House of Evidence
Contents:
As most clinicians know, the reasons that patients recover from illness are complex and synergistic, and many cannot simply be isolated in controlled environments.
This is a novel, not a technical manual on forensic methodology. This fusion of present and past is what makes this book special. Mar 25, Naomi rated it it was ok. In fact, I even learned a little about European politics in the s, even though I grew up and spent most of my young adulthood in Europe. One person found this helpful. Kelner M, Wellman B.
The best evidence under these circumstances may be observational data from clinical practice that can estimate the likelihood of a patient's recovery in a realistic context. This personal experience of illness might be captured only through qualitative research, not using questionnaires or results of blood tests. The discovery that St John's wort can reduce blood levels of immunosuppressive drugs, for example, is the most crucial evidence when making decisions about its use in patients taking immunosuppressive medications.
The rooms on the left side of the house contain types of information that seek out causal attributions and mechanisms of action. One such room is for laboratory research, which forms a foundation of understanding of mechanisms and causal links on which controlled clinical research can build.
In the case of homeopathy or prayer, for example, randomized controlled trial data seem to point us in an illogical direction, eg, that pills with no active ingredients have specific effects. If confined to the left side of the evidence house, however, physicians will never obtain information about the relevance of medicine for patients, what happens in the actual world of clinical practice, or the generalizability of an intervention in our health care delivery system. Information about relevance and utility of practice, both proven and unproven, is available in rooms on the right side of the house.
The evidence house has something for everyone. Regulatory agencies and those interested in the approval of new treatments are most interested in the rooms on the left side. They want data from randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews rather than findings from observational research, yet the need for alternative approaches to treatment is evident. Health care practitioners often want to know the anticipated effects of an intervention in the clinical practice setting.
Those paying for care are generally more interested in health services research. Patients are intensely interested in stories and detailed descriptions of cases similar to their own. If resources are disproportionately invested in certain rooms of the house to the neglect of others, it is not possible to obtain the evidence needed for full public participation in clinical decisions. A livable house should not have an elaborate kitchen and no bathroom.
Each has different functions and all need to be high quality. Complementary and alternative medicine helps us think about who will live in the evidence house and how it should be constructed. The public is the architect, driving the interest in complementary medicine. They seek holistic and preventive care, safer treatments for chronic illness, and more participation in health care decisions. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Journal List West J Med v. May 20, Barbara rated it liked it Shelves: There was an interesting family story about a now-deceased ancestor obsessed with building a railroad in Iceland.
This family and a current and past murder are at the center of the story. Monarchists and Nazis figure into the story, as well as family secrets. Jan 09, Ken Fredette rated it really liked it. Was a lot of back reading. Jul 26, Doreen rated it it was ok Shelves: His father, a prominent engineer obsessed with building a national railroad, had been killed in the same way in the same spot almost 30 years earlier.
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The story focuses on the police investigation, giving the perspectives of various members of the investigative team, and Jacob Sr. The police set out to find the connection between the two deaths. The book is very slow-paced. Not only does the investigation proceed slowly, but the diary entries included at the end of each chapter slow things down even further.
The diary entries reveal Jacob Sr. The constant rambling on and on about trains becomes tedious.
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Is there anything less interesting than journal entries that read like this: The gauge is 90 cm. I am looking forward to learning about locomotives powered by electricity. The professor says that such a train was first demonstrated here in the city in , and the first extensive electric railroad, between Bitterfeld and Dessau, was open in 15 kV, An engine that Rudolf Diesel had completed before his death last year is also thought to be very promising. Weighed myself, I am 73 kilos. There is a lot of unnecessary information given outside the journal entries as well. The author feels he has to explain the technology used by the investigators.
The trick was to use the right powder for the circumstances. It must not cling to the surface bearing the fingerprint, and it must be the correct color: Different methods were applied depending on whether the fingerprints were old or recent. This powder was designed to show up on only recent prints, those containing grease and moisture, and not old prints, which consist mainly of salts. This is a novel, not a technical manual on forensic methodology.
There is little character development. Egill, incompetent and aggressive, is a stereotypical bad cop. Hrefna, the only woman on the police team, has the most potential as a round character but there is insufficient focus on her. Why include the death of a very minor character instead of developing the main characters? The ending is very dramatic with several major surprises.
