What does a woman do when her husband's charged with the frenzied killing of her father and her best friend?
She calls in Stella Blómkvist to investigate - however unwelcome the truth could turn out to be.
Smart, ruthless and with a flexible moral code all of her own, razor-tongued lawyer Stella Blómkvist is also dealing with a desperate deathbed request to track down a young woman who vanished a decade ago.
It looks like a dead end, but she agrees to pick up the stone-cold trail - and she never gives up, even if the police did a long time ago.
Then there's the mystery behind the arm that emerges from an ice cap, with a mysterious ruby ring on one frozen finger?
How does this connect to another unexplained disappearance, and why were the police at the time so keen to write it off as a tragic accident?
Brutal present-day crimes have their roots in the past that some people would prefer to stay forgotten.
As Stella pieces together the fragments, is she getting too close to the truth and making herself a target for ruthless men determined to conceal secret sins?
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Murder Under The Midnight Sun by Stella Blómkvist is published by Corylus Books on 3 May 2024 and is translated by Quentin Bates. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this blog tour.
I read and reviewed Murder At The Residence; the first of the Stella Blómkvist series that Corylus published last year and really enjoyed it. I was so pleased to find that there are more and eagerly dived into this second book.
Just like the first book, this is short novel of just over 200 pages. However the author manages to include so much into it. It's a fast paced thriller, filled with mystery and unexpected turns and led by the wonder that is Reykjavik lawyer Stella. Blómkvist is both the author and the lead character in this series which is told in the first person in her unique, often funny voice.
For a very small country, Iceland certainly has its share of crimes; murder, strange unsolved disappearances and a lot of political corruption and intrigue. Stella comes across all of these in this novel. She is asked to look into the disappearance of young British woman who was travelling by motorbike through Iceland nine years ago. Julia MacKenzie went missing, neither her body or her motorbike were ever found. The police investigation came to nothing. Her mother is dying from terminal cancer and it is her last wish to find out what happened to her daughter and Stella takes on the case.
She also becomes involved in helping her reporter friend who is being threatened with legal action regarding claims he's made on his blog. Whilst at first, this appears to be pretty straightforward, this case takes a sinister turn and Stella is soon investigating murder.
Add the fact that Stella stumbled upon a frozen severed arm, with a distinctive ring on one of the fingers after having an accident on an ice cap and there's certainly plenty to keep the reader entertained, and to keep Stella busy.
Stella is a one-of-a-kind character, she likes a drink or two, she's a master of the art of seduction, with few worries about her conquest's status. If she fancies them, then they are fair game! She's also a devoted and loving mother to her small daughter, and she carries so much baggage connected to her own parents. It's a heady mix and makes Stella a totally fascinating character for sure.
Expertly translated from Icelandic by Quentin Bates, this is another gripping chapter in the Stella Blómkvist series. The true identity of the author has never been revealed and I'm beginning to think that it may be a male author, although I'm happy to be proved wrong if we ever find out.
Quirky, unusual and packed with thrills in a excellently described setting. Highly recommended.
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the 1990s and has attracted an international audience since the TV series starring Heiða Reed aired.
The books have been published under a pseudonym that still hasn’t been cracked. The question of Stella Blómkvist’s identity is one that crops up regularly, but it looks like it’s going to remain a mystery…
He is an author of series of nine crime novels and novellas featuring the Reykjavik detective Gunnhildur (Gunna) Gísladóttir.
In addition to his own fiction, he has translated many works of Iceland’s coolest writers into English, including books by Lilja Sigurðardóttir, Guðlaugur Arason, Einar Kárason, Óskar Guðmundsson, Sólveig Pálsdóttir, Jónína Leosdottir and Ragnar Jónasson.
Quentin was instrumental in launching Iceland Noir in 2013, the crime fiction festival in Reykjavik.
Twitter: @CorylusB @graskeggur
https://www.facebook.com/CorylusBooks
https://www.facebook.com/graskeggur
https://www.facebook.com/stella.blomkvist
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