English Translations of Scandinavian/Nordic Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

For the month of May 2020 we have 5 books at the present time, they are:

1) The Bird in Me Flies by Sara Lundberg to be published on 5 May 2020. Sweden.

What do you do when it feels impossible to live up to everything expected of you? When the only person who understands you disappears? When you are young and long for something that seems out of reach?

Berta dreams of being an artist, but as a girl growing up in a small Swedish farming village in the 1920s, she has little hope. She finds solace in nature, and in drawing and shaping birds from clay for her mother, the only person who seems to truly understand her. When her mother succumbs to tuberculosis, Berta feels alone, in despair and even more burdened by all the work on the farm. Can she find the courage to defy her father and the social conventions of her time, and fly free?

This beautifully illustrated novel in verse, inspired by the paintings, letters and diaries of Swedish artist Berta Hansson (1910-1994), is a universal story of grief, longing and following your dreams.

2) Scandinavian Noir: In Pursuit of a Mystery by Wendy Lesser to be published 5 May 2020. Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

An in-depth and personal exploration of Scandinavian crime fiction as a way into Scandinavian culture at large

For nearly four decades, Wendy Lesser's primary source of information about three Scandinavian countries--Sweden, Norway, and Denmark--was mystery and crime novels, and the murders committed and solved in their pages. Having never visited the region, Lesser constructed a fictional Scandinavia of her own making, something between a map, a portrait, and a cultural history of a place that both exists and does not exist. Lesser's Scandinavia is disproportionately populated with police officers, but also with the stuff of everyday life, the likes of which are relayed in great detail in the novels she read: a fully realized world complete with its own traditions, customs, and, of course, people.

Over the course of many years, Lesser's fictional Scandinavia grew more and more solidly visible to her, yet she never had a strong desire to visit the real countries that corresponded to the made-up ones. Until, she writes, "between one day and the next, that no longer seemed sufficient." It was time to travel to Scandinavia.

With vivid storytelling and an astonishing command of the literature, Wendy Lesser's Scandinavian Noir: In Pursuit of a Mystery illuminates the vast, peculiar world of Scandinavian noir--first as it appears on the page, then as it grows in her mind, and finally, in the summer of 2018, as it exists in reality. Guided by sharp criticism, evocative travel writing, and a whimsical need to discover "the difference between existence and imagination, reality and dream," Scandinavian Noir is a thrilling and inventive literary adventure from a masterful writer and critic.

3) The Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by to be published 12 May 2020. Scandinavia.

The Viking Age - between 750 and 1050 - saw an unprecedented expansion of the Scandinavian peoples. As traders and raiders, explorers and colonists, they reshaped the world between eastern North America and the Asian steppe. For a millennium, though, their history has largely been filtered through the writings of their victims. Based on the latest archaeological and textual evidence, Children of Ash and Elm tells the story of the Vikings on their own terms: their politics, their cosmology, their art and culture. From Björn Ironside, who led an expedition to sack Rome, to Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir, the most travelled woman in the world, Price shows us the real Vikings, not the caricatures they have become in popular culture and history.

4) In the Name of Truth by Viveca Sten to be published 19 May 2020. Sweden.

A shocking abduction rocks idyllic Sandhamn Island in an enthralling novel of suspense by Viveca Sten, bestselling author of In the Heat of the Moment.

With the summer season on Sandhamn comes an unsettling mystery for Detective Inspector Thomas Andreasson. A bullied young boy has vanished from a sailing camp on neighboring Lökholmen Island. Has the terrorized eleven-year-old run away? Or, in this isolated vacation spot where strangers lurk, is it something more ominous?

The disappearance has also captured the interest of Thomas’s longtime friend, attorney Nora Linde. The missing child happens to be the son of her latest client, Christian Dufva. He is a key witness against his partner in a high-profile embezzlement trial, and Dufva’s testimony could be devastating. It’ll also be Nora’s biggest win—the next step toward a position as chief prosecutor. But with every anonymous threat against Dufva, the stakes get higher.

