by Katrín Júlíusdóttir (T. Quentin Bates)
SYNOPSIS
A murder is just the beginning…
When Óttar Karlsson, a wealthy and respected government official and businessman, is found murdered, after failing to turn up at his own surprise birthday party, the police are at a loss. It isn't until young police officer Sigurdís finds a well-hidden safe in his impersonal luxury apartment that clues start emerging.
As Óttar's shady business dealings become clear, a second, unexpected line of enquiry emerges, when Sigurdís finds a US phone number in the safe, along with papers showing regular money transfers to an American account. Following the trail to Minnesota, trauma rooted in Sigurdís's own childhood threatens to resurface and the investigation strikes chillingly close to home…
Atmospheric, deeply unsettling and full of breakneck twists and turns, Dead Sweet is a startling debut thriller that uncovers a terrifying world of financial crime, sinister cults and disturbing secret lives, and kicks off an addictive, mind-blowing new series.
REVIEW
I am always on the lookout for new Nordic Noir authors and in my opinion, Iceland has produced some of the top crime and thriller books in recent years. I knew that Dead Sweet had already won awards and had high hopes for this debut political thriller.
The thing that jumped out to me the most while reading this book was the stunning character development. Each and every one of the main characters featured were so well thought out, they all had very distinctive personalities and if like me you sometimes find it difficult remembering the Icelandic names, this really helps with the flow of the narrative. I didn't once have to stop and think about who was talking or who was present in the flashback scenes. I truly felt like I knew the people in this story and despite reading a lot from this sub-genre, this was something totally unique in my experience.
The second thing that I really loved was the beautiful and thoughtful writing. I don't read as many thrillers with a political element so this type of environment is less familiar to me, but I was so completely transported into this story. Quentin Bates always provides an excellent translation but there was something magical about this combination of Katrín Júlíusdóttir's original story and his flawless interpretation.
Dead Sweet is dark, atmospheric and original. It was such a gripping story and I just adored the way the two halves of the story worked together - the main investigation into the murder of Óttar Karlsson and the personal trauma Sigurdís was facing from her past. This is literally the last book I will read in 2023 and now I have to go back and recreate my top reads post I had planned to fit this in - not the worst problem to have after discovering this brilliant new author!
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Katrín Júlíusdóttir received the Blackbird Award, an Icelandic crime-writing prize, for her first novel, Dead Sweet in 2020. Her debut novel was reviewed well by critics and hit the best-seller lists in the first weeks after publication. Katrín has a political background and was a member of 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, as well as the Managing Director of a student union during her uni years. She worked from a young age in the fishing industry, as a store clerk and took night time shifts at a pizza place. She studied Anthropology and has an MBA from Reykjavík University. She was raised in Kópavogur, about 15 minutes' drive from downtown Reykjavík. She now lives in the neighbouring town of Garðabær with her family. She is married to author Bjarni M. Bjarnason, who encouraged her to start writing. They have four boys.
Quentin Bates escaped English suburbia as a teenager, jumping at the chance of a gap year working in Iceland. For a variety of reasons, the gap year stretched to become a gap decade, during which time he went native in the north of Iceland, acquiring a new language a new profession as a seaman and a family, before decamping en masse for England. He worked as a truck driver, teacher, netmaker and trawlerman at various times before falling into journalism, largely by accident. He is the author of a series of crime novels set in present-day Iceland (Frozen Out, Cold Steal, Chilled to the Bone, Winterlude, Cold Comfort and Thin Ice which have been published worldwide. He has translated all of Ragnar Jónasson’s Dark Iceland series.
Thanks to Anne Cater - @RandomTTours, Katrín Júlíusdóttir - @katrinjul, and Orenda Books - @OrendaBooks for the opportunity to read and review
Fiction: Nordic Noir / Political Thriller
Publisher: Orenda Books
ISBN: 978-1914585999
Pages: 256pp
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