Stop Dead by Katrín Júlíusdóttir #VirtualBookTour #StopDead @KatrinJul t. Larissa Kyzer @OrendaBooks @RandomTTours #IcelandMysteries

 

Thousands of runners

One killer

Icelandic detective-in-training Sigurdís is studying criminal psychology in the USA, but her plans are thrown into disarray when she discovers that her boss and mentor, Garðar, has been put on leave from Reykjavík CID as a result of his investigation into Sigurdís's father's death.

Returning to Iceland to deal with the fallout, Sigurdís finds herself pulled into a disturbing case: controversial TV personality Olga Einarsdóttir has been stabbed to death during the Reykjavík Marathon. Struggling to locate a runner wearing bib number 1407, who was seen near the murdered woman during the race, the police soon discover that several masked runners were wearing the same number.

As the mystery deepens, Sigurdís and her fellow detective Unnar soon learn exactly how unpopular Olga was – not just with the interviewees she humiliated on live TV, but with her own son, her business partner, a widower who insists that she had a hand in his wife's death, and her ex-husband, who died in suspicious circumstances thirty years ago…

As her exploration into Olga's past becomes ever darker and more harrowing, Sigurdís must also face the truth about her own father, while searching for an attacker who will go to any lengths to cover up their crimes…

Stop Dead by Katrín Júlíusdóttir was published on 21 May 2026, it is the second in the Iceland Mysteries series and is translated by Larissa Kyzer. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this Virtual Book Tour 

I thoroughly enjoyed Dead Sweet, the first in this series, but I can honestly say that Stop Dead is even better.

Katrín Júlíusdóttir has once again delivered a compelling blend of police procedural, psychological suspense and deeply personal drama, she has created a novel that is both gripping and emotional. From its fabulous opening; the murder of a controversial television personality during the Reykjavík Marathon, the story immediately captures the reader's attention and never lets go.

Detective-in-training Sigurdís returns to Iceland from the United States after learning that the investigation into her father's death has been dropped. While she finds herself dealing with the fallout from that decision, she is quickly drawn into a complex murder investigation that becomes increasingly intricate as it unfolds. The victim, Olga Einarsdóttir, leaves behind a trail of damaged relationships, hidden resentments and long-buried secrets, giving the investigation numerous trails to explore.

I love the characterisation in this series. Sigurdís is developing into a fascinating protagonist. Her personal struggles and determination add real depth to the story, while the dynamics between the members of the CID team bring warmth and a realistic feel to the narrative. The author excels at weaving the personal and professional elements together so seamlessly that they really enhance each other. 

The Icelandic setting is fabulously depicted throughout the story. The atmosphere is often dark and unsettling, and is perfectly suited to the twists and turns of the investigation, while the marathon backdrop is an original setting for the mystery. 

Special mention must also go to translator Larissa Kyzer. Her translation flows beautifully, preserving both the tension and emotion of the story and the narrative feels completely natural in English.

Intelligent, immersive and expertly plotted, Stop Dead is a superb second instalment in what is now one of my favourite Nordic Noir series. Existing fans will be delighted to be reunited with Sigurdís, while newcomers have a terrific series waiting to be discovered. I cannot wait to see where Katrín Júlíusdóttir takes these characters next.

Highly recommended.

Katrín Júlíusdóttir has a political background and was a member of the Icelandic
parliament from 2003 until 2016. 

Before she was elected to parliament, Katrín was an advisor and project manager at a tech company and a senior buyer and CEO in the retail sector. 

She worked from a young age in the fishing industry, was a store clerk and also worked the night shift at a pizza restaurant. 

She studied anthropology and has an MBA from Reykjavík University. 

Katrin's debut novel, Dead Sweet, was published in English in 2023, and longlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize. 

She is married to critically acclaimed author Bjarni M. Bjarnason, who encouraged her to start writing. 

They have four boys and live in Garðabær.

Love's Labour by Stephen Grosz #VirtualBookTour #LovesLabour @stephengrosz @vintagebooks @randomthingstours #BookReview

 

Change the way you think about love.

When it comes to relationships, why do we find things so difficult? Drawing on more than forty years of candid and surprising conversations with his patients, psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz shows us how we can be better at love.

In the intimate space of the consulting room, we meet the woman who can’t post her wedding invitations but then, decades later, can’t decide whether to get divorced; the ex-nun whose unconscious fear of pregnancy drove her into the convent; and the friendship group that explodes when an adulterous affair begins. Compelling, revealing and full of wisdom, Love’s Labour shows us that only when we see ourselves and our world clearly are we truly ready to love one another.

