Extract Post: Dead Sweet, by Katrin Juliusdottir

Blurb

When Óttar Karlsson B OOK S , a wealthy and respected government official
and businessman, is found murdered, after failing to turn up at his own surprise birthday party, the police are at a loss. It isn’t until young police officer Sigurdís finds a well-hidden safe in his impersonal luxury apartment that clues start emerging.

As Óttar’s shady business dealings become clear, a second, unexpected line of enquiry emerges, when Sigurdís finds a US phone number in the safe, along with papers showing regular money transfers to an American account.

Following the trail to Minnesota, trauma rooted in Sigurdís’s own childhood threatens to resurface and the investigation strikes chillingly close to home…

Atmospheric, deeply unsettling and full of breakneck twists and turns, Dead Sweet is a startling debut thriller that uncovers a terrifying world of financial crime, sinister cults and disturbing secret lives, and kicks off a mind-blowing new series.

Extract

‘Last year I went with some girlfriends to stay in a summer cottage. Their idea was that we should all go on a juice fast, and the best way to make it work would be for all of us to go to Dóra’s parents’ place to relax and support each other, and that would be part of the cure. I woke up that first morning at around six and went outside to sit on a lovely bench that Dóra’s parents had put next to the gravel path. Across the path was a patch of grass that had been left to itself for a long time. It was all dandelions, and weeds that a city kid like me wouldn’t know the name of, although I do know a manicured lawn isn’t for me. As I watched the grass waving in the wind and the insects buzzing around, I fell into some sort of trance, and it felt as if the world slowed right down. That was the first time I saw a horsefly in the wild. It was there among the dandelions, and I realised that this had to be its natural environment, and not against the shadowy walls of buildings, which were the only places I’d seen them before. I had often wondered what the link was between horseflies and walls. I could never figure out the point of them living their lives buzzing up and down walls.’

This was Sigurdís’s last session with Thorgeir, the psychologist. She liked him. He applied no pressure, gave her all the time she needed and wasn’t unnerved by long silences, which was a relief. But he was so close to the image she had formed of what a psychologist should look like that it was almost funny. He was slim, his back slightly hunched, he had a beard streaked

with grey, and generally wore cord trousers, checked shirts and a dark-blue sweater. The final detail was how he would occasionally look at her over the top of his glasses. She really was starting to feel fond of him.

‘What is it about horseflies that sparks your interest, Sigurdís?’

She had been sent to see him after jumping on a young man had lashed out at his girlfriend in the city centre one night a year and a half ago. Sigurdís’s recollection was that she had been unable to let the man go as she held him in a neck lock with one arm, punching him repeatedly and with all her strength with her free hand. The world around her had gone dark, while she yelled at the girlfriend to run for it. Sigurdís’s fellow officer had finally managed to release her grip on the man, who had been left badly bruised. Her superiors had decided to send her to a psychologist and confined her to desk duty. Maybe they had too much sympathy for her to go as far as dismissing her, but more than likely they were still plagued with too much guilt on her account.

‘Sometimes I feel like a horsefly on a wall. Lonely in a crowd and a little out of place.’

‘Is that how you feel now?’ Thorgeir asked, peering amiably at her over the top of the glasses perched slightly askew on his nose.

Sigurdís decided that a cheerful response would be in order, so he wouldn’t have doubts about signing her off.

‘No, not anymore. Or at any rate, not so often.’

---

ABOUT KATRÍN JÚLÍUSDÓTTIR

Katrín Júlíusdóttir has a political background and was a member of the Icelandic parliament from 2003 until 2016. Before she was elected to parliament, Katrín was an advisor and project manager at a tech company and a senior buyer and CEO in the retail sector. She worked from a young age in the fishing industry, was a store clerk and also worked the night shift at a pizza restaurant. She studied anthropology and has an MBA from Reykjavík University. Katrín’s debut novel Dead Sweet received the Blackbird Award and was an Icelandic bestseller upon publication. She is married to critically acclaimed author Bjarni M. Bjarnason, who encouraged her to start writing. They have four boys and live in Garðabær.