Arnuldur Indridason’s Lone Wolf Creation Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson
A longtime director with UBS, Timothy “Tim” Shields has guided diverse aspects of corporate activities, including setting up business-process outsourcing. Apart from his duties at UBS, Tim Shields is a fan of Scandinavian crime fiction authors such as Henning Mankell and Arnuldur Indridason. The latter novelist’s Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson is one of Iceland’s best-known literary exports. A brilliant detective, Erlendur also has a brooding, anti-social personality due to the loss of his younger brother in a winter storm. Haunted by this childhood memory, he returns again and again to the rugged landscape of his youth, searching for the body of his brother. Erlendur is also chased by more recent demons, such as a failed marriage, and displays a persistent indifference to his children. His errant family members come to the forefront as the series progresses. Erlendur gradually comes to terms with the original boyhood tragedy as well. One of the enduring elements of the series is the way Indridason portrays diverse investigations that explore various facets of Icelandic culture, from corporate malfeasance to immigration and racism.