English Translations of Scandinavian/Nordic Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

For the month of May 2021 we have five books to choose from so far, they are:

1) The Ice Whispers by Christoffer Petersen to be published 4th May 2021. Greenland.

While attending a conference in Canada, Constable Petra Jensen’s skills, and not least her Inuit background, make her the ideal undercover officer in an international missing persons investigation.

But the trail is cold, lonely, and dangerous, whispers are the only leads, and the ice is calling.

The Ice Whispers is the eighth title and the first feature-length novel in the Greenland Missing Persons series, set in the harsh, unpredictable Arctic, rich in tradition, myth and culture.

The Ice Whispers breaks the previous tradition of shorter novellas in the Greenland Missing Persons series and gives the readers what they have been asking for!

The Greenland Missing Persons novellas and novels are set prior to The Ice Star and Seven Graves, One Winter.

2) The Girl Who Died: A Novel by Ragnar Jónasson to be published4th May 2021. Iceland.

Teacher Wanted At the Edge of the World

Una wants nothing more than to teach, but she has been unable to secure steady employment in Reykjavík. Her savings are depleted, her love life is nonexistent, and she cannot face another winter staring at the four walls of her shabby apartment. Celebrating Christmas and ringing in 1986 in the remote fishing hamlet of Skálar seems like a small price to pay for a chance to earn some teaching credentials and get her life back on track.

But Skálar isn't just one of Iceland's most isolated villages, it is home to less than a dozen people. Una's only students are two girls aged seven and nine. Teaching them only occupies so many hours in a day and the few adults she interacts with are civil but distant. She only seems to connect with Thór, a man she shares an attraction with but who is determined to keep her at arm's length.

As darkness descends throughout the bleak winter, Una finds herself more often than not in her rented attic space - the site of a local legendary haunting - drinking her loneliness away. She is plagued by nightmares of a little girl in a white dress singing a lullaby. And when a sudden tragedy echoes an event long buried in Skálar's past, the villagers become even more guarded, leaving a suspicious Una seeking to uncover a shocking truth that's been kept secret for generations.

3) How Iceland Changed the World: The Big History of a Small Island by Egill Bjarnason to bee published 11th May 2021. Iceland.

The untold story of how one tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic has shaped the world for centuries.

The history of Iceland began 1,200 years ago, when a frustrated Viking captain and his useless navigator ran aground in the middle of the North Atlantic. Suddenly, the island was no longer just a layover for the Arctic tern. Instead, it became a nation whose diplomats and musicians, sailors and soldiers, volcanoes and flowers, quietly altered the globe forever. How Iceland Changed the World takes readers on a tour of history, showing them how Iceland played a pivotal role in events as diverse as the French Revolution, the Moon Landing, and the foundation of Israel. Again and again, one humble nation has found itself at the frontline of historic events, shaping the world as we know it, How Iceland Changed the World paints a lively picture of just how it all happened.

4) Miller's War Christoffer Petersen to be published 18th May 2021.

If you've read him it is truly a good read.

5) Girls Who Lie by Eva Bjorg Ægisdóttir to be published 22nd May 2021. Iceland.

When a depressed, alcoholic single mother disappears, everything suggests suicide, but when her body is found, Icelandic Detective Elma and her team are thrust into a perplexing, chilling investigation.

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When single mother Mari´anna disappears from her home, leaving an apologetic note on the kitchen table, everyone assumes that she’s taken her own life ... until her body is found on the Gra´bro´k lava fields seven months later, clearly the victim of murder. Her neglected fifteen-year-old daughter Hekla has been placed in foster care, but is her perfect new life hiding something sinister?

Fifteen years earlier, a desperate new mother lies in a maternity ward, unable to look at her own child, the start of an odd and broken relationship that leads to a shocking tragedy.

Police officer Elma and her colleagues take on the case, which becomes increasingly complex, as the number of suspects grows and new light is shed on Mari´anna’s past – and the childhood of a girl who never was like the others...

