As the title suggests something or someone is Broken. It transpires that there are two broken cops who fate, and circumstances have thrust together. Dóra was on an operation with Elliði that went badly wrong. A suspect shot himself and she was hit as the bullet passed through him, with bullet fragments and his bone and brain matter ending up in her eye. Surgeons extracted some but not all the debris, leaving some bullet fragments too dangerous to reach behind. She lost the sight in the eye, resorting first to eye patches then a glass eye. Dóra suffers from crippling pain, now being hooked on strong painkillers and her personality has changed because of the brain damage suffered. She returned to the force doing administration and case reviews. Elliði is now the boss and he is looking after her welfare at work, though whether this is a result of the guilt he feels in his part for the failed operation is a moot point. Rado was born in Bosnia but the family fled to Iceland when he was a child. He married into a Polish immigrant family, one that happens to be a crime family. Rado is deliberately tied up with a pointless surveillance job whilst the Special Unit and just about everyone else prepares for a raid to take down his father-in-law. He also has a brother he hasn’t seen since he was sectioned for a violent streak. So, we have two cops whose status is untenable, sidelined until decisions on their future can be decided. When a girl goes missing during the big operation it falls to them to investigate. We love a maverick cop and here we are fortunate to have two. Dóra is the pick, we feel her suffering but also delight in her strangeness. The damage to her brain means she picks up language quickly, but her behavioural filters no longer work as they should. It is almost like a form of Tourette’s syndrome where inappropriate thoughts are vocalised or actioned. She is prone to act on impulse, having almost died once it seems she has no fear. By comparison Rado is tame, though he has begun to express his frustrations in the time-honoured way of rogue cops. The word unorthodox was created for detectives like these, their investigation strays far from standard procedures. There is one scene which having beaten up a gangster Dóra adopts an unusual questioning technique that will have you wincing and laughing at the same time. There are essentially two parallel plots that grab the attention and progress nicely. There’s a lot happening, but the storyline never gets bogged down. This is a novel about belonging, acceptance and feeling part of something. The missing girl Guðbjörg is not only confused about her identity, becoming non-binary and taking the name Morgan, she moved from Sweden two years ago. Rado moved to Iceland from Bosnia as a child, but feels he is Icelandic first, having fully assimilated. For some immigrants he is too Icelandic and a cop, so no longer truly one of them, whereas to some Icelanders, including some fellow officers he will always be a ‘Yugoslav’ foreigner. Dóra injury means she now has a constant battle to discover who she is now. She may still be an officer, but will she ever truly be accepted. It's dark and gritty with a fair sprinkling of violence and hints of torture. This is only to be expected for a gangland power struggle, and this aspect is so well written, bringing a sense of menace and that danger could lurk around any corner. Despite all of this the author manages to bring some balance with sublime dark humour of the kind where you laugh and then realise that perhaps you shouldn’t have. The dialogue is excellent and there are some cutting asides, Dóra’s affliction certainly helps here. Quentin Bate’s work on the translation is as good as I have come to expect and I love that he has captured the subtlety of expression. For instance, the new coffee pod machine that produces drinks with the flavour of disappointment.