English Translations of Scandinavian/Nordic Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

For those who are in England, you've already read it, but for those of us in the US the book this month is Jo Nesbø's book Police. We will have to wait for the publication date of October 15, 2013. I know Anna's already got it from England. ;-)

My darling husband surprised me with Police yesterday. He ordered it from Amazon.uk. Boy, has he ever earned gold stars! Jo Nesbo, and the duo Roslund & Helstrum are my two favorites right now. Intense, great plotting, good writing. And I love Harry Hole. I should say "Hello!" as I just joined this group. My photo is Gretel, my Great Pyrenees puppy.

Welcome! Big smile on me cuz my hubby earned a big gold star from me too! I'm half way through Police and enjoy every bit of it. As for Roslund & Helstrum I was hooked after reading Three Seconds but have doubt reading others. What are your thoughts?

Oh, do read Box 21. It was a beautifully plotted story and the ending was a bit of a shock if you hadn't read carefully. My reaction after a minute or so was "Of course, that's what the world is like". It is on my favorites of all time list FOAT. Haven't read Cell 8 yet, but will after finishing up re-reading Phantom, then Police (yeah!). And I do love your Panda. Furry and cuddly, just like Gretel when she's tired. Let me know how you like Box 21.

I just wanted to add a read for those who can. It'sBurial Rites by Hannah Kent it left me with a sad feeling. I know a lot of you have already read it so it won't be a effort.

Gretel wrote: "Oh, do read Box 21. It was a beautifully plotted story and the ending was a bit of a shock if you hadn't read carefully. My reaction after a minute or so was "Of course, that's what the world is ..."

Sorry, but I'm afraid I don't share the same sentiment with you on Cell 8. I did read The Beast this summer and wasn't thrilled either. It reminded me of A Time to Kill by John Grisham. I do have Box 21 on my shelf and am debating whether I should still stick to Roslund. But their Three Seconds still has my ultimate praises.

Gretel is adorable!!:) I wish I have a panda for a pet.

Can't wait until everybody finished reading Police so we can start the discussion.

Won't get it till the 15th of October.

Hooray, I finished the last book and thought to myself; did harry just die? I lost Wallander and losing Harry would have been too much.

I though the same as you!!!!! I read the book non stop and I could not believe Harry was gone... It was a great display!

I know! When I finished Phantom I said OMG nesbo let his number one detective died? I was quite impresses with Nesbo wiling to let HH go at the ultimate of his career. Not that I was happy abt it. Now after reading Police Nesbo's talent never ceased to amaze me.

Finished re-reading Phantom last night. I had forgotten how much I dislike the first person sections of the book. But everything else made up for and greatly outnumbered those portions. The violence approached my limit, I think. Anyway, begin Police tonight! (But husband says no staying up after 10:30 pm PDT. Drat!

Will be reading Hannah Kent's Burial Rites.

Mae wrote: "I would like to read Police after reading posts. I''ll look for it but not a fan of hardcover and not transitioned to electronic. I had also lost interest in Harry after he switched from booze to h..."

Mae, buy that new kindle paperbrite or nook ( the cheap all I want to do is read a book version) Once you got it down the "how to operate stuff" you can borrow e-books from various site, and buy e-books on sale. I still go to book stores all the time, but it is nice to hear about a book from a source and access the title right away. As to Harry's addictions, that is the way of addicted personalities. But instead of heroin it should have been prescription drugs considering how mangled Harry has gotten in the last few books. That is why I like Karin Fossum's books. Fossum's Inspector Sejer is surprising free of personal baggage save for an aging dog.

Gretel wrote: "My darling husband surprised me with Police yesterday. He ordered it from Amazon.uk. Boy, has he ever earned gold stars! Jo Nesbo, and the duo Roslund & Helstrum are my two favorites right now. ..." Groucho Marx's said outside a dog, a book is a man's best friend, inside a dog, it's too dark to read.

Just picked up Burial Rites from the library, and looking forward to reading it from all the great comments!

Agnes wrote: "Just picked up Burial Rites from the library, and looking forward to reading it from all the great comments!"

