Murder At The Residence by Stella Blomkvist

 

Murder at the Residence by Stella Blómkvist.

Translated by Quentin Bates.

Published 28th August 2023 by Corylus Books.

From the cover of the book:

It’s New Year and Iceland is still reeling from the effects of the financial crash when a notorious financier is found beaten to death after a high-profile reception at the President’s residence. The police are certain they have the killer - or do they? Determined to get to the truth, maverick lawyer Stella Blómkvist isn’t so sure.

A stripper disappears from one of the city’s seediest nightspots, and nobody but Stella seems interested in finding her. A drug mule cooling his heels in a prison cell refuses to speak to anyone but Stella - although she has never heard of him. An old man makes a deathbed confession and request for Stella to find the family he lost long ago.

With a sharp tongue and a moral compass all of her own, Stella Blómkvist has a talent for attracting trouble and she’s as at home in the corridors of power as in the dark corners of Reykjavík’s underworld.

Stella Blómkvist delivers an explosive mix of murder, intrigue and surprise, and is one of Iceland's best-loved crime series.

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A new year has dawned, and Iceland is in turmoil following the shocking financial crash that has broken the whole country. As January gets underway, controversial lawyer Stella Blómkvist finds the badly beaten body of a high profile financier in a church near the President’s residence. The police are convinced they have the murderer bang-to-rights, but Stella is sure that her new client has been framed, and she is determined to prove it.

Meanwhile, she has several other cases demanding her attention. A Lithuanian sex worker is desperate to find her friend, after she was last seen setting off for a party; a young protestor seeks justice against a disgraced banker; a suspected drug runner has asked for her help; and an old man has set her on an almost impossible task to find his daughter. 

As Stella attempts to do what she can for her clients, bumping heads with the authorities in her own special way, she finds herself caught up in web of corruption that reaches from the darkest corners of Reykjavík’s underworld all the way to the top ranks of the city's respected citizens...

Murder at the Residence takes you into the world of the best-selling Icelandic crime series following the adventures of headstrong lawyer Stella Blómkvist (who is also the author), published for the first time in English by Corylus Books, in translation by Quentin Bates. Intriguingly, the real identity of the author of this series is unknown, even though the first book was published in the 1990s, although there has been a lot of speculation about who lies behind the Stella Blómkvist name.

The action begins on New Year's Eve 2009, with a fateful meeting in a public convenience, and follows several of Stella's cases as she tries to comply with the wide ranging requests of her clients to defend them against charges, advise them in civil matters, track down missing friends, and execute their dying wishes, all set against the backdrop of the shocking financial collapse in Iceland. This is a country in turmoil, seemingly having lost its own way and become prey to the unscrupulous on both sides of the law, which perhaps makes it unsurprising when Stella's ball-busting investigative style reveals more and more links between the cases.

Stella herself is a spiky character, and I did find it difficult to warm to her. There is a bit of wading through her complex personal relationships to do, with practically no filling in of backstory, which does make her motivations difficult to navigate. I do not feel that I had any more handle on the real Stella by the end of this book than at the beginning, other than that she has a predatory streak, which was a bit of a shame.

Nevertheless, within these pages there lies a very slick crime story that is well conceived and executed in a way that keeps you engaged throughout, and it has some cracking themes around past sins, revenge, and redemption running through it. The threads of the various mysteries and injustices that Stella must get to the bottom of are wide-ranging, but very gradually you come to see that they all fit into a very complicated framework around corruption and deception that goes right to the top of Iceland's establishment. You certainly have to admire Stella's doggedness to track down the leads, confront authority figures, and play around in the legal grey areas, in order to engineer the downfall of the villains of the piece. There is a satisfying conclusion to all aspects of the story, and the translation by Quentin Bates maintains a decent pace.

If Nordic noir is your thing then you will find many things in this book to please, even if it is difficult to pin your colours to Stella herself from this first adventure, especially in terms of the plot and the creditable way that this chaotic period of Iceland's contemporary history is described. I will be watching closely to see how this series develops in its English language reboot, as it shows real promise.

Murder at the Residence is available to buy now in paperback and ebook formats.

Thank you to Corylus Books for sending me an ecopy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Ewa Sherman for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Stella Blómkvist has been a bestselling series in Iceland since the first book appeared in the 1990s and has attracted an international audience since the TV series starring Heiða Reed aired. This series features tough, razor-tongued Reykjavík lawyer Stella Blómkvist, with her taste for neat whiskey, a liking for easy money and a moral compass all of her own - and who is at home in the corridors of power as in the city’s darkest nightspots.

The books have been published under a pseudonym that still hasn’t been cracked. The question of Stella Blómkvist’s identity is one that crops up regularly, but it looks like it’s going to remain a mystery…

About the translator:

Quentin Bates is a writer, translator and journalist. He has professional and personal roots in Iceland that run very deep. He worked as a seaman before turning to maritime journalism. He is an author of a series of nine crime novels and novellas featuring the Reykjavik detective Gunnhildur (Gunna) Gísladóttir. In addition to writing his own fiction, he has translated books by Guðlaugur Arason, Einar Kárason, and crème de la crème of the Icelandic crime fiction authors Lilja Sigurðardóttir, Óskar Guðmundsson, Jónína Leósdóttir, Sólveig Pálsdóttir and Ragnar Jónasson. Quentin was instrumental in launching IcelandNoir, the crime fiction festival in Reykjavik.