English Translations of Scandinavian/Nordic Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

During July 2021 we will be reading nine books so far they are in order:

1) Silver Tears by Camilla Läckberg to be published 6th July 2021. Sweden.

A spine-tingling novel of revenge, betrayal, and sisterhood from the internationally celebrated author of The Golden Cage.

She's had to fight for it every step of the way, but Faye finally has the life she believes she deserves: she is rich, the business she built has become a global brand, and she has carefully hidden away her small family in Italy, where Jack, her ex-husband, can no longer harm them. She even has the wherewithal to occasionally turn a business trip to Rome into a steamy tryst. But when several major investors--women Faye had trusted implicitly--suddenly sell off their shares in the company, and the police officer who helped search for her daughter discovers the dark secret of Faye's childhood, and she learns that Jack is no longer locked behind bars, Faye has no choice but to return to Stockholm. Not only does she have to fight again to keep her family safe, but now, at long last, she is forced to face the truth about her past. In this bold, mesmerizing story of seduction, deceit, and female power, a woman's secret cannot stay buried forever.

2) The Bucket List by Peter Mohlin & Peter Nyström to be published 6th July 2021. Sweden. The People who are in the Pre-July, should be getting the book from the publisher, we are stopping at 7 people.

The Bucket List is the gripping debut novel by writing team Peter Mohlin and Peter Nyström, launching a stunning new Nordic noir series featuring Swedish-American FBI Agent John Adderley.

The Bucket List starts when undercover FBI Agent John Adderley wakes up in a hospital bed in Baltimore with extensive gunshot wounds. He knows he’s lucky to be alive. And just a few beds away is the man who 24 hours ago pointed a gun to his head.
Ten years earlier in Sweden, Emelie, the young heiress to (an H&M-esque) clothing empire AckWe has gone missing. When local police find blood and semen in a deserted area, they arrest a teenage boy. He denies the charges and since the body is never found, he can’t be prosecuted.
Back to the present, Emelie’s high-profile cold case file is sent to Agent Adderley, now living in Sweden (where he’s not lived since he was a boy) in witness protection, hiding until he can testify against the drug cartel he infiltrated back in the States. Adderley is determined to solve Emelie’s case, but, at the same time, he knows that the drug cartel has a price on his head...

5) Cabin Fever by Alex Dahl to be published 8th July 2021. Norway.

A dark, twisty Scandinavian thriller from CWA-shortlisted author, Alex Dahl.

You are her therapist.
Kristina is a successful therapist in central Oslo. She spends her days helping clients navigate their lives with a cool professionalism that has got her to the top.

She is your client.
But when her client Leah, a successful novelist, arrives at her office clearly distressed, begging Kristina to come to her remote cabin in the woods, she feels the balance begin to slip.

But out here in the woods.
When Leah fails to turn up to her next two sessions, Kristina reluctantly heads out into the wilderness to find her.

Nothing is as it seems.
Alone and isolated, Kristina finds Leah's unfinished manuscript, and as she reads she realises the main character is terrifyingly familiar...

4) The End of Forever: A Cassiopeia Vitt Adventure by Steve Berry to be published 13th July 2021. Spain, France, and Italy to save Cotton Malone who is in Denmark.

Tragedy has found Cassiopeia Vitt. The woman she admires most, Esmerelda Fontana, has been brutally murdered. Then Cassiopeia’s castle rebuilding project is viciously attacked and people are hurt. Are the two incidents related? The answer comes when her old friend, Nicodème L’Etoile, is threatened and she finds herself drawn into a tangled web of revenge that leads straight to the person she loves the most.

Cotton Malone.

And his life will depend on what she does next.

From the rocky coasts of northern Spain, to a medieval building site in France, and finally into Italy and the oldest surviving republic in the world, Cassiopeia must confront a devil from her past, a man obsessed with her destruction. The choices she has to make will be the toughest she’s ever faced. Life and death decisions that force her—to the end of forever.

5) Magma by Þóra Hjörleifsdóttir to be published 13th July 2021. Iceland.

