Scandinavian Mysteries & Thrillers

Adler-Olsen, Jussi. The Absent One; translated by K.E. Semmel. Dutton, 2012. Denmark's leading crime writer returns with the second book in his electrifying, Glass Key Award--winning Department Q series. Detective Carl Mørck, a deeply flawed, brilliant detective newly assigned to run Department Q, the home of Copenhagen's coldest cases.

Alvtegen, Karin, 1965-. Shame; translated by Steven T. Murray.  Felony & Mayhem Press, 2005. Four of her books have been translated from Swedish into English: Missing (2000) was awarded the Glass Key, the premier Scandinavian crime-writing award in 2001 and has been made into a TV series,  Betrayal (2003), Shame (2005), Shadow (2007).

Arnaldur Indridason, 1961-. Outrage; translated from the Icelandic by Anna Yates.  Harvill Secker, 2011. A vial of narcotics found in the victim’s pocket and other clues will lead Erlendur’s colleagues down a trail of hidden violence, psychological brutality and of wrongs that will never be fully righted. The author is known for his Detective Erlendur series.  Jar City (2000) and Silence of the Grave (2001) won the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel. Silence of the Grave also won the CWA Gold Dagger Award (2005) for best crime novel of the year. 

Dahl, Kjell Ola, 1958-. The Last Fix. Minotaur Books, 2010. Intense police Inspector Gunnarstranda and his easygoing aide, Frank Frolich, tackle the murder of recovering drug addict, Katrine Bratterud. This is Norwegian Dahl's 3rd crime thriller after The Fourth Man (2007); The Man in the Window (2008).

Edwardson, Åke, 1953-. Room no. 10; translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles. Simon & Schuster, 2013. A young woman is discovered hanged in a room in a decrepit hotel, and Gothenburg’s Chief Inspector Erik Winter must try to figure out what happened. As Winter looks around, he realizes that he was in the same hotel room many years earlier, when it was the last known location of a woman who subsequently disappeared and was never found. Three time winner of the Swedish Academy of Crime Writers' Award.

Eriksson, Kjell, 1953-. The Hand that Trembles; translated by Ebba Segerberg. Minotaur Books, 2011.The 4th novel centered around Detective Ann Lindell of the Uppsala police. Previous titles include Demon of Dakar (2005), The Cruel Stars of the Night (2004) and The Princess of Burundi (2002), winner of the Swedish Crime Academy Award for Best Crime Novel. 

Fossum, Karin, 1954-. The Caller; translated from the Norwegian by K.E. Semmel. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. Inspector Sejer investigates the delivery of a threatening postcard that coincides with the discovery of a child who was found covered in blood but unharmed in her stroller. Fossum, the “queen of Norwegian crime fiction” is the author of the internationally successful  & award-winning Inspector Konrad Sejer series.

Grebe, Camilla and Åsa Träff. Some Kind of Peace; translated from the Swedish by Paul Norlén. This gripping literary crime novel tells the story of a young, recently widowed psychologist who is afraid of the dark and whose past comes to haunt her as she tries to solve crimes, beginning with the brutal murder of one of her patients.

Holt, Anne, 1958-. Blind Goddess: a Hanne Wilhelmsen novel; translated from the Norwegian by Tom Geddes. Scribner, c2012. A small-time drug dealer is found battered to death on the outskirts of Oslo. A young Dutchman, walking aimlessly in Oslo, covered in blood, is taken into custody but refuses to talk. Norwegian Anne Holt’s books are bestsellers in Scandinavia. Now she is poised to gain a huge American following with this captivating new mystery that pays homage to Agatha Christie and her classic book, And Then There Were None.

Kaaberbol, Lene and Agnete Friis. The Boy in the Suitcase; translated from the Danish by Lene Kaaberbol. Soho Crime, c2011. The first in a best-selling Scandinavian series to be translated into English introduces the possibly unreliable and definitely unstable Nina Borg, a Red Cross nurse in Copenhagen, whose desire to help others frequently supersedes family and personal responsibilities.

Kazinski, A. J. The Last Good Man; translated from the Danish by Tiina Nunnally. Scribner, 2012. A story based on the Jewish legend about how the world is always protected by 36 people follows the sudden deaths of dozens of humanitarians who each bear a bizarre tattoo and whose untimely ends are investigated by Copenhagen detective Niels Benzon, who would save the remaining protectors. A. J. Kazinski is the pseudonym of Anders Rønnow Klarlund and Jacob Weinreich.

Kepler, Lars. The Nightmare; translated from the Swedish by Laura A. Wideburg. Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012. Lars Kepler returns with a piercing, bestselling sequel to The Hypnotist (2011). Lars Kepler is a husband-and-wife team-Alexandra and Alexander Ahndoril.

Läckberg, Camilla, 1974-. The Stonecutter; translated by Steven T. Murray. Pegasus Books, 2012. The 3rd thriller (after The Ice Princess (2002) and The Preacher (2004) set in her home town of Fjallbacka, Sweden. When a young girl's body is pulled out of the harbor in the small Swedish resort town of Fjallbacka, Det. Patrik Hedström becomes the lead investigator as he struggles with lazy and inept colleagues and an even remoter-than-usual boss. It's his grim task to discover who could be behind the murder of the child both he and his partner Erica knew well.

