Stop Dead by Katrin Juliusdottir translated by Larissa Kyzer
I would like to thank Orenda Books and Random Things Tours for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher - Orenda Books
Published - 21/5
Price - £9.99 paperback £6.49 Kindle ebook
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…
NB there will be some mild spoilers for previous books in this review
Sometimes a crime novel is about the whodunnit and more why did they do it. What makes people decide to commit a crime? In Stop Dead by Katrin Juliusdottir about we have a solid instalment of a crime procedural that initially feels quite simple and then gets stranger hinting at future mysteries to come.
Sigurdis has been away from Iceland for three years officially on unpaid leave to allow her to finish studies in the US. However a phone call from a former colleague telling them that her father’s suspicious death case is being re-opened makes Sigurdis immediately return home. She then finds herself back at the local CID department working on a case where an infamous reporter is found to have been murdered during a marathon. Olga Einarsdottir had a lot of people who didn’t like her and the suspect list is getting longer.
A caveat is I’ve not read the two prior books but there are gentle recaps of things we need to know without spoiling everything if you wish to go back. I found this a solid pacy thriller that unusually gets bigger and stranger as the case develops.
It feels very much a procedural that focuses around Sigurdis but uses its wider cast well to bolster investigation and the characters all have their own arcs. Sigurdis is a young woman who has a knack for following her instincts even if they get her into danger. Juliusdottir gives her a fascinating backstory of a young child growing up in a family with a violent and cruel father and only now starting to process how this works. This gives her an intriguing set of aspects she seems unaware of - a road tunnel can make her anxious she needs to know all her family are safe. She is hesitant to admit her feelings about an older colleague. She is a detective still working herself out and compared to the standard devil may care rogue she is an interesting main character.
The central mystery actually appears at first a little too predictable. This is not helped by a very early reveal that I think regular thriller readers can work out a likely hidden secret but as we enter the second half of the tale that open up an unusual dimension to this well planned and ambitious crime. That sets up an opponent who can then mess in unusual ways with Sigurdis and her colleagues in expected ways and crucially this is left open ended - a future take with this bigger opponent is clearly being set up.
I did find the pace a little too fast and there were moments to breathe and absorb may have been more impactful. As an example Sigurdis’ boyfriend from the US soon vanished off the pages without making much impact despite how long they were together. The overall feeling is this is a slick series sacrificing depth for pace and that makes it a quick read but I’m slightly more looking for characters to click with.
For those looking for a quick and unusual mystery to solve this story may be worth a look!
