Arctic Chill, By Arnaldur Indridason

Set in a suburb of Reyjavìk, Indridason's latest thriller – in common with many recent Nordic crime stories - explores the darker side of multi-cultural western Europe. When a 10-year-old boy of mixed Icelandic and Thai parentage is found stabbed and frozen to the ground in a pool of his own blood, Detective Erlendur suspects a racial attack.

His characteristic gloom deepens with news of a suspected suicide, and fresh reports of a paedophile on the loose. Inter-racial tensions are nothing compared to the inter-office friction between Erlendur and stony sidekick, Sigurdur Oli, in this highly believable mystery, seamlessly translated by the late Bernard Scudder and Victoria Cribb.