A Citizen Detective Blöm Mystery

Book blurb

In the midst of Capital City’s November crime wave Citizen Detective (Grade III) Arne Blöm finds himself appointed as a Konstable of the State Court and tasked with the arrest and detention of a man he’s pretty sure is actually dead.
However, being the Detective he is, Blöm quickly discovers that his assignment to the island of Huish has more sinister undertones. 

Faced with a series of strange and similar deaths, Blöm dispenses with traditional methods for solving the crimes and begins to suspect that certain sections of the island’s population are not what they seem, nor as harmless as they might appear.

O. Huldumann’s second novel featuring Citizen Detective Blöm firmly establishes the detective as a force to be reckoned with, albeit with damp brogues and missing a glove.

My thoughts

Sit back, relax and enter the dystopian, somewhat bizarre, often humorous world of Citizen Detective Blöm and enjoy!

Blöm is co-opted by the State Court from his usual police role to unravel a possible mistake that is to confirm that a man being held for trial is, indeed, the real culprit. To do this Blöm would have to travel to the northern island of Huish, find out if a man (with the same name as the one being held) is actually dead or not and then determine if he is/was actually the culprit or not. Should he find he is actually the culprit Blöm would then have to arrest him, if he’s alive and bring him back to Capital City.

Set in a fictitious country, which is governed under some kind of totalitarian system in another time, Blöm’s superiors have no choice but to allow him to undertake the task.

So off Blöm goes thinking how this unusual task was going to be something of a waste but one that will not only get him out of Central City for a short time, it is a very busy time and a break away from that might be welcomed, it might also be quite useful with regard to his expenses.

When he arrives on Huish the weather is wintery. Blöm, in his unsuitable footwear and clothes, begins a discreet investigation believing it will not take very long to establish the facts and return. He is, therefore, surprised and confounded when the weather conditions intervene and he is stranded on Huish until the ice sheet that has formed on the surrounding sea thaws in the spring!

Having established his suspect is dead he looks into whether he could have committed the crime in question. Blöm is appointed temporary Detective in charge for as long as it is impossible to get off the island.

Stranded on Huish for much longer than anticipated and without any protective clothing he needs to resolve the issues of warm, waterproof clothing and footwear and his accommodation or he may not survive until the thaw comes!

Then more people die.

Blöm, who is actually a good detective, intelligent, experienced, astute and shrewd, soon realises that there is more going on in Huish than meets the eye. Will he be able to prove his theory that the deaths are connected? That there is a killer on Huish and will he find the killer before anymore deaths happen?

More importantly will he get warm and dry, keep a roof over his head and live to enjoy his, hopefully, rather lucrative subsistence allowance?

The author has written a terrific book which brings us readers a beautifully crafted world, wonderful characters and is a joy to read.

The Island of Lies is a different take on the wonderful Scandi-crime genre that became Nordic noir. It will enchant, entertain and send you rushing out, I hope, as I have to find more of this terrific series.

These books have been brought into existence by the tenacity of Chris Ould’s work and alive to the reader through his wonderful translation.

Thanks

With huge thanks to Ewa Sherman for the invite to join this terrific BlogTour and to the publisher the Huldumann Project for kindly providing an ebook of The Island of Lies in order to read and share my thoughts on.

BlogTour

Do take a look at these terrific blog posts

Information

Publisher: ‎Huldumann Project with support of the Huldumann Archive (4 Sept. 2024) | 436 pages

Buy: Amazon |

Author

Gunvá Stenburg pictured here is known to have typed the author’s manuscripts and is seen here with a gentleman who is unidentified. Could this be a photo of the author with
Gunvá Stenburg? Unfortunately we may never know.

O. Huldumann is something of an enigma. Little if anything is known about him so we simply have his body of work to keep his persona alive.

The work of the translator, Chris Ould, the Huldumann Project and the Huldumann Archive have been invaluable in ensuring his books are remembered, translated, published and brought to the attention of readers.

@huldumann – The Huldumann Project on X (formerly Twitter)

Nordic Lights: Citizen Detective Arne Blöm

The Huldumann Enigma – by Quentin Bates

Books

Citizen Detective by O. Huldumann – published 7th March 2021

A new translation of O. Huldumann’s cult crime classic by Chris Ould.

In the hard summer heat of Capital City a butcher is found dead in strange circumstances and Citizen Detective Arne Blöm is assigned to clear things away.

Blöm may be the city’s finest, but as an underpaid and overworked State employee his life is also one of routine; managing his expenses, padding his time-sheet and enduring small annoyances like the fact that his brogues are in need of re-soling. However, Blöm has barely reached a conclusion about the dead butcher before he’s roused from his bed by an agent of the shadowy Ministry of Governance and Homeland.

Blöm quickly realises that the MGH and the Central Executive have their own motives for taking an interest in the dead butcher’s case, and that it’s of far greater significance than he could have imagined. In fact, if the repair of his brogues is anything to go by, the fate of the whole State apparatus may now rest in his hands – and on whether he believes in the story of Ulf and the Ewe.

Translator

After working at a variety of jobs, Chris Ould spent many years as a television scriptwriter, during which time he wrote more than eighty hours of drama and documentary programmes, including numerous episodes of the crime series The Bill.

He now lives in rural Dorset.

Chris Ould books in order | @WriterChrisOuld | @ChrisOuld.bsky.social