Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

Someone To Watch Over Me

Lawyer: Thora Gudmundsdottir

Setting:  Reyjkavik, Iceland

Time:     2010

Genre:   Scandi Noir  

This is the fifth of Sigurdardottir's stories with lawyer Thora Gudmundsdottir as the investigating character. As with many Icelandic novels, the consequences of the 2010 recession seep into the plot.

She is asked by a serial killer in a secure hospital to investigate the case against a fellow inmate, Jakob,  who has Down's Syndrome and who has possibly been wrongly placed in the unit  following a fire at the residential home where he lived and which killed five people.

As she investigates, it becomes apparent that both the case pursued against Jakob was not as thorough as it might have been and that other people may well have had motive to raze the residential home, particularly following the discovery that someone had managed to get a comatose patient pregnant.

The plot is tightly controlled and moves to a logical but unpredictable climax.

And of course the serial killer has his own motive for promoting the investigation.

Rating A

Previously Read

Last Rituals

My Soul to Take

Ashes to Dust

The Day is dark

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