Larsson, Åsa, 1966-. Until Thy Wrath Be Past; translated by Laurie Thompson. Silver Oak, 2011. This is the 4th translated Rebecka Martinson crime novel. Larsson is a tax attorney and writer. Sun Storm (2003) was awarded the Swedish Crime Writers’ Association Prize for best debut novel. The sequel, The Blood Spilt (2004), was chosen as Best Swedish Crime Novel of 2004.The Black Path (2006).

Larsson, Stieg, 1954-2004. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest; translated by Reg Keeland. Alfred A. Knopf, 2010. Last of the trilogy: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2008); The Girl Who Played With Fire (2009). Made into films in Sweden and now in Hollywood.

Mankell, Henning, 1948-. The Troubled Man; translated by Laurie Thompson.  Knopf, 2011. In Mankell's 11th novel, Wallander's quest for the truth leads him back to the era of cold war espionage. Mankell (Firewall) deftly interweaves the problems of Swedish society with the personal challenges of one man trying to understand what happened and why.

Marklund, Liza, 1962-. Last Will.  Emily Bestler Books/Atria, 2012. A shooting at the glamourous Nobel Prize Dinner in Stockholm enmeshes investigative reporter and witness Annika Bengtzon in a web of international terrorism and global pharmaceutical interests that forces her to track down a professional assassin. 6th novel featuring Stockholm journalist Annika Bengtzon.  The Bomber (1998) is 1st  in the series. Marklund is a Swedish journalist and crime writer.

Nesbø, Jo, 1960-. Phantom; translated by Don Bartlett. Harvill Secker, 2012.  Former police inspector Harry Hole returns to Oslo after three years abroad and takes up the solitary investigation of what appears to be the first impossible case in Harry Hole's career. Jo Nesbo has been compared to Ian Rankin, Michael Connelly, and Henning Mankell. He has won the Glass Key, the Riverton Prize, and the Booksellers Prize, and one of his Harry Hole novels was voted best Norwegian crime novel of all time by Norwegian readers.

Nesser, Håkan, 1950-.  Münster's Case: an Inspector Van Veeteren; translated by Laurie Thompson. Pantheon Books, 2012.  The untimely murder of a lottery-winning retiree, whose case was initially closed by the quiet confession of his wife, baffles Detective Münster when a neighbor goes missing and contradictory evidence emerges. Nesser is the only author to have won the Swedish Crime Writers’ Academy’s best novel award three times: Borkmann’s Point (1994); Woman with Birthmark (1996); A Rather Different Story (2007). Carambole (1999) received the 1999 Glass Key Award.

Ohlsson, Kristina, 1979-. Unwanted. Emily Bestler Books/Atria, 2012. Inspector Fredericka Bergman investigates the kidnapping and murder of a child who had been separated from her mother on a crowded train on a rainy Swedish summer day, a case that points to the work of a brilliant and ruthless killer.

Persson, Leif G. W., 1945-. Another Time, Another Life: the story of a crime; translated by Paul Norlen. Pantheon Books, c2011. The second in Persson's trilogy featuring Swedish cop Lars Johansson. The first is Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End. Perrson is a Swedish criminologist and novelist.

Sjöwall, Maj, 1935-. Wahlöö, Per, 1926-1975. The Terrorists: a Martin Beck mystery; translated by Joan Tate. Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 2010. The final novel in the Swedish Martin Beck mystery series by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahl is a masterful, all consuming tale that rushes toward a thrilling, unexpected climax.

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, 1963-. Ashes to Dust: a thriller. St. Martin's Griffin, 2012. Named one of the year's top ten crime books in the UK, this is the 3rd book featuring attorney Thóra Gudmundsdóttir. (My Soul to Take, 2006; Last Rituals, 2005). Yrsa Sigurðardóttir is an Icelandic writer of crime-novels and children's fiction. 

Söderberg, Alexander. The Andalucian Friend. Crown, c2013. Soderberg's excellent debut, the first in a projected trilogy, chronicles a global turf war among Spanish drug runners, German gangsters, Russian hit men, and Swedish cops.

Theorin, Johan, 1963-.The Darkest Room; translated by Marlaine Delargy. Delta Trade Paperbacks, 2009. The Darkest Room was voted the Best Swedish Crime Novel of 2008; won the Glass Key award in 2009; the 2010 CWA International Dagger. Echoes from the Dead, 2007; The Quarry, 2011. The books form three quarters of a loose quartet of novels set on the island of Öland. Theorin is a Swedish journalist and author.

Thompson, James,1964-. Helsinki White. G.P. Putnam's Sons, c2012. Racial hatred drives Thompson's explosive third thriller featuring Insp. Kari Vaara. An American by birth, James Thompson is a popular writer of Nordic noir. Snow Angel, 2010; Lucifer’s Tears, 2011.

Tursten, Helene,1954-. Night Rounds; translation by Laura A. Wideburg. Soho Press, 2012. 4th Detective Inspector Irene Huss novel. She brings to life modern Swedish society & explores how a female detective manages to balance family life with police work. Tursten is a popular Swedish author of crime fiction.

February 2013  CMC

Scandinavian Mysteries & Thrillers
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