It's not quite of the Mankell class, (then, what is), but Jar City (the title does become clear), is a very good crime novel indeed. It seems clear to me that, right now, the place to look for excellent crime fiction is Europe, for several reasons. One is simply the sense of freshness there is to it all, and the insight into other cultures. Another is the fact that almost all fiction from the continent (or Iceland!) is notably free of clichés of any sort; at least clichés that are held in the English crime writing world. Again, that's all true of this excellent novel, which centres around the investigation into the murder of an elderly man in his Reykjavik flat. He had almost no friends (one of them is in prison, the other disappeared 25 years ago), and he himself was accused of rape many years ago, though the case was dismissed due to a lack of evidence. Although he was guilty. The only clues that the investigators find are a photograph of a young girl's grave, and a cryptic note left by the killer...