The solution to the mystery surrounding the deaths of father and son is a bit far-fetched; it made me think of something one would find in a Sherlock Holmes mystery. The storyline has potential, but was clumsily executed. A good editor would have tightened the plot and insisted on more character development. Though I tend to like Icelandic mysteries, this one was a disappointment. Please check out my reader's blog https: Sep 26, R. Conary rated it really liked it. Snow quietly blankets Reykjavik. A man quietly dies in his home of a gunshot wound.
Police detectives quietly rise and go to work. The investigating Detective Division team soon discovers that the victim's father was killed similarly--a crime never solved--in the same room with the same gun nearly 30 years earlier suggesting the same killer and possibly the same motive. It becomes necessary to solve one in order to solve the other. The author plays fair. As one detective finds a bit of data and wonders how it fits the puzzle, another finds a corresponding piece. So by following each detective, the reader sees connections and can thereby deduce clues, put two-and-two together, or formulate probable outcomes often before the detectives can share their info.
And there are clues aplenty within the main investigation, the father's diaries, as well as the detectives' attitudes, biases and prejudices. Which, for me, made for a delightfully entertaining read. As I said, this is a quiet tale. Jun 10, Lora rated it really liked it Shelves: Both the family history and the mystery itself are interesting and memorable.
The story includes characters from both the past and the present. The family history is intertwined with developments in Europe WW1 through WW2 and is gradually revealed in the form of diary entries at the end of each chapter and through police work. Some of the history is moving, bu "That family will stick in our minds for some time, I imagine," concluded one of the detectives in the book, and I'm inclined to agree!
Some of the history is moving, but of course I don't want to share any spoilers. The mystery itself is also engaging. There are a lot of false leads, so the detectives and the readers are kept guessing. Btw, when you finish the book, be sure to read the author's note, which explains a comment in the last chapter.
The diary entries include a few scattered words in German or Nordic languages. The diarist would of course understand what he wrote in the languages of the countries he visited, but readers who are not language-savvy might not enjoy this. Aug 06, Christian rated it it was amazing.
The story is very fascinating, a police procedural with a historical backdrop through diary entries lasting from until The story itself concerns a man being found shot in his house, however it turns out his father was also killed in the same room of the same house years earlier, by the same method. What unfolds then is the police trying to solve the mystery, interspersed with diary entries from Jul 21, Jimena rated it liked it. It took me a long time to read this book and I have to say the end was a little abrupt and surprising.
The book is a good story and well put together, nicely paced in a good sequence of events with interesting characters. Very sad story and at times it was a somber ambiance felt by the narrative. This is not a suspense crime thriller, just letting you know. Told in two viewpoints - one from diaries in the very early s, one from the books current time period of the s. I do have some trouble keeping up when the books are originally from foreign countries; for instance this one is based in Iceland. Other than that, the cities and peoples' names can be figured out. Aug 16, Syd rated it it was ok.
Look, this was boring as hell. The author's tone was so far removed from the subjects and the plot of the book. This book reads like a fleshed out crime report. Jul 05, Raj Nalekar rated it really liked it. Only if the end wouldn't have turned out to be a damp squib. But still a good one to keep you engrossed. Sep 05, Mary Ahlgren rated it really liked it. I really enjoy reading books that give me a different perspective on a country and its place in history.
I almost gave up on it when I was about half way through. Really glad I did not, much better than it looked for a while. Would like to read more from this author. Really interesting, now in we are still talking about the possibility of bringing railroads to Iceland.
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- References.
One part of the story is about a person really obsessed with this idea, much sooner. Sep 21, wally rated it liked it Shelves: May 14, Emma rated it liked it Shelves: Set in Reykjavik in , police are called to the scene of a murder. Jacob Kieler Junior has been found shot dead by his housekeeper. There are no signs of a break-in and no motive — at least initially. The added twist is that Jacob Kieler Senior was also murdered, shot almost 30 years previously with the same gun.
Although police had a suspect at the time, no one was ever charged and the suspect is long dead. His son is not however and becomes a prime suspect. I found this book an easy read but Set in Reykjavik in , police are called to the scene of a murder. The twist at the end was good but it seemed to come out of nowhere so I felt a bit cheated. That said, it was well written, with some really nice turns of phrase and descriptive passages. I also learnt a little bit about Iceland — I admit to knowing nothing before this book other than friends went there for a long weekend and loved it so much they stayed a week.
Most interesting — and a central theme of the book — is that they have never had a public rail system. Doing a bit more reading about the country is now on my to-do list. Aug 05, Danyel rated it really liked it Shelves: This is so much more what I was looking for from this author when I picked up his more recent novel, Daybreak.