When new evidence surfaces in their respective cases, new questions and fears arise for Thomas and Nora. Time is running out to resolve them. So is hope of finding the boy alive. Because on Sandhamn Island, the truth is buried as deep as the secrets.

5) The Carrier by to be published 23 May 2020. Sweden.

The man with the nuclear briefcase has gone rogue – Mission Impossible meets the Hunt for Red October

“I don’t think I have read such a philosophical, knowledge-studded and realistic adventure novel since Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose” Göteborgs-Posten

Erasmus Levine has a job like no other

He travels with the President of the United States at all times, and holds in his hands the power to obliterate life as we know it. He is the man with the nuclear briefcase, part of a crack team of top-secret operatives established after 9/11, led by a man codenamed Edelweiss. But not even Edelweiss is party to the identity of their ultimate authority, known only as Alpha.

Erasmus Levine has a secret

For years he has been receiving cryptic messages from Alpha, an elaborate communication that began with the words we two against the world. Levine begins thinking of escape: his chance comes during an official visit to Sweden, when the alarm sounds in Stockholm’s Grand Hotel.

But Alpha has other plans

From their first meeting in a network of tunnels and bunkers beneath the city, Levine is drawn into a plan to eliminate the world’s nuclear arsenals. But is controlled demolition really the endgame? Could he be working towards a controlled apocalypse, a doomsday plot to wipe humanity from the face of the earth?

Translated from the Swedish by George Goulding.

.........We will add new books during the month as they become known to us. Good reading.

Christoffer Petersen has a new book out called "Constable David Maratse #5: Omnibus Edition (Novellas 17-20) to be published 4 May 2020. Greenland. On Amazon not yet on Goodreads.

Discover the world of Greenland crime, thrillers and mysteries with Constable David Maratse.

These four previously published Greenland crime novellas delve deeper into the world of Constable David Maratse, and explore modern Greenland through Jack Londonesque adventures with a criminal twist.

Virusi
A short story of outbreak and hysteria in the Arctic
When a young woman collapses shortly after arriving in a remote settlement in Greenland, Constable David Maratse must enforce quarantine as sickness and panic spreads through the community.

Bait
A short story of cause and consequence in the Arctic
When invited on a fishing trip, Constable David Maratse is forced to relive an old case and admit his mistakes before he is allowed to return to shore.

The Women’s Knife
A short story of mental health and manipulation in the Arctic
When Constable David Maratse responds to a pregnant woman’s suicide attempt in a remote settlement, he uncovers disturbing secrets buried in tiny graves hidden on the island.

Ice, Wind and Fire
A short story of fire and devastation in the Arctic
When thin ice prevents firefighters from responding to a house fire, Constable David Maratse must organise an evacuation, before strong winds spread the flames through the settlement.

I'm amazed that Christoffer Petersen writes so much I almost can't keep up.

Of Darkness and Light by Heidi Eljarbo to be published 12 May 2020. Norway.

In this first book of a new historical mystery series, a young art historian faces a tough choice in German-occupied Norway.

Oslo, 1944. Soli Hansen’s passion for art history is and always has been a way of life for her. While she spends her days working in an art shop, WWII is taking its toll on everyone. Apprehensive of the consequences, Soli avoids becoming entangled in the war resistance efforts. She closes her eyes in hopes the enemy will retreat and leave her beautiful country for good.

But when a woman is found dead in the alley alongside the art shop and a painting from the last auction goes missing, Soli is thrown into the thickest of the fray involving both Nazi art theft and the Norwegian resistance.

Once Soli finds her courage, there’s no turning back. Her personal life is turned upside-down with danger, lies, spying, and an incredible discovery.

We had VIKING: Thunder Horse by Katie Aiken Ritter a U.S. author who published the 30th of April 2020. Iceland.

ICELAND 979 A.D. A CORRUPT LEADER. A TORMENTED WOMAN.
Secrets that could topple a tyrant—and destroy those who carry them.

