Judith L. (jlautner) reviewed Someone to Watch Over Me (Thora Gudmundsdottir, Bk 5) on + 105 more book reviews
This is the second book by Sigurdardottir that I have read. The Icelandic settings appeal to me. Both feature Thora Gudmundsdottir, lawyer who investigates crime.
In this case, Thora is hired by a prisoner to investigate a crime that has resulted in the conviction of a young man for arson. The client, mentally ill and in a special institution for the criminally mentally ill, worked on restoring old computers and seemed generally at peace with his place. He had a fair amount of money and wanted to use it to clear Jakob.
Jakob was convicted of setting fire to the home where he lived with other disabled adults. Jakob has Down Syndrome (still called "Down's Syndrome" in this novel) and he was the only resident who did not die in the fire.
The home was a small home, in which each resident had his own room and the residents had different disabilities. Jakob was convicted on little evidence and nobody seemed to question the verdict.
An odd aspect of the case was that the client hated Jakob. It was unclear to Thora why he would want her to represent Jakob in an appeal of his conviction. Nevertheless, she pursued it, perhaps as much out of curiosity as from a sense that not much of an investigation had been done previously.
Her investigation took her into the lives of the other residents. The staff members were cleared and she did not find reason to question that process. She found interesting facts about the other residents, and pursued a few of them vigorously. But the case took her farther and farther afield, beyond the home itself, before it reached a conclusion.
A complex mystery, with interesting twists and characters and a conclusion few will guess. Worth reading for the characters and complications alone. I still wonder why Thora does the investigating herself but perhaps it's just her nature.
In this case, Thora is hired by a prisoner to investigate a crime that has resulted in the conviction of a young man for arson. The client, mentally ill and in a special institution for the criminally mentally ill, worked on restoring old computers and seemed generally at peace with his place. He had a fair amount of money and wanted to use it to clear Jakob.
Jakob was convicted of setting fire to the home where he lived with other disabled adults. Jakob has Down Syndrome (still called "Down's Syndrome" in this novel) and he was the only resident who did not die in the fire.
The home was a small home, in which each resident had his own room and the residents had different disabilities. Jakob was convicted on little evidence and nobody seemed to question the verdict.
An odd aspect of the case was that the client hated Jakob. It was unclear to Thora why he would want her to represent Jakob in an appeal of his conviction. Nevertheless, she pursued it, perhaps as much out of curiosity as from a sense that not much of an investigation had been done previously.
Her investigation took her into the lives of the other residents. The staff members were cleared and she did not find reason to question that process. She found interesting facts about the other residents, and pursued a few of them vigorously. But the case took her farther and farther afield, beyond the home itself, before it reached a conclusion.
A complex mystery, with interesting twists and characters and a conclusion few will guess. Worth reading for the characters and complications alone. I still wonder why Thora does the investigating herself but perhaps it's just her nature.
Cathy C. (cathyskye) -
Yrsa Sigurdardóttir has created a superb, multi-layered plot with enough twists and turns to keep even the most devoted crime fiction fans guessing. As always, Thora's personal life intrudes on her investigation. In Someone to Watch Over Me, her parents move in her already crowded house to disrupt everyone's routine. Fortunately for the story, Sigurdardóttir touches on this situation sparingly-- its main result being to chase Thora's unemployed partner Matthew out of the house to help her with the investigation.
The focus is on the investigation, and it's a difficult one. Some of the people Thora should interview are dead. Some of them have things to hide. And some of them have disabilities that make communication almost impossible. Having a psychotic killer hire Thora to reopen Jakob's case is brilliant. Readers may well be left in a quandary. Is this man truly doing this out of the small bit of goodness left in his heart-- or does he have his own agenda that Thora must contend with on top of everything else?
Woven throughout the story is the small satin ribbon of a subplot involving the hit-and-run murder of a young woman. The reader is left to wonder what this has to do with Thora's investigation. Does the young woman's death tie in with Jakob's case? If it does, then how? And bewilderment isn't the only thing this subplot adds to the story. It adds fear and menace-- the perfect "creep factor" to raise the hair on the back of your neck.
The only thing that marred this book for me was that the pacing was uneven. In places it was extremely slow and almost brought everything to a screeching halt. But by book's end, I could only shake my head in disbelief. What a fabulous, intricate plot! Thora and Yrsa Sigurdardóttir have done it again. Bravo!
The focus is on the investigation, and it's a difficult one. Some of the people Thora should interview are dead. Some of them have things to hide. And some of them have disabilities that make communication almost impossible. Having a psychotic killer hire Thora to reopen Jakob's case is brilliant. Readers may well be left in a quandary. Is this man truly doing this out of the small bit of goodness left in his heart-- or does he have his own agenda that Thora must contend with on top of everything else?
Woven throughout the story is the small satin ribbon of a subplot involving the hit-and-run murder of a young woman. The reader is left to wonder what this has to do with Thora's investigation. Does the young woman's death tie in with Jakob's case? If it does, then how? And bewilderment isn't the only thing this subplot adds to the story. It adds fear and menace-- the perfect "creep factor" to raise the hair on the back of your neck.
The only thing that marred this book for me was that the pacing was uneven. In places it was extremely slow and almost brought everything to a screeching halt. But by book's end, I could only shake my head in disbelief. What a fabulous, intricate plot! Thora and Yrsa Sigurdardóttir have done it again. Bravo!
An ingeniously twisted and unusual crime plot, but the book was not as atmospheric about Iceland as I had hoped.
