Someone to Watch Over Me

by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

This is a mystery by an Icelandic author, set in Iceland.

As the book opens we learn that a young girl was killed by a hit and run driver and that her mother feels her house is haunted by her spirit.

We then learn that a very violent criminal contacts a lawyer asking her to investigate a conviction to try to get the case reopened.  The lawyer thinks he is referring to his own case and she is reluctant to try to help such an evil person.  She is surprised to learn that the man actually wants her to investigate on behalf of another inmate at the institution, a down-syndrome man who is was deemed responsible for a fire at a care facility he was housed in that was set on fire and which killed several residents and staff.  The evil person has inherited money after the death of his mother and he has no use for it as he will be incarcerated for the rest of his life.

The lawyer agrees to look into the matter and is shocked to find that the lawyer who handled the defence did a very poor job.  She is further shocked to learn that the same lawyer is related to the father of one of the children (an autistic boy) who died at the institution and that this lawyer is also handling the evil guy's affairs.

As she interviews staff from the care home she discovers an Administrator who is bitter because her career aspirations have been dashed.  She may have been more interested in her career than in running the facility well.  The lawyer starts receiving anonymous tips pertaining to the case.  She can't figure out who would be feeding her them as she believes she has interviewed everyone who might know something about the case.

The father of the autistic boy is a high ranking official with the Justice Dept. who also has career aspirations but he appears to be willing to cooperate with the lawyer.  As the lawyer continues her investigations she discovers that one of the patients at the care facility, a comatose girl, was 4 months pregnant when she died.  She is shocked to discover the abuse.  Could this be the reason someone set fire to the building, to hide the fact the girl was pregnant.  She also learns that the night staff at the facility were allowing strangers into the building for intravenous drips and oxygen to counteract intoxication.  Could one of these people be the cause of the fire.

As she investigates the patients she learns that the autistic boy frequently drew pictures with a prone body, a circle divided into three and NN18o.  She initially thinks it might be a drawing of the comatose girl.  After "interviewing" one of the patients (with locked in syndrome) who survived the fire because she was out of the bldg on the night of the fire the lawyer she gets a hint about short oxgyen hose, later learns that this woman was also raped and eventually is able to identify the rapist by showing the young woman pictures of people who partied at the facility.

As the book ends we learn that the mother of the autistic boy was the woman who killed the girl in the hit and run, her autistic son and daughter where in the car when it happened.  The images the son is drawing are of the accident and the licence number of her car.  The autistic boy had been getting treatment which the family feared might open him up enough to divulge the accident.  The daughter recruits a friend to set a small fire at the facility as she thinks this will shut her brother down.  However the situation gets out conrol becuase the sprinkler system in the building, which was new and rushed to completion, was not operational.

The lawyer eventually learned that the messages she has been receiving were from Josteinn, the violent criminal.  He is allowed to work on computers at the prison to fix them up and then they are sent on to charities.  He fortuitously gets his hands on a laptop formerly owned by the father of the autistic boy which had some sort of "key" which allowed him internet acces and the ability to make phone calls (both of which are forbidden to him).  He is delighted to see emails between the father and lawyer plus Facebook posts which document what was going on the facility.  When the father of the autistic boy discovers that laptop has been sent to the prison he makes sure it is retrieved but Josteinn knows this might happen and has saved the incriminating info which he passes onto the lawyer he asked to look into the case.

The book was long but very well written.  The author did a great job of developing the story.  There was some humour in the book in the Lawyer being stuck with a very beligerent and incompetent assistant (through some deal with the building owner) and the stress in her life because her parents have had to move in with her and her family, her, her two small children and her lover. Her parents have asked to move in with her temporarily because the decline in the economy and bad investing on their part has caused them to lose their home.

One very disturbing part of the book, Josteinn violently attacks Jacob, his friend, the  Downs-Sydrome boy, blinding him.  He does this because he feels this will get the boy back to Rejkjavik to be nearer the lawyer.

The only thing that was a bit disconcerting... at the end the woman who killed the girl in the hit and run didn't seem to have any grief over what she had done, her husband's career prospects were ruined but it was not clear if she would suffer any legal consequences.  Nor was it clear if the daughter would suffer any legal consequences.  One of the employees of the care home, who was not at work on the night of the fire, also seems to be unrepentant about what they did at the facility and seems to feel very sorry for his lot in life.  He will be on trial for the death (accidental or not) of the fellow who raped the girls at the faciltiy.  Fortunately the downs-syndrome man is exonerated and released to the care of his mother.