"Kidnap. Torture. Cheat. Steal. Lie. Bend the law and break it." Kel Coesson’s brutal chieftain Naldrum now schemes to take over all of Iceland--and he’s getting away with murder.

Kel has walked a knife-edge of survival and betrayal in a desperate gamble to stop Naldrum—and Kel’s unraveling. But if he breaks, everything Kel cares about will be destroyed, including his onetime-love Aldís, with whom a glimmer of hope glows again.

Aldís, haunted by a terrible secret, must make the most dangerous decision of her life. As desperate courage rises against brutal corruption, a rich cast of characters from The Plains of Althing returns: a mysterious captive, a defiant slave, a lonely widow, a traumatized young priest, an honest old Lawspeaker, and Naldrum’s bloodthirsty daughter, jealous of Kel and bent on destroying Aldís.

Does courage have a chance against corruption? Buy VIKING: THUNDER HORSE to experience this epic novel of Norse adventure for yourself!

Katie Aiken Ritter is a 2016 AWC Novel Award winner and 2017 Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society Finalist

The Woman Who Went Overboard by Florence Wetzel Florence Wetzel published 28 April 2020. Scandinavia.

A psychological thriller about a Swedish-American woman who becomes obsessed by a Norwegian widower during a cruise along the coast of Norway.

Agnes Andersson is an awkward middle-aged woman who desperately wants a husband. And what better place to find one than on a cruise along the coast of Norway? During the voyage Agnes meets her ideal man, a handsome Norwegian widower named Einar. The only problem is that Einar prefers Pamela—Agnes’ new best friend.

When Pamela’s body washes ashore almost a year later, her daughter visits Agnes to ask questions about the cruise. Their conversation becomes a cat-and-mouse game where Agnes bends the facts to avoid revealing the truth about Pamela’s disappearance and death.

A psychological thriller set in the cozy atmosphere of a cruise ship, The Woman Who Went Overboard is a story of romantic obsession, and a haunting tale of how far one woman will go to get the man of her dreams.

We have another book by Christoffer Petersen called The Fjord of Evil Winds published 23 April 2020. Greenland.

Entrusted with a precious manuscript, bound in sealskin, a young Greenlander risks his life to paddle across a wind-ravaged fjord to reach the last ship sailing for Denmark.

The Fjord of Evil Winds is inspired by a kernel of truth, describing how thirty-year-old Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen is forced into the attic of a colonial house in a Greenlandic settlement, with strict instructions to finish his manuscript.

A young Greenlander with his skin-on-frame qajaq, paddles into a storm to deliver the manuscript. But when he releases the slippery power of Erichsen’s words, he must use Arctic magic to overcome them, before he can continue his journey.

The Fjord of Evil Winds is a fictitious novella inspired by the Danish Literary Expedition to Greenland, 1902-04.

Viking Sagas: The Captivating Tale of Ragnar Lothbrok, Ivar the Boneless, Lagertha, and More, in Their Historical Context by Matt Clayton published 2 May 2020. Scandinavia.

The period between the end of the eighth century CE and the middle of the eleventh is often called the “Viking Age” because this is the period in which Scandinavian people expanded their contacts with the outside world through trade, raiding, exploration, and colonization.

This volume presents a version of Ragnar’s saga compiled from different modern sources, along with information providing additional historical and documentary context, followed by a discussion of some aspects of modern appropriations and representations of ancient Norse culture.

The first section of the book provides historical context for Ragnar’s saga through an exploration of daily life in ninth-century Scandinavia and of contemporary Viking culture and history.

The text of the saga itself forms the second part of the book, along with notes giving further information about how this version of the saga is presented and about elements within the story that might not be familiar to modern readers.

The third section of the book deals with representations of ancient Norse cultures in modern popular media.

Within this book, you'll find the following the Viking Sagas and topics covered:
The World of Ragnar Lothbrok
The Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok and His Sons
Representations of Norse Myths and History in Modern Media
The Clash of History and Drama in the History Channel Television Series Vikings
And much more!