Mine is on order; own a signed copy I'm itching to read, hope the library come through soon

I started reading Police about two weeks ago. I was very surprised by the ending of Phantom and thrilled when this book came out. I would have greatly missed Harry, he is such a great character. I can't wait to get back to my book in the evenings. Happy reading, everyone :-)

Agnes wrote: "Just picked up Burial Rites from the library, and looking forward to reading it from all the great comments!"

I bought it a few days ago and I'm halfway through! I would like to read it s-l-o-w-l-y to make it last longer!

I agree, we need to make it last!

"But instead of heroin it should have been prescription drugs considering how mangled Harry has gotten in the last few books."

Heroin is an opiate, it would work on pain too. I think he was smoking opium in Hong Kong too wasn't he?

I am 73 of 401 in line for the next available copy at my local library here in Toronto. :( hope it comes soon. There are 399 holds on 115 copies in the system. You do the math :)

Richard wrote: "I am 73 of 401 in line for the next available copy at my local library here in Toronto. :( hope it comes soon. There are 399 holds on 115 copies in the system. You do the math :)"

Looks like it may be a while! :-(

Richard wrote: "I am 73 of 401 in line for the next available copy at my local library here in Toronto. :( hope it comes soon. There are 399 holds on 115 copies in the system. You do the math :)" Bite the bullet and buy new then give it to the library. You will be happy & get good karma. I myself just pre-ordered the kindle edition. First time I did that so we will see if on the fifteenth the Police will be there on my device.

Stephen wrote: "Richard wrote: "I am 73 of 401 in line for the next available copy at my local library here in Toronto. :( hope it comes soon. There are 399 holds on 115 copies in the system. You do the math :)" B..."

that's an excellent suggestion Stephen, never thought about that, but it's tempting .. but i'm kind of a fanatic about using the Library .. i'll let you know. :)

Richard wrote: "Stephen wrote: "Richard wrote: "I am 73 of 401 in line for the next available copy at my local library here in Toronto. :( hope it comes soon. There are 399 holds on 115 copies in the system. You d..."

Hello, Richard: I agree about using a library if at all possible. How about "Library to Go"? Where you borrow ebooks thru your library for a limited amount of time. I did it for an Alan Furst novel and it worked perfectly. Of course, he wasn't "hot" right then like Nesbo is now. Also, find a reading club where members loan books to each other (and there are some really fast readers!). Good luck.

Gretel wrote: "Richard wrote: "Stephen wrote: "Richard wrote: "I am 73 of 401 in line for the next available copy at my local library here in Toronto. :( hope it comes soon. There are 399 holds on 115 copies in t..."

Thanks Gretel. Not an e-reader (yet) but I like your suggestions. I'm gonna hold off until it comes available at the library. Looking forward to reading it when it becomes available!

Kenneth wrote: "I just wanted to add a read for those who can. It'sBurial Rites by Hannah Kent it left me with a sad feeling. I know a lot of you have already read it so it won't be a effort."

Hannah Kent is a new author to me. Is Burial Rites set in Scandinavia? Tell me more: is it one of a series? Is there a detective/pi/other person whose exploits we follow? etc. A Thank You is advance to any responses.

Hannah Kent is a British author who lived in Iceland and was bugged about the last women to be put to death in Iceland, got her head chopped off with an axe. We have several other authors who I've noted that have been in Iceland that write about it, look under Iceland authors.

Kenneth, Hannah Kent is Australian and Burial Rites is her debut novel.

Richard wrote: "Gretel wrote: "Richard wrote: "Stephen wrote: "Richard wrote: "I am 73 of 401 in line for the next available copy at my local library here in Toronto. :( hope it comes soon. There are 399 holds on ..."
I get most of my books from the library too,and often ebooks, but do occasionally order books for my Kindle or Nook. I wish our online library had more recent ebooks to loan out however!

She is a GRs author. This is her first book. She writes an excellent blog about the process of writing and her research. Some good articles while she was in Edinburgh this summer.

