Translated by Quentin Bates — Amazingly, the pseudonymous author Stella Blómkvist’s real identity remains a closely guarded secret. It’s a mystery that has lasted nearly three decades in Iceland and in all that time the character Stella has thrilled and delighted local readers. There even a TV series. More recently Stella has been picking up fans in the UK. This is the fourth in the Stella Blómkvist murder mystery series to be translated into English and there is a lot to live up to as the first three were so well received. It’s now 2019 and Iceland’s most feared crusading lawyer is back but is she ready for a new round of challenges, personal and professional?
Stella is the champion of the downtrodden, the outsiders and the outcasts, those victimised by the system and the innocent, even when the odds are stacked against them. Of course, one or two of her clients are less savoury but they too deserve due process. Stella is the tormentor of dodgy politicians, sleazy businessmen, shady crooks and corrupt cops. She suffers no fools yet fools aplenty line up to take her on, underestimating the fearlessness and ingenuity that have got her where she is.
As ever there is a lot going on for Stella. Even as her case load mounts she can’t resist a good cause. When a TV journalist contacts Stella she isn’t looking for a tough case but Díana Vilhelmsdóttir was working on a #MeToo story that is a potential scandal and could hit the government hard. Then suddenly her bosses shelve the investigation and shut down the film she was making.
Fortunately, Díana kept some of the vital evidence. Now she wants Stella to follow up and build a legal case. Olafur Bjarni Hreggvidsson is a senior aide to the foreign secretary and is suspected of being a serial rapist preying on young women, using his influence within the ruling party to access members of its youth movement.
Then she is drawn to the case of Hjordís, who served a sentence for a hit and run which badly injured her personal trainer, also her lover. She claims it wasn’t her and that she was set up – an obvious target for the police. There are other women claiming the same prejudice and, possibly, misogyny in the system, rogue cops or institutional corruption.
As though these two cases weren’t enough, Stella finds a body at an historic site in the middle of the night. The dead man is famous artist Kristen Ófeigsson. He is lying in Snorri’s Pool, an axe embedded in his chest.
The significance of the crime has echoes of the past as Snorri Sturluson was a 13th century writer who is believed to have contributed to the Prose Edda, which chronicles part of the Viking age. His assassination by agents of the King of Norway in this cellar is an infamous crime. It reflects on the fact that the past, more recent admittedly, is going to come back to haunt the cases as Stella finds things out.
Back to the present, the local police have a suspect – Gunnar, a young man who modelled for Kristen. Unfortunately for him, he was with the artist just before he died, his DNA places him at the crime scene, and he has innocently told the police enough to put him in the frame. Stella likes a challenge and this all smells a bit fishy to her because Gunnar is actually Hjordís’ son. Can his trouble with the law be mere coincidence?
Stella is contacted by a senior cop, a man she has crossed swords with in the past, asking for her help as he is accused of corruption. Despite their differences everyone deserves justice. Then there is her chaotic personal life, her love life taking a dramatic turn and the relationship with her daughter and the father continues to be a knotty issue for Stella.
There’s a lot going on as I said but the cases weave nicely together and there is never a dull moment. The Murder Pool deals with issues, the most pressing in society, Iceland and universally, but they are all handled with wit and style and don’t cramp the narrative drive.
Stella is caustic, funny and edgy, she is great company, compelling and endearing, despite her toughness, her cleverness is attractive. The cases are always intriguing but, like many readers, I come for the characters and particularly the chaotic Stella.
The crime elements of the novel are tinged with danger so there are thrills but Stella the author mischievously plays with tropes, subverting them to great effect, which makes for a more subtle and enduring read. Put simply this is just great fun. I would encourage anyone interested in Nordic noir that is a little different to go back and read the first three novels in English beginning with Murder at the Residence, if you haven’t already, then this one.
Corylus Books
Print/Kindle
£9.99
CFL Rating: 5 Stars
