Murder Tide by Stella Blómkvist – blog tour

Translated by Quentin Bates

This series of crime thrillers by the anonymous author Stella Blómkvist, who shares their pseudonym with the main character has been a big success in Iceland, with over twenty books in the series so far. Thanks for Corylus Books and translator Quentin Bates for bringing them to the English-speaking world, with Murder Tide, we’re up to volume three, here are my links to reviews of the first two.

1. Murder at the Residence
2. Murder Under the Midnight Sun

As the third novel begins, Stella is now going steady with Rannveig, the documentary maker she met in the second novel. They don’t yet live together but Stella’s daughter Soley adores her. This means that Stella doesn’t need to stray beyond their relationship for hook-ups any more, making this novel less about the sex than the previous two, although Stella and Rannveig still have a lusty sex-life! There’s also less repetition of Stella’s drink of choice ‘the Tennessee nectar’, Jack Daniels – although it will feature at a crucial moment in this novel. Likewise, her car is just referred to as the Merc, rather than her ‘Silver Steed’ in this volume. I’d found all these things rather masculine before, but in Murder Tide, Stella is definitely showing a more feminine side. While I really enjoyed the first two books, I like this Stella much more. She’s lost none of her fierceness under pressure or her legal acumen and intelligence.

Whereas, I was glad of other things remaining the same – such as her way of avoiding swearing – ‘sheesh!’, and the habit of closing some chapters with an aphorism from her late mother like:

‘Weird Coincidences are the Lord’s sick jokes’ as Mother said.

It begins with a death foretold – Stella is visited by a medium who has had visions of a man tied up drowning, but the police didn’t listen to her, so she comes to Stella – who is equally sceptic – until a body is found. A well-known ruthless businessman was tied to a pier and left to drown as the tide came in. Grímúlfur has plenty of enemies, but none more vocal than Hávarður Hergilsson, a fisherman who lost his fishing boat and quota to him. With a witness identifying his current boat moored nearby, he’s in the frame and turns to Stella.

Another more minor case she is working on is a paternity one for teenager Úlfhíldur, who has never known her father, and now her mother has died, was left an envelope with Stella’s name on it – her mother had entrusted some documents to Stella some years ago. They identify her father as Konráð Kristjónsson, who had disowned her mother when she didn’t have an abortion. He is a priest linked to a religious community for troubled teens, and Stella agrees to meet him on Úlfhíldur’s behalf to see if he’s willing to make contact. All this makes Stella thoughtful over her daughter’s paternity.

Úlfhíldur’s visit earlier in the day had certainly set me thinking.
There’s a straightforward reason for this.
Sóley Árdís is also fatherless. I know that at some point within the next few years she’s going to start asking direct questions about her father. She’ll want a name and a number.
I have no answers. Not right now.

Then a man she’d put behind bars previously, Sævar Ásgeirsson, known as Psycho Sævar, calls her saying that he has information that will lead the police to the person behind major drug smuggling in the country. He wants to do a deal for his freedom – he has recordings on a hidden memory stick. Will she represent him? The police had recently made a big cocaine seizure but are no closer to getting the importers, Stella gets her newspaper friend Máki on the case, he’ll get the scoop.

So, this time Stella has three cases on the go – two major, one minor – but as we might expect (and indeed hope), there may be links between them that surface later, after all Iceland has a relatively small population and it’s hard to remain hidden indefinitely. What Stella and good cop Raggi don’t know yet is how far it all goes, and the Commissioner’s hands are tied, yet evidence keeps going missing. It soon transpires that multiple hands are after that memory stick once its existence is known, putting Stella in real danger. What they haven’t factored in though when they kidnap Sóley though is that the mother lioness will protect her young fiercely with words and action.

Although easy to get all the Icelandic names mixed up, this was by far the best Stella novel yet, full of complexity in the plot, and with all that character development of Stella that I previously mentioned. Translator Quentin Bates is on a roll with this series aside from all the other Icelandic novels he translates (or writes himself), I’m looking forward to this series’ continuation, bring on No 4!

Source: Review copy – thank you. Corylus books, flapped paperback original, 243 pages. BUY at Blackwell’s via my affiliate link.