Nordic Crime Fiction
These mysteries from Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Finland are not for the faint of heart. Steig Larsson is just one of the many authors that swept in on the Nordic crime fiction wave. Dark, psychological, and often twisted – these thrillers are the perfect read for long winter nights.
Harry Hole Series by Jo Nesbo. Detective Hole (pronounced “Her-ler’) is a high-octane, Doc-wearing, punk devotee drunkard who brilliantly tracks down the sickest serial killers between blackouts. His latest is The Leopard. [Norway]
Inspector Sejer Series by Karin Fossum. Intuitive Inspector Konrad Sejer investigates murders in a small town. Fossum's books are really, really creepy. Her latest is Bad Intentions. [Norway]
Irene Huss Series by Helene Tursten. Detective Huss works in the Violent Crimes Unit of Goteberg. She solves grisly crimes (try The Torso, if you dare) and deals with the challenges of leading a hostile male-dominated unit. [Sweden]
Karen Alvtegen – her psychological thrillers are page turners – I went 20 minutes past my bus stop reading Betrayal. Her latest is Shadow. [Sweden]
Erik Winter Series by Åke Edwardson. Erik Winter is the youngest Chief Inspector in Sweden – highly intelligent, he is more than a match for the most vicious killers. [Sweden]
Erlendur Sveinsson Series by Arnaldur Indriđason. Detective Erlendur solves sordid murders in Reykjavik. Fun fact: Icelandic authors are filed under their first name. [Iceland]
Ann Lindell Series by Kjell Eriksson. The Last Link is the latest with Lindell, a single mother who works on the Violent Crimes Unit with the Uppsala police. [Sweden]
Varg Veum Series by Gunner Staalesen. Veum is a burnt-out ex-social worker. Hoping to make a real difference, he becomes a hard-boiled private eye. One of his early child abuse cases comes back to haunt him in The Consorts of Death. [Norway]
Frølich & Gunnarstranda Series by K.O. Dahl. Detectives Gunnarstranda and Frølich are an oddly-matched, yet formidable team solving gruesome crimes in Oslo. Their latest is The Last Fix. [Norway]
Kurt Wallander Series by Henning Mankell. One the best known authors – now a BBC series starring Kenneth Branagh as the somber Detective Wallandar. Reserve the latest: The Troubled Man. [Sweden]
Timo Harjunpää Series by Matti Yrjänä Joensuu. Joensuu was a cop himself for 35 years before creating Detective Harjunpää – a detective with a strong social conscience working in Helsinki. Try To Steal Her Love. [Finland]
9 thoughts on “Nordic Crime Fiction”
Anne Holt is another great Norwegian crime writer. Unfortunately not many of her books are available in English. TPL has Punishment and The Final Murder. Both are well worth reading.
I haven’t read her! Thanks – we have “Death in Oslo” on order. I will definitely keep an eye out for her books. Her detective sounds amazing.
The Annika Bengtzon series by Liza Marklund is another good one. The protagonist is a journalist, delving into political corruption while dealing (or not dealing) with her personal problems.
Thanks! I’ve just put my name down on the waiting list for Red Wolf. I’ve heard that Yellowbird Productions (they did Wallender and the Millenium Films) are in production on some of her novels.
Johan Theorin is another Swedish crime writer getting a lot of attention these days.
Also, his website is gorgeous. http://www.johantheorin.co.uk
I have read several Swedish crime writers (Mankell, Nesser, Theorin, Kallentoft, Larsson, Sjoevall, Edwarsson, and others) in Swedish, and I would like to find more such books printed in Swedish. Does anyone reading this blog know where I can find books in Swedish in Toronto or a URL where one may order them for a good price?
Tack skall Du ha!
You could try the following link:
http://hem.passagen.se/stefan.warnqvist/bookstore.html
I can’t vouch if they are a good price or not. The Toronto Reference Library carries books in Swedish too!
Thanks for the valuable information, V. I have searched the public library collection and have found few books in Swedish, and most of them say “reference, not for circulation”. So far, most sources in Sweden say that they do not deliver internationally. Yet, I will keep trying.
Before the popularity of Nordic writers in English translation, I remember another Swedish writer, Maria lang (Dagmar Lange), whose books were translated into French. I found Nordic writers available in French beforeEnglish.
However, when looking for a source for Swedish books, I found distributors through AbeBooks reliable. But the shipping cost is usualy equal to the price of the book.