Murder Under The Midnight Sun (Stella Blómkvist Book 2) by Stella Blómkvist

 

Murder Under the Midnight Sun (Stella Blómkvist Book 2) by Stella Blómkvist.

Translated by Quentin Bates.

Published 5th May 2024 by Corylus Books.

From the cover of the book:

What does a woman do when her husband's charged with the frenzied killing of her father and her best friend? She calls in Stella Blomkvist to to investigate - however unwelcome the truth could turn out to be. 

Smart, ruthless and with a flexible moral code all of her own, razor-tongued lawyer Stella Blomkvist is also dealing with a desperate deathbed request to track down a young woman who vanished a decade ago. It looks like a dead end, but she agrees to pick up the stone-cold trail - and she never gives up, even if the police did a long time ago. 

Then there's the mystery behind the arm that emerges from an ice cap, with a mysterious ruby ring on one frozen finger? How does this connect to another unexplained disappearance, and why were the police at the time so keen to write it off as a tragic accident? 

Brutal present-day crimes have their roots in the past that some people would prefer to stay forgotten. 

As Stella pieces together the fragments, is she getting too close to the truth and making herself a target for ruthless men determined to conceal secret sins?

***********

2010: Reykjavík, Iceland. Formidable lawyer, Stella Blómkvist's reputation of dogged determination has her engaged in pursing several cases likely to have her butting heads with the authorities... nothing new there.

A dying mother's request for some answers in the unsolved disappearance of her daughter ten years ago is her first order of business. Dismissed as another instance of a tourist who fell prey to Iceland's unpredictable landscape, Stella soon uncovers a lead the police failed to discover - something that they are less than willing to concede.

Then her friend's husband is charged with the murder of his father-in-law and lover, and needs Stella's help to prove his innocence. But as Stella digs into the ever more complex circumstances surrounding the case, she unexpectedly begins to see a connection with her recent attempts to help a journalist pal out of the spot of bother he is in over a book he is writing. Someone here is telling lies, but she cannot yet see who... or why.

And if all this was not enough, there is also the mystery of a severed arm, bearing a distinctive ruby ring, that Stella had the misfortune to happen upon after an accident on a glacier. It is all another day at the office for the indefatigable Stella Blómkvist...

Murder under the Midnight Sun is the second book in the best-selling Icelandic crime series following the adventures of headstrong lawyer Stella Blómkvist, now being published for the first time in English by Corylus Books, in translation by Quentin Bates. 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.

After the no holds barred introduction of Stella in the first book, Murder at the Residence, this second instalment follows the same themes of missing persons, murder, corruption, and political machinations, but on a much grander scale. Beginning with the search for a missing girl, in a very cold case that appears to be clouded by cover-ups and misdirection, Stella is soon ruffling feathers... but her capacity to get under the skin of authority figures does not stop there. Blómkvist then adds delicious layers of story to develop her other plotlines, weaving in sprawling threads that gradually explode to encompass Cold War espionage, clashing political ideologies, and shattering moments of global history, which would provide creditable fodder for any top-drawer spy yarn.

The action moves slickly between Stella's efforts to get to the truth of the multiple cases that currently consume her interest, providing an entertaining showcase for her intelligence, quick thinking, and ability to ferret out clues where others have failed - often through unconventional, and border-line legal methods that put a smile on your face. And in the telling, you learn a lot more about the woman behind the reputation, particularly when it comes to her personal relationships. There is less of the predatory Stella that makes her such a complicated person to like in the first book, and more about the backstory that has shaped her into someone that shies away from letting her emotions show, which I really enjoyed. This is still very much an authentically noir novel though, and Stella continues to charm with the wise-cracking, ball-busting elements of her personality that get results... and she certainly gets results.

I absorbed this book in one tasty gulp, totally immersed in the sharp plotting, which is driven beautifully along by Quentin Bates' considerable talents as a translator. I get the feeling that he revelled in the way Blómkvist clearly warms to Stella's theme in this second book too, with more action to get to grips with on the way to the satisfying conclusion. Roll on book three! 

Murder Under the Midnight Sun 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 Blomkvist 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 Heida Reed aired. 

The books have been published under a pseudonym that still hasn't been cracked. The question of Stella Blomkvist'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.