Jenney Lund Madsen (trans by Paul Russell Garrett)
Orenda Books, 21 may 2026
Available as: HB, 275pp, audio, e
Source: Advance copy
ISBN(HB): 9781917764155
I'm grateful to Orenda for sending me a copy of Under the Blazing Sun to consider for review, and to Anne for inviting me to join the book's blogtour.
Jenny Lund Madsen's Under the Blazing Sun follows her reluctant hero, crime author Hannah, on a new writing assignment - and into a new murder mystery.
Lund Madsen's previous book, Thirty Days of Darkness, introduced Hannah, a somewhat self-important literary writer who talked herself into writing crime (how hard can it be?) Packed off to Iceland by her editor, Hannah blunders into a real life crime, from which she however is able to draw inspiration, ending up with a whole new career and a book that's more popular that her earlier, more earnest, writing.
I was eager to see what Jenny Lund Madsen would do for this follow-up. Can the same idea really work again? It turns out that it can, and in Under the Blazing Sun that's triumphantly proven. Hannah, who's rather self-pitying at the start not only because she can't get that second book written but because she's missing her girlfriend Margrét, is an unlikeable character at first sight. She hates her crime novel, Murder Island - the book of hers that people want to read - and would prefer to be known for her litfic. When her long suffering editor Bastian gets Hannah on a popular TV show, she has a tantrum and walks off set. I, like, I suspect, many other readers, would have not blamed Bastian at this point for dropping her, yet instead he sends her off to Sicily to stay in a villa where she can write, far away from mundane distractions.
Instead she sets about swigging wine and enjoying the local food. And of course, Hannah being Hannah, catastrophe strikes - and soon she's trying to clear name of murder. It's here that Hannah's more attractive side shows. While you might expect her to collapse in a heap of self-pity and demand rescue, she doesn't. She sets about investigating the crime. Hannah is dogged and determined, almost to an embarrassing degree, milking the police for information, shoving her nose in wherever it's not wanted (up to and including running around Sicily asking question and the Mafia, does this woman have a death wish?). There's something admirable in Hannah's sheer persistence, even if you cringe at times at the situations she's getting herself into.
Of course, Hannah being Hannah, she manages this while still downing prodigious quantities of wine, and is also painfully, exasperatingly demanding of Margrét who's yet to disentangle herself of her husband in Iceland. One might almost feel that the distraction of the murder is taking Hannah's mind off her personal difficulties (though, she does also let herself get distracted by a cute young policewoman). And you fundamentally feel that Hannah's right about a couple of things - that the murder is linked to local corruption, that the police don't care and are simply trying to pin the crime on an obvious suspect - and that she's being targeted by somebody, as threatening notes begin to arrive. As matters become tense, it seems a race between Hannah blundering on the truth through sheer audacity, and a clever and motivated criminal catching her first. The tension builds in the final quarter of the book as Hannah, finally, acquires an ally, and as the villain makes their move.
All in all, Under the Blazing Sun is an enjoyable and distracting romp of a crime story with a unique protagonist and a rather bewitching setting. Yes, Hannah's put through the wringer, but (I hope) she gets another book out of that and she even seems to take some steps to self-understanding and to being just a little less selfish. Perhaps. This is also a very funny book, Hannah's habit of putting her foot in it carrying her not only into danger but into some humorous situations (often at the same time).
The translation, by Paul Russell Garrett, is excellent and lucid.
For more information about Under the Blazing Sun, see the publisher's website here - and of course the other stops on the blogtour which you can see listed on the poster below.
You can buy Under the Blazing Sun from your local high street bookshop or online from Bookshop UK, Hive Books, Blackwell's, Foyle's, WH Smith or Waterstones.
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