Twenty-year-old Lilja is in love. As a young university student, she is quickly smitten with the intelligent, beautiful young man from school who quotes Derrida and reads Latin and cooks balanced vegetarian meals. Before she even realizes, she’s moved in with him, living in his cramped apartment, surrounded by sour towels and flat Diet Cokes. As the newfound intimacy of sharing a shower and a bed fuels her desire to please her partner, his quiet and pervasive manipulations start to unravel her.
In an era of pornification, his acts of nearly imperceptible abuse continue to mount as their relationship develops. Lilja wants to hold onto him, take care of him and be the perfect lover. But in order to do so, she gradually lets go of her boundaries and concurrently starts to lose her sense of self.
With astounding clarity and restraint, Hjörleifsdóttir sheds light on the commonplace undercurrents of violence that so often go undetected in romantic relationships. She deftly illustrates the failings of our culture in recognizing symptoms of cruelty, and in powerful, poetic prose depicts the unspooling of a tender-hearted woman desperate to love well.

“A compulsive, propulsive debut about a young woman’s exploration of love and sex. In spare, harrowing prose, Thóra Hjörleifsdóttir’s narrator pulls us into the tale of her near undoing and her struggle to find her own value. It is the masterful writer who can shock us and make it ring so true.”—Lily King

“Magma is a luminous and poetic novel unlike any I have ever read. How to describe the slow escalation by which possession becomes control, and power abuse? Thóra Hjörleifsdóttir shows how and the effects are shocking and beautiful, it seethes like lava. She has created a whole new landscape for storytelling.” —John Freeman

6) The Darkness Knows by Arnaldur Indriðason to be published 13th July 2021. Iceland.

Retired detective Konrad returns to a haunting cold case in The Darkness Knows by Arnaldur Indridason, the "undisputed King of the Icelandic thriller." —The Guardian (UK)

A frozen body is discovered in the icy depths of Langjökull glacier, apparently that of a businessman who disappeared thirty years before. At the time, an extensive search and police investigation yielded no results—one of the missing man’s business associates was briefly held in custody, but there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him.

Now the associate is arrested again and Konrad, the retired policeman who originally investigated the disappearance, is called back to reopen the case that has weighed on his mind for decades.
When a woman approaches him with new information that she obtained from her deceased brother, progress can finally be made in solving this long-cold case.

In The Darkness Knows, the master of Icelandic crime writing reunites readers with Konrad, the unforgettable retired detective from The Shadow District. This is a powerful and haunting story about the poisonous secrets and cruel truths that time eventually uncovers.

7) The Voyage of Freydis by Tamara Goranson to be published 22nd July 2021. Viking.

History set her fate in stone…
Murderer. Mercenary. Temptress.

Trickster. Traitor. Thief.

But under a hammer that falls like thunder, stone will always shatter.

So with her voice she lights the forge.

The Voyage of Freydis sings the silenced tale of Freydis Eiriksdottir, the first and only woman to lead a Viking voyage across the Atlantic in this tempestuous retelling of the Vinland Sagas set at the dawn of the 11th century.

8) The Doll by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir to be published 22nd July 2021. Iceland.

It was meant to be a quiet family fishing trip, a chance for mother and daughter to talk. But it changes the course of their lives forever.

They catch nothing except a broken doll that gets tangled in the net. After years in the ocean, the doll a terrifying sight and the mother's first instinct is to throw it back, but she relents when her daughter pleads to keep it. This simple act of kindness proves fatal. That evening, the mother posts a picture of the doll on social media. By the morning, she is dead and the doll has disappeared.

Several years later and Detective Huldar is in his least favourite place - on a boat in rough waters, searching for possible human remains. However, identifying the skeleton they find on the seabed proves harder than initially thought, and Huldar must draw on psychologist Freyja's experience to help him. As the mystery of the unidentified body deepens, Huldar is also drawn into an investigation of a homeless drug addict's murder, and Freyja investigates a suspected case of child abuse at a foster care home.

What swiftly becomes clear is that the cases are linked through a single, missing, vulnerable witness: the young girl who wanted the doll all those years ago.

Taut, terrifying and impