There wasn’t much by the way of homegrown crime fiction in Iceland until relatively recently. Up to the nineties a few authors had tinkered, but it was only with the arrival of Arnaldur Indriðason, and particularly when his work was taken seriously in German and English, that things started to move. A bunch of writers started to get attention – Yrsa Sigurðarðóttir, Viktor Arnar Ingólfsson and Ævar Örn Jósepsson were among this select band – as was the mysterious Stella Blómkvist.

Stella’s first novel, Morðið í Stjórnarráðinu (Murder at the Ministry), appeared in 1997. Incidentally, that was the same year that Arnaldur’s first novel, Synir Duftsins (Sons of the Dust) appeared. There were half a dozen tales, each one with a Murdur at/in title, over a period of nine years under the Stella Blómkvist name, all written in the first person and featuring the lawyer heroine whose name as also on the spines of the books.

Then Stella went quiet, and the curiosity over who might be the author behind these anonymous crime thrillers faded away.

A few years on, after Iceland had been through the pain and turmoil of the 2008 financial crisis, Stella was suddenly back in 2012 with Morðið á Bessastöðum (Murder at the Residence) kicking off a new series. This was hard-nosed Stella, determined to look after number one, and fiercely mercenary – but nonetheless with a carefully concealed heart of gold and a preference for seeing justice done, one way or another, and not always using the slow route via the courts. While this was the same Stella, this was also a more mature, more rounded character, who’s also angrier and less inclined to accept the injustices of this world.

So who the hell is Stella? Every time a new book appears, there’s a flurry of speculation. Any number of figures in Iceland’s arts and politics have at one time or another been suggested as candidates. There’s even a former Prime Minister who has been suggested. No, it’s not him, in case you were wondering.

Stella’s determination to remain strictly anonymous has undoubtedly played a part in her being less well known than many of her contemporaries outside Iceland. After all, publishers prefer authors who can attend festivals and sign copies of their books, and Stella does none of that. So it was only a few years ago that Corylus Books decided Stella deserved to be put in front of an English-language audience, and that followed the TV adaptations that had already been aired, starring Heiða Reed in the title role.

Stella’s identity is a carefully guarded secret. The rights manager at Stella’s publisher knows who it is – as someone has to… As Stella’s English language translator, I’ve carefully not delved into the mystery. Having said that, I can make some shrewd guesses, but I’m more than happy to not be certain who’s behind Stella. It might be someone I know and like. Or worse, it could be someone I don’t have a liking for. Many people have murmured in passing, ‘I know who Stella is, but of course I mustn’t say anything…’ Whether they really know, or think they know, is another matter.

There are six Stella novels in the first series (1997-2006) and currently seven in the second series (2012-2022) and some of us are wondering if any more are on the way. It’s not as if we can ask the author…

Stella Blómkvist is often seen in Iceland as verging on pulp fiction, not exactly in the same bracket as some other crime writers, and to my mind that’s a misunderstanding. They say that nobody knows an author as intimately as their translator, and this translator’s opinion of whoever writes these books continues to go up. While there’s a pulp element to them, with a leading character who would probably have long since been struck off the legal professionin real life, these stories are a very long way from being the scribblings of an amateur. This is someone at work who knows precisely how to fine-tune a detailed bunch of plots that all come neatly together. There’s no wasted space in these books, no self-indulgent meandering, deep sighs or extended descriptions. Characters are sharply drawn in a few words. There’s nothing extraneous and everything is there for a reason. There’s more plot in one of these than in many novels twice as long.

This is someone who has a way with words, and who is also extremely well read, in history, classic literature and crime fiction. So we’re looking for someone on whose shelves Tolstoy and Dickens sit comfortably alongside Dashiell Hammett and Patricia Highsmith – someone who’s at home with Shakespeare as they are with Sjöwall & Wahlöö.

You can read more from the author here.