The quick : A woman swims in a remote, milky-blue lagoon. Steam rises from the water and as it clears, a body is revealed in the ghostly light. The dead : Miles away, a vast aircraft hangar rises behind the perimeter fence of the US military base. A sickening thud is heard as a man's body falls from a high platform. The forgotton : Many years before, a schoolgirl went missing. The world has forgotten her. But Erlendur has not. The searcher : Erlendur Sveinsson is a newly promoted detective with a battered body, a rogue CIA operative and America's troublesome presence in Iceland to contend with. In his spare time he investigates a cold case. He is only starting out but he is already up to his neck.