Love's Labour by Stephen Grosz was published in paperback on 28 May 2026 by Vintage. Thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this #RandomThingsTours Virtual Book Tour. 

Stephen Grosz’s Love’s Labour is a well writing and fascinating exploration of the complexities of human relationships. The author uses his more than forty years of psychoanalytic practice, and it feels as though the reader has been invited into his consulting room.

Through a series of  case studies, the author examines why relationships can be so difficult to navigate. These vary and include a woman unable to send her wedding invitations, an ex-nun confronting unconscious fears, or friendships fractured by betrayal, each of the stories highlights the hidden emotional forces that shape our decisions. 

The writing is elegant, and full of compassion. The author depicts his patients with humanity, never reducing them to diagnoses or simple explanations. Instead, he demonstrates how self-awareness develops gradually, often through the careful examination of memories, emotions, and recurring behaviours. Reading about how these connections start to emerge in each person is fascinating and often moving.

The book explores themes of attachment, loss, sexuality, family dynamics, and the search for intimacy with such insight. 

At its heart, the book suggests that genuine love requires honesty; both with ourselves and with others. The author's stories linger long after the final page. Wise, compassionate, and deeply perceptive, Love’s Labour offers a fresh perspective on why we love as we do and how greater self-understanding can transform our relationships. Recommended 

Stephen Grosz is a practicing psychoanalyst - he has worked with patients for more than
forty years. 

Born in America, he was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, and at Oxford University, and now lives in London. 

His Number One Sunday Times bestseller, The Examined Life,has been translated into more than thirty languages.

The Wrong Son by Neil Griffiths #VirtualBookTour #thewrongson @neil_mac_griff @weatherglassbooks @randomthingstours #memoir #bookreview

 

The Wrong Son is a memoir of emotional precision — a searching, unsparing account of what it means to come into being in the absence of love. In 1963, a young husband loses his pregnant wife and eighteen-month-old son in a car accident. Six months later, he meets a woman who abandons her own husband and child for him — a man who seems to her everything she has ever wanted.

Within two years, a boy is born into this family of grief and guilt, into a house already filled with ghosts, where neither parent can see him clearly through what each has lost.

His mother demands perfection. His father, meanwhile, decides early on that this child exists only because the first one died — and cannot forgive him for it. Moulded by his mother, rejected by his father, he is given no space in which to become himself.

Throughout his life, no matter how much he tries to invent himself, he is driven by the fear that nothing real exists underneath. Fifty years on, after his parents’ deaths, that fear begins to unmoor him.

He turns to the work of psychoanalysts who were pioneers of early childhood psychology around the time he was born.

Drawing on the insights of D.W. Winnicott and Jacques Lacan, The Wrong Son traces a life shaped not only by loss and violence, but by psychic damage that may never fully be shaken off.

With forensic clarity and unexpected humour, The Wrong Son is a quietly devastating work: deeply human, psychologically attuned, and unafraid to stay with what cannot be resolved.

The Wrong Son : A Memoir by Neil Griffiths was published on 29 May 2026 by Weatherglass Books. My thanks to the author who sent my copy for review as part of this #RandomThingsTours Virtual Book Tour 

Neil Griffiths’ The Wrong Son is a beautifully written memoir that quietly works its way under your skin and stays there long after you've turned the final page.

This memoir tells the story of a man born into a family that had lots of tragedy. Before Neil arrived, his father had lost his first wife and young son in a devastating car accident. His mother  had left her own husband and child to begin a new life. What followed was a childhood shaped by grief, expectation and emotional absence, leaving Neil feeling as though he was not really part of this family. 

The honesty of the writing is stunning.  The author doesn't set out to blame anyone of to look for sympathy. He examines his life with such clarity, trying to understand how the experiences of his earliest years shaped the person he became. Whilst there is pain, there is also insight, reflection and thankfully, some humour. 

The sections exploring the work of psychoanalysts such as Winnicott and Lacan could easily have felt heavy and dull,  yet they are woven naturally into the narrative. Rather than interrupting the story, they help the reader to understand his search for understanding and identity. His reflections on childhood, family dynamics and the darkness caused by unresolved grief are fascinating and often so moving.

Neil Griffiths realises the complexity of his parents and sees their own wounds and limitations while remaining honest about the impact they had on him. 

