Being an incurable Anglophile, I have long intended to have a British main character in one of my novels. I found the perfect opportunity to do exactly that when I was sketching the storyline of Deceit, my 6th book in the crime mystery genre. (Before I turned to crime, I had written 13 books in different genres, both fiction and non-fiction.)
In my first five crime novels, the protagonist was an amateur sleuth called Edda – a clever, energetic woman in her late sixties, recently retired after a successful career as a bookshop manager. A modern, Nordic character with an undeniable nod to Miss Marple. But when I started preparing a new series, I wanted to have two very different protagonists who complemented each other as a crime-solving team.
First to take shape, was hard-working, Icelandic detective, Soffía – an independent, no-nonsense woman in her forties who lets nothing stand in her way. And who would be her complete opposite? An easy-going, polite and a bit old-school Englishman, of course. Thus, Adam the psychologist sprang to life.
To have more fun, I decided to make Soffía and Adam a divorced former couple. Thus, they know each other extremely well, which is a bonus for people solving crimes together, but they are also fed up with each other, which inevitably creates tension.
The couple had met when Soffía was a student in the UK and naturally, from her point of view, they moved to Iceland when she graduated. Adam simply had to adapt, learn Icelandic and forge a career in a foreign country. (It’s rather telling that his parents called their daughter-in-law The Bulldozer.)
They lived happily ever after … well, for about 15 years. By then they had a teenage daughter, Magga, that Adam couldn’t bear to be parted from by moving back to Britain. In other words, he moved to Iceland for Soffía but stayed for Magga. And, perhaps, for mystery woman, Jenny, too. Jenny, who? Now, that would be telling.
I thoroughly enjoyed creating Adam’s back-story, especially making him grow up in the lovely village of Wivenhoe in Essex, which I had got to know when I was a student at The University of Essex. Several years later, in the late eighties, when I was editor of a weekly newspaper in Iceland, I discovered by chance that the actor Joan Hickson lived in Wivenhoe. At that time, the Miss Marple series that Hickson starred in, was the most popular programme on Icelandic television.
So, because of my love of Wivenhoe and Miss Marple, it became my mission to get an interview with the actor who portrayed Agatha Christie’s sleuth so charmingly and had the majority of the Icelandic population glued to their television sets once a week.
Although this was years before the birth of Google, I somehow managed to procure the name and phone number of Ms. Hickson’s agent. Perhaps, I have some of DI Soffía’s strong will and stubbornness. And I didn’t give up until the agent spoke to the actor who agreed to an interview over the phone. (Alas, my paper couldn’t afford to send me to Wivenhoe.)
This was an absolute “hold the front page” moment, a few hours before the paper went to print. I will never forget it: Joan Hickson was finally on the phone, I started my recording device and the interview took off. Half an hour later, I thanked Ms Hickson from the bottom of my heart for the wonderful chat, put the phone down and discovered that the recording had failed. I didn’t even have any notes, as I had trusted the equipment completely.
In my mind, it was out of the question to bother the agent and this kind, elderly lady in Wivenhoe again. But we had an empty front page. So, I put a “Do not enter!” sign on my office door and sat down to write all my questions and Hickson’s answers from memory – and, as everyone knows, blind panic is not particularly good for your memory.
However, we ended up with a great front page and an exclusive interview with the most popular actor on Icelandic television at the time. Of course, I added a description of the village I missed from my university days and secretly envied Ms Hickson for living in. And now, decades later, I have included Wivenhoe in my crime series by making it Adam’s childhood home and the place where his parents still live.
Deceit by Jónína Leósdóttir Published by Corylus Books (Translated by Quentin Bates) Out now.
Reykjavík detective Soffía finds herself struggling to cope with a single-handed investigation into a spate of malicious acts taking place across the city, and enlists help from an unexpected direction. Her psychologist ex-husband Adam has advised the police before, but with Covid raging in the city, would prefer to stay holed up in his basement flat as he deals with challenges in both his working and private life. He grudgingly agrees to work with Soffía, as the stakes in the investigation are continually raised. Working out who bears a grudge that goes deep enough to lead to murder, they unravel complex family ties, lingering enmities and a dark past that the victims would prefer to keep secret, while Adam encounters a young woman in a race against the clock to find the father she has never seen, but for what purpose?
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