Stop Dead
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
by Katrín Júlíusdóttir (T. Larissa Kyzer)
SYNOPSIS
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…
REVIEW
Stop Dead is Book 2 in the Iceland Mysteries series and what I love about these two books is that they are solid Icelandic police procedurals, exactly what you would want and expect from this type of novel, but the author has found a way of keeping them fresh and unique. I think it's Sigurdís that makes this series stand out because she is a young, obviously intelligent detective, but she thinks outside of the box. She's not reckless and doesn't do anything that intentionally goes against her superiors, but she has relationships with her colleagues which mean that they trust her judgement - even though these relationships get close to crossing the line - she knows what she's capable of and she gets the job done. This is especially surprising when you learn that, as with most Nordic Noir police procedurals, she has her own demons - a family history that would either make you or break you - and Sigurdís has used her trauma to fight for good.
The investigation in Stop Dead is an interesting one - a woman is found murdered after a marathon event has taken place. With bad weather and large groups of runners, her body wasn't discovered until a while later and even then, it was assumed she had died as a result of the race. When it is finally recognised as foul play, Sigurdís, (who had only recently returned from her studies in the US) finds herself back on the team and hunting the murderer. Footage from the race leads to a discovery that several people ran wearing the same race number as a way to cause confusion. As this seems like a premeditated and thorough attack, the team start to look back at the victim's life to try and work out what she could have done to end up as the target of such a violent murder.
I always enjoy it when a victim isn't particularly endearing, in this case Olga is certainly not, because this allows you to really focus in on the investigation, how the police decide to play it and the various different paths the case takes them on. With this book it also gave more scope to look at Sigurdís and the situation regarding her father's death - the focus is as equally on her as it is the victim and the layering of the various strands of this story is a particular strength. Altogether, this book had everything I hoped it would - it's beautifully written, there is a harrowing backstory to uncover, a fantastic detective who you can get behind, the perfect bleak Icelandic atmosphere and the darkness that you can only truly find in Scandinavian Crime Fiction.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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.
Thanks to Anne Cater - @RandomTTours, Katrín Júlíusdóttir @katrinjul and Orenda Books - @OrendaBooks for the opportunity to read and review. Fiction: Police Procedural / Icelandic Noir
Publisher: Orenda Books
ISBN: 978-1916788961
Pages: 300pp
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