when they should show - can't the author manage (or be bothered?) to realise his story more effectively?

      It's no worse than OK, as my three stars indicate - but no better, either. I must take issue with at least one other reviewer here: this novel IN NO WAY approaches Larsson's Millenniium trilogy in readability, characterisation, theme, or any other quality I can think of. Except, perhaps, that there is quite a lot of snow involved.
    • 4/5
      Set in Iceland in 1973, the book begins with the discovery of Jacob Kieler, Junior, who has been found shot in his museum-like home. To add to the mystery we are told that his father, Jacob Kieler, Senior, was also found shot in the same room thirty years earlier. So who is the killer and why have these two men been targeted?

      The story is told in alternating chapters from the perspective of the various police officers involved in the investigation, and Jacob Senior's diaries over his lifetime. Jacob Senior spent his life trying to bring a railroad to Iceland and spent many years in Germany studying and planning. Jacob Junior spent his life trying to maintain his father’s legacy and turn the family estate into a museum.

      I've long been a fan of crime stories set in Iceland but I have to admit this wasn't my favorite. I enjoyed the forensics part of the investigation but I grew weary of all the details on railroads and Jacob Senior's obsession with them. As always, the Icelandic names can be difficult to remember and I would have preferred the author use a different name for one of the characters. The story covers a lot of ground and sometimes features unnecessary details. However, I enjoyed it for the most part and then ending came as a real surprise to me. It was written a number of years ago and I would consider reading one of the author's current books.
    • 2/5
      House of Evidence. Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson. 2012. This is not the author I thought I’d read, but that’s okay for a cheap Kindle book. It is a police procedural, set in Iceland. The police are called to a big old house to investigate a murder. They find out that the father of the murdered man was also murdered at the house in almost the same way. I read more than I ever wanted to read about railroads in Iceland! Jacob Kieler, Sr. spent is life trying to bring a rail road to Iceland and Jacob Kieler, Jr. spent his life trying to maintain his father’s legacy and a make his mansion into a museum. Chapters alternate between Senior’s diary and the murder investigation. There are some interesting twists and turns in the plot ad we get glimpses of the personalities of the investigators. I almost stopped reading it as I got sick of reading about the trains, but the characters were interesting and the ending was truly a surprise.
    • 4/5
      I downloaded this as part of Amazon’s ‘Kindle Deal of the Day’ offer because the author was born in Iceland so it would count towards my World Challenge.

      It is 1973 and Jacob Keiler Junior’s body has been discovered in the hall of his house – he had been shot, echoing the unsolved death of his father some 28 years earlier. The police and forensic teams are quickly on the scene to investigate the death. It falls to a young female detective, Hrefna, to read Keiler senior’s diaries – many volumes of them - which may provide evidence to help the team to solve the murder.

      Each chapter of the novel starts with the current investigation and ends with excerpts from the diaries – the first started in 1910, the last completed just before his death in 1945. The main theme running through the diaries is Keiler Senior’s desire to build the first railway in Iceland. I was a bit worried that it might be dry, but I didn’t find that to be the case at all.

      It took me a while to work out who was who due to the unfamiliar names, but once I’d done that I was off and enjoyed it. The closest I've come (geographically) is Swedish author Stieg Larsson! This is nothing like that though - it's a much gentler story with not much description of gore (!) but I really enjoyed the way the story built and it was such an enjoyable read. I didn’t work out whodunit, so I very much enjoyed the ending when the reveal was made!
    • 3/5
      Well constructed mystery. I also haven't read many novels set in Iceland and enjoyed the wealth of historic details.
    • 3/5
      Book Info: Genre: Murder Mystery/Police ProceduralReading Level: AdultRecommended for: people fascinated by trains, obsessionsTrigger Warnings: murder; anti-gay sentiments; violence toward “others”, especially GLBTQ folk, women and hippies, as well as Nazi violence in general during “past” timesMy Thoughts: I mostly took this book because it is set in Iceland, a country in which I am very interested, and it features forensic science, in which I'm interested. Overall it lived up to the expectations I had for it, but there were a few places, like when Hrefna is leaving to view the murder and we have a lot of superfluous descriptions of the building in which she lives. This didn't seem to have anything to do with the story, and I'm not sure why it was deemed important enough to be in there.The diary entries, while interesting, were not well separated from the rest of the text in this ARC. Hopefully the final copy will be better formatted, as it was sometimes confusing to abruptly move into the diary entries.The main thing I liked about this book was the sensitive treatment of GLBTQ folk of all sort. When talking about a transgendered woman who survived Nazi Germany, a character thought:“A woman who might have been a good mother and a good grandmother, had not a quirk of nature put her in the wrong body many years ago.... What an ordeal, to have to conduct one's life in such deception, just to be able to live in peace with someone you love. Perhaps things will change on day, and people will be able to live the way they were created.”Yeah, we're still waiting on that one...The ending will probably be unsatisfying for some, but I felt it sort of fit the whole story, which was rather unconnected and rambling at times. Not a bad book, but not one I'd necessarily heartily endorse either. If you're interested, check it out.Disclosure: I received a paperback ARC from Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.Synopsis: On a cold January morning in 1973, inside a stately old house in Reykjavik, blood pools around Jacob Kieler, Junior from a fatal gunshot wound to his chest. Detective Jóhann Pálsson, an expert in the emerging field of forensics, is called to the scene and soon discovers something more unsettling than the murder itself: the deceased's father, Jacob Kieler Senior, a railroad engineer, was shot to death in the same living room nearly thirty years earlier. The case was officially closed as a botched robbery. Pálsson soon uncovers diaries that portray Kieler Senior as an ambitious man dedicated to bringing the railroad to Iceland no matter the cost. Sensing a deeper and darker mystery afoot, the detective and his colleagues piece together through the elder Kieler's diaries a family history rich with deceit...
    • 4/5
      I'm a fan of Scandinavian crime and mystery novels and this book did not let me down. Inserting decades old journals to a current day murder was very effective and also added interesting perspectives on WWI and WWII. Good writing, although the Icelandic names of people and places can be a challenge in the early chapters. I would definitely recommend this book, especially to anyone who is a 20th century history and railroad buff.
    • 4/5
      Excellent and expansive scope mystery novel primarily set in Iceland but also Germany, England, USA. Little otherworldly flavor. Time frame from late 19th century, WWII, to the 1970's. Slow and building but thoroughly engaging.