Highly recommend the book....a good read. I posted quite a bit about this under Burial Rites.

Hannah Kent Goodreads author profile
url https://www.goodreads.com/hannahkenta...
born Adelaide , Australia
genderfemale
websitehttps://www.hannahkentauthor.com
twitter usernameHannahFKent
genreFiction
member sinceMarch 2013

About this author edit data
Hannah Kent won the 2011 Writing Australia Unpublished Manuscript Award for her manuscript, Burial Rites, and is currently mentored by Geraldine Brooks. She is the co-founder and deputy editor of Australian literary journal Kill Your Darlings, and teaches Creative Writing and English at Flinders University, where she is also completing her PhD.

In 2011 she was a judge of Melbourne University/The Australian Centre’s Peter Blazey Fellowship for Life Writing. Her creative and critical writing has appeared in The Big Issue, Australian Book Review, The Wheeler Centre, Kill Your Darlings and Voiceworks, amongst others.


21 postsHannah Kent's Blog
Frederick McCubbin's 'Lost' (1886)
The Royal Academy of Arts, in collaboration with the National Gallery of Australia, are currently showing the exhibitionAustralia in London.Marking the first major survey of Australian art in the UK for 50 years, 'this exhibition spans more than 200 years from 1800 to the present day and seeks to uncover the fascinating social and cultural evolution of a nation through its art.'

I've been corrected. I'm a bad boy! I got it right on the Iceland authors, or did one of you guys change it? Well kind of British, one of the Colonies. Keep me honest. Thanks Fizzycola and Sharon. I was thinking of Quentin Bates who writes about a female cop (Gunnhildur) and Michael Ridpath who writes about a male cop (Magnus Jonson) who are British. Australia is where all my mail goes when I send it to my daughter who lives in Austria. Sorry!!!

Actually, as I see it (and I am a librarian), it won't be very long before you get a copy. If there are 115 copies in the system, you'll get a copy during the next book turnover. In my local system, new books go out for 2 weeks, so even if all 115 copies went out yesterday, they would come back in 2 weeks and Richard, you will get a copy within 2 weeks, or whatever the lending period is. It's not as if you have to wait until all the people in the queue have to read the one and only copy before you do.

Put a new author up in our October read-along. He's Vidar Sundstøl and his book is The Land of Dreams, not sure when it was put up for the Glass Key award for the best Scandinavian novel of the year. He's from Norway and he spent two years on the North Shore of Lake Superior.

Just finished Burial Rites this weekend. Haunting tale that I will not soon forget. So well done!

I'll always remember Hannah Kent is from Australia.

Kenneth wrote: "I'll always remember Hannah Kent is from Australia."

:-) Me too!

:)

I agree with Gretel that Box 21 is amazing. I was stunned by the overwhelming sense of hopelessness but could not stop reading.
It was an unforgettable book. A must read!

Linden wrote: "I agree with Gretel that Box 21 is amazing. I was stunned by the overwhelming sense of hopelessness but could not stop reading.
It was an unforgettable book. A must read!"
So glad someone else was consumed by this book! Welcome to the group. Everyone probably has Police by now (it was due out in America today) - it's our next topic of discussion, in a week? I'm reading but also have a life beyond reading (isn't that foolish?).

Yes, it was the first time I pre-ordered a title and when I woke up on the 15th there it was.

Is this where we discuss Nesbo newest? I hit the halfway point but do not want to spoil everything.

I got Police from the library, pretty fast although I was on the waiting list forever.

Well I the read Police and I was intrigued by how Jo writes about all Harry's friends and enemies. He leaves you with subtle hints of openings for other books.

The library told me I'm next on line for Police; can't wait!

Then make your local library get a copy, read that, and when the paperbacks will be out you'll probably want yourself one then. :)

Don't usually make the library do much of anything. Will read it when it comes out in paperback, most likely.

Police was awesome, if you haven't read it, get it! But read Nesbo in order

I'm now 16th of 377 in line to get Police from the Toronto Public Library system. Hopefully I get my copy soon! :)