A new novel by Icelandic writer Stella Blómkvist always promises multiple levels of intrigue, not least the question of who Stella actually is. Writing over a dozen novels in Icelandic, the identity of the author behind the pseudonym remains an enigma. In her second book to be translated into English, Murder Under the Midnight Sun, we learn more about Stella herself but who she is still remains one unsolved case.
A young British woman goes missing while touring Iceland on her motorbike; the police just writing it off as another case of a tourist coming to grief in the wild Icelandic hinterland. A decade later, a woman employs lawyer Stella Blómkvist to represent her husband, charged with the brutal murder of her father and best friend. Do the cases have more in common than just Stella’s involvement?
As with the previous English translation, Murder at the Residence, this book is delivered in the first-person narrative. Therein lies the first question, are we reading a serialised autobiography of the feisty lawyer?
Whatever the roots of the tale, it is told in a gripping fashion. There’s no long set-up or exposition here, Stella delves deep into the murky underworld of Icelandic crime. This isn’t a tale afraid to move beyond the picture-perfect postcards of Icelandic life and landscape – there’s corruption, deceit, and brutality at play and Blómkvist doesn’t pull her punches.
That Icelandic landscape nearly derails Blómkvist – a snowmobile accident casting her deep into a crevice on the Snæfellsnes ice cap. It turns out to be a fortuitous accident, however, as Blómkvist finds a grisly clue that opens up yet another unsolved mystery.
Murder Under the Midnight Sun doesn’t only delve deep into these unsolved crimes; along the way we also dig into Blómkvist herself, learning more about family relationships, her complex love life, and the parentage of her child. Writer credentials aside, Blómkvist is something of an enigma, a lover of her Jack Daniels – her ‘Tennessee nectar’ and at times a predatory lover. There’s something strangely alienating about her that makes the reader admire her results, if not her motives.
Murder Under the Midnight Sun is a complex tale that sees Blómkvist weave multiple story arcs together well. The ending does seem slightly rushed given the complexity of the piece and some of the loose ends are tied up a bit too conveniently and quickly but it’s a satisfying read that keeps the reader turning the page to find out the next plot-wise. Quentin Bate’s translation aids that fast-paced feeling, giving his now nine-year-old novel a fresh, contemporary feel.
By the end of Murder Under the Midnight Sun we still may not know who is behind the pseudonym, but we do know a bit more about this enigma of Icelandic crime and a yearning to read more of her (assuming Stella is actually a “her”) books in English.
Murder Under the Midnight Sun by Stella Blómkvist, translated by Quentin Bates, is published by Corylus Books on May 3.