Breathtakingly chilling and tantalisingly twisty, Girls Who Lie is at once a startling, tense psychological thriller and a sophisticated police procedural, marking Eva Bjo¨rg Ægisdottir as one of the most exciting new names in crime fiction.

////////// As always we will add books as they become known to us in the month of May. Good reading.

I've added two books from April as not being read yet. 1) The Woman from Denmark by Christine Fraizer published 23rd April 2021. Denmark & U.S.A.

Agnes Davenport wants nothing more than a crime to put her in the same league as pulp fiction star Detective Jack Parker. She meticulously follows Parker's investigations and techniques as groundwork for her break into the world she is determined to enter as a female gumshoe.

A train stop in Salt Lake City, Utah, introduces Agnes to a murder victim she encounters in a desolate Methodist Episcopal Church, a murder committed at the church in 1895. That year the Rev. Francis Hermans and his wife had moved to Salt Lake City to sprout their religion in the Mormon-dominated enclave.

Agnes is not the only person interested in the old building and its past. Bootleggers find it a convenient way station leading up to prohibition, and so does the feisty entrepreneur Viola Templeton. Through a chance encounter between Agnes and Viola, a bond is formed, one that transcends their differing motives.

Unbeknownst to Hermans' wife and his predominantly Scandinavian congregation, the reverend's past belies his piously crafted appearance. His was a façade embellished by a religious forbearance that belied an all-consuming desire for women, money, and adulation at any cost.

The year is 1917, and together, Agnes and Viola hope to uncover the demons and mysteries the Rev. Hermans thought he had left behind over twenty years earlier.

and 2) Everything Like Before: Stories by Kjell Askildsen published 27th April 2021. Norway.

Spare, taut and told with flashes of pitch-black humour, the short stories of Norwegian master Kjell Askildsen capture all the strangeness of modern existence. In this selection of tales, spanning the whole of his brilliant career, unnerving encounters occur, lonely individuals try to connect, families and relationships are fractured, and we are confronted by the fragility and absurdity of life.

One more book in April into May called Mammon In Malmö: The Eighth Inspector Anita Sundström Mystery by Torquil MacLeod published 29th April 2021. Sweden.

With a new Skåne County Police commissioner wanting to make his mark in Malmö, the Criminal Investigation Squad is under pressure when they are called in to solve the killing of a private investigator. The nature of the victim’s work throws up some obvious suspects, yet not all is what it seems. When another murder takes place, there seems to be a politically sensitive connection.

Anita Sundström, out of the force for a year after her resignation, is approached by a dying woman to track down a collection of paintings stolen from her family. The artworks were looted by the Nazis in Budapest in 1944. But needing the money, Anita takes on this seemingly impossible task. As she heads off to Hungary, she has no idea of the dangers ahead. This is the eighth mystery in the best-selling Anita Sundström crime series.

Witch Hunt by Christoffer Petersen to be published 25th May 2021.

Strange occurrences plague the people of a small town after a shipwrecked witch arrives on their shores, prompting one young man to find her before the townsfolk choose a more drastic solution.

Witch Hunt is a short story set in a strange time and place, not quite ours, but not quite theirs either. It is the second story in The Witch Family Robinson series.

John Swallow has a new book called "The Heat of Havana: Nordic Noir from Finland". It's his 3rd book in the series. To be published 30th May 2021. Finland & Cuba.

The Heat of Havana finds Detective Jussi Alonen settled down in Rauma once again. However, little does he know that a thrilling new adventure awaits him, one which will not only connect him with an old flame but also result in his involvement with international crime once again. Smuggling high-quality Cuban cigars to wealthy Eastern Europeans is a lucrative business. However, when a problem arises, Jussi’s old friend Heli finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time and he unexpectedly finds himself in Havana. Can he save her and return to his life as a detective in Finland? This Nordic Noir mystery gradually evolves into high-octane action as Jussi’s new nemesis follows him from Cuba to Finland, with both bent on revenge, in this gripping new story. Cigars, mojitos and rumba turn into kidnapping, smuggling and murder, immersing Jussi in his most exciting adventure yet!