This novel, set in the early 's, includes long excerpts from a series of fictitious diaries from the late twenties through WWII. I learned more of the rough history of Iceland, including the vote to become a republic instead of a kingdom, in the course of this one mystery novel than I managed to piece together from seventeen years in the American public school and university system. Iceland has always been a vague place to me, warped on the maps of my childhood into a large, strange island shrouded in snow, misinformation, and Bjork's music.
This novel shows a small group of Icelandic people living their lives and investigating not one murder but two along the way. At one point I reacted a little roughly to a strain of homophobia that ran through the novel, but rest assured, that is the opinion of a few individual characters, not of the novel or the novelist and provides an interesting depth to the story. These characters are real people.
They have opinions, they make mistakes -- some of them unforgivable -- and they live their lives. The mystery is interesting; the look at Iceland in the seventies and a further look into Iceland leading into WWII is invaluable to an ethnocentric American such as myself. There is another book available in translation from this author -- I'm headed out to secure it now. Feb 04, Joy rated it it was ok Shelves: I was drawn into the cold and snowy world of Iceland, and then led down a rabbit hole I hoped had an ending.
The plot was straightforward enough…a father and son were both murdered in the same room of the same house, over 30 years apart. But the deeper the mystery unfolded, the less I cared. Th "After everything else, it was simply their own obsessions that killed them," [p. The father's storyline was told through flashback diary entries, detailing his obsession to build Iceland's first national railroad.
It defined everything he did, every decision he made, and when it never came to be, it was his undoing. And his own son, growing up in the shadow of a man he never really understood, lives to create a legacy for his family that will stand for generations. His obsession drives him to the breaking point as well. For a country I long to visit one day, this novel did nothing to inspire me to go. Here's hoping that the real Iceland is better than Viktor Ingolfsson's account. Jan 03, Rebecca Martin rated it it was amazing Shelves: This book started a little slowly and I had trouble remembering names and following the moves back and forth in time, BUT I soon got the hang of it and became totally engrossed in this novel.
This might not be everyone's cup of tea, especially if you allow yourself to become too distracted by the discussions of railroads and rail engineering in the book. There's a lot of it, but it is very relevant to the plot and to what we finally come to understand about the people and politics involved. The This book started a little slowly and I had trouble remembering names and following the moves back and forth in time, BUT I soon got the hang of it and became totally engrossed in this novel.
The plot is developed in a truly masterful way and many of the characters in part through the use of a diary kept by one of them over decades are drawn in the kind of detail that makes them memorable and makes you care about them.
House of Evidence by Viktor Arnar Ingólfsson
There are a couple of characters in the book who are so focused on their personal ideas about making a positive impact in the world that they develop obsessions that we only slowly realize are very harmful and not just to the individuals involved. They become people who can't see the encroaching, evil forest for the small trees they are shaping and tending obsessively. Anyway, it's an interesting portrait of the relationship between Iceland, Denmark and Germany and a bit of England and the impact of twentieth-century wars and politics on that relationship and on people whose sharply focused attention would be admirable Feb 18, Angelika rated it really liked it Shelves: The plot unfolds in two separate ways: First of all there is the current case, in which an engineer is found shot in his parlour and the police investigates about this murder, all, as it is common in the scandinavian crime literature, well embedded in the distinct detectives' personal lifes.
By this the reader gets to know both, the victim's family as well as those of the detectives, better. At the end of each chapter some quotes from "House of Evidence" is a very ouststanding and unusual novel. At the end of each chapter some quotes from the victim's father's diary are being cited from a period in the family history, which lies far back in the past and mostly deals with the writer's futile effords to build up a railway through Island. That's the second storyline in this book. Step by step the tension is increased until it almost gets unbearable.
This fusion of present and past is what makes this book special. Well, I am not in the least interested in lokomotives or steam engines, but the fact, that the diary entries mainly deal with just this subject did not bother me at all, because they were so closely connected to the mysterious murder case. The solution in the end seemed a bit far fetched, but remained untold and unpredictable almost up to the last page.
I want to read more of this author, that's for sure! Ich bin mit dem Buch bis fast zum Schluss nicht recht warm geworden. Auch die Figuren selbst - in Vergangenhei Ich bin mit dem Buch bis fast zum Schluss nicht recht warm geworden. Auch die Figuren selbst - in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart - brauchten lange, bis ich sie soweit kennengelernt hatte, um einen inneren Bezug zu ihnen aufzubauen.