Detective Erlendur encounters memories of his
troubled past in this gripping and award-winning
continuation of the "Reykjavik Murder
Mysteries". At a grand Reykjavik hotel the
doorman has been repeatedly stabbed in the dingy
basement room he called home. It is only a few
days before Christmas and he was preparing to
appear as Santa Claus at a children's party. The
manager tries to keep the murder under wraps. A
glum detective taking up residence in his hotel
and an intrusive murder investigation are not
what he needs. As Erlendur quietly surveys the
cast of grotesques who populate the hotel, the
web of malice, greed and corruption that lies
beneath its surface reveals itself. Everyone has
something to hide. But most shocking is the
childhood secret of the dead man who, many years
before, was the most famous child singer in the
country: it turns out to be a brush with stardom
which would ultimately cost him everything.