Translated by Quentin Bates
A first novel in translation by an award-winning Icelandic screenwriter, Broken is a police procedural that’s the beginning of a trilogy – translated by Quentin Bates for Corylus Books: it sounds like a winner…
It begins with a teenager going missing on a school trip. There’s no-one else available, so Dóra is told she’ll have to go. This’ll be the first time Dóra goes out on a case since her return to work after she took a bullet to the brain. It has left her broken and damaged, always in pain and her boss Elliði will never forgive himself for sending her into a room with a man with a gun. He’s looked after her at work since -Dóra’s brain now works differently – and that allows her to see connections in cases that others would miss. Her colleagues are a bit intimidated by the new Dóra, and her relationship with her partner, Jafet, has suffered.
She heads out to Thingvellir to meet the school party at their destination, take a preliminary survey and statements. Their teacher assumes the missing teenager planned to do a runner and is convinced she’ll turn up soon. However, Dóra senses that something is amiss, however troubled the girl, who now identified as non-binary was, they didn’t run, she’s sure of it – and when Dóra finds their coat by the ‘Drowning Pool’, it’s definitely time to call in the search teams and divers.
Another police officer who’s had to be left out of the big operation everyone else is on is Rado. He married the wrong person in the eyes of his superiors. Refugees from Eastern Europe, his wife just happens to be the daughter of one of the bosses of a drugs gang. Rado has to be distracted from the op, in case he inadvertently, or deliberately lets something slip – best he knows nothing, and that his superiors know where he is, so he’s set to work with Dóra.
Together the pair will work on the case and with each small advance they make, things get darker and more involved, and life gets dangerous for both Dóra and Rado. It doesn’t really both Dóra though, she single-mindedly wants to pursue her case. For Rado, it’s more difficult, he’s in danger of losing his wife Ewa, and his young son, Jurek, in the turf war between the rival gangs with the police on their tails.
Dóra is a brilliant character, transformed by that bullet into something of a savant, she has a nihilistic streak to her now. Nothing fazes her except the pain. Likewise, Rado is an outsider, not being Icelandic, but is well-placed to know how the system works for refugees. His love of his son is touching. I also felt for Elliði, who really does look after Dóra – he’s an unusually sympathetic boss and I liked him very much – I hope we get to know him better in the following parts of the trilogy.
The Iceland portrayed in this novel has its dark underbelly exposed, showing the layers of corruption underneath the quirky exterior, and it goes all the way from the bottom to the top as we discover.
JAJ is a screenwriter and as I read this novel, it did play out like a TV series for me – I hope it gets optioned. I enjoyed it a lot and look forward to parts two and three.
Source: Review copy – thank you. Corylus Books, 280 pages.
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As I was reading your review I was thinking it would work well on tv, so your final comment supported this! Fingers crossed for an adaptation…
This does sound good, a new angle on the tried and tested “detective with a problem” model
Ha! Yes, two detectives differently broken!
Ooh this does sound intriguing! Not too gory?
Erm… Less gory than many, but a couple of nasty scenes.