Al-Dhulal neighborhood

The events of the novel "Hayy al-Dhulal" take place in a mysterious crime world and trace the footsteps of two criminals separated by seventy years. The time spans from 1944 during World War II until 2013. The location is "Hayy al-Dhulal" in Reykjavik (Iceland). Detective Conrad, the hero of Arnaldur Indriðason's novels, must uncover the missing link between the two crimes. The past in Reykjavik during World War II involves the discovery of a young woman's body strangled in a dangerous area called "Hayy al-Dhulal." An Icelandic detective, assisted by a member of the American military police, tracks a brutal killer. The present reveals the discovery of an elderly man in his nineties dead in his bed, strangled with his pillow. Retired detective Conrad, who has been feeling bored lately, finds old newspaper clippings in the man's house talking about the murder in Hayy al-Dhulal. It is a crime Conrad remembers because he grew up in the same neighborhood. The missing link: why did an old murder re-emerge after all this time? Did the police arrest the wrong man? What is the connection between those two crimes separated by time? Will Conrad's connection to the past help him solve the case and finally achieve justice?