Written in the tradition of Umberto Eco and Manuel Puig, The Pagan Wall is a first novel by a master storyteller. What appears on the surface as a murder mystery set in Alsatia and the Rhineland, involving international arms dealers, dangerous liaisons, and every other known mystery novel archetype, The Pagan Wall unfolds into layer upon layer of meanings, reversals, historical shifts, philosophical conundrums and linguistic puzzles. Filled with police inspectors quoting Lacan, the appearance of Martin Heidegger as a character, and whole passages of translated epistemology woven into the dialogue, Arnason’s narrative disguises are so seamlessly accomplished that all readers, whether ardent mystery genre fans or exotic deconstructionists, will believe this story to be specifically written for them.