Although some passages are difficult to read because of the emotional neglect and rejection he experienced, this is really not a bleak book. There is such resilience, and a determination to make sense of a life that has often felt fragmented.

Thoughtful, intelligent and deeply human, The Wrong Son is a memoir that really makes you ponder. It left me thinking about how families shape us, how childhood experiences linger, and how difficult, but important, it can be to face the truths we would rather avoid. Highly recommended. 

Neil Griffiths is a novelist, publisher and founder of the literary prize, The Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses, now the Queen Mary Small Press Fiction Prize. 

His first novel, Betrayal in Naples was winner of the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award, Saving Caravaggio was short-listed for the Costa Best Novel Award 2007, his last novel is the critically acclaimed As a God Might Be.

Under the Blazing Sun by Jenny Lund Madsen @jennylundmadsen @orendabooks t. @paulrussellgarrett #undertheblazingsun #nordicnoir #murderbythebook

 

Hannah is miserable. Her love life is in ruins, her contract demands a sequel to her bestselling crime debut – and she's out of ideas. After a mortifying TV interview, her agent ships her off to a sun-drenched Sicilian villa with a simple order: finish the book. No distractions. No excuses.

But inspiration doesn't strike – murder does.

When a night out ends in murder, Hannah finds herself at the centre of a murder investigation … again. The police want her out of the way, and the only person who seems to believe her is a young but charming Italian police officer. That is, until she doesn't.

Soon Hannah is chasing suspects, fleeing crime scenes, and doing whatever it takes to avoid becoming the next victim. She came to write a crime novel. Now she's trapped inside one.

Dark, sly and deliciously atmospheric, Under the Blazing Sun is the second novel in the award-winning series featuring accidental sleuth and disgruntled literary author Hannah, whose pursuit of plot twists keeps turning dangerously real.

Under the Blazing Sun by Jenny Lund Madsen - translated by Paul Russell Garrett was published on 21 May 2026 by Orenda Books and is the second of the Murder By The Book series. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this Virtual Book Tour 

I read and reviewed the first book in this series; Thirty Days of Darkness in June 2023

I loved that book and have been eager to return to see what crazy things our protagonist, Hannah has been up to. 

The novel reunites us with the wonderfully cantankerous Hannah Krause-Bendix, a crime writer who has once again been dispatched by her long-suffering editor to focus on writing a bestseller. This time, however, Sicily's sunshine, excellent wine and tempting cuisine prove far more appealing than sitting in front of a laptop.

When Hannah finds herself caught up in the brutal death of Greta Tauson, a wealthy Swedish woman who had only recently welcomed her into her home, she quickly becomes a person of interest. Unwilling to leave the investigation to the police, and even less willing to remain under suspicion,  Hannah launches her own inquiry, dragging readers along on a thoroughly entertaining and often outrageous adventure.

What makes this series such a delight is Hannah herself. She's blunt, judgemental, stubborn and frequently exasperating, and I absolutely bloody adore her! She is so sharp and funny about the people that she comes across!  I also found her endless determination to avoid actually writing her book quite relatable, procrastination is my middle name! 

The return of fellow crime writer and egomaniac Jørn Jensen was a great touch and adds another layer of comedy. Their friendship/rivalry is one of my highlights of the novel, with their funny yet strangle tender exchanges that made me smile. 

Yes, you'll need to suspend disbelief at times. There are improbable twists, dramatic confrontations and enough coincidences to make even Hannah raise an eyebrow. But the author cleverly acknowledges the absurdity, playfully poking fun at crime fiction tropes while also embracing them wholeheartedly. The result is a fast-paced  mystery that never takes itself too seriously.

Warm, witty and hugely entertaining, Under the Blazing Sun is a clever crime novel that reminds us that reality can be far stranger and far more fun than fiction. Highly recommended. 

Jenny Lund Madsen is one of Denmark’s most acclaimed screenwriters, known for
international hits such as Rita and Follow the Money, as well as for her advocacy for better representation of sexual and ethnic minorities in Danish TV and film. 

She recently made her debut as a playwright with the critically acclaimed Audition (Aarhus Teater).

Her debut literary thriller, Thirty Days of Darkness―the first in an addictive new series―won the Harald Mogensen Prize for Best Danish Crime Novel of the Year and was shortlisted for the prestigious Glass Key Award. 

She lives in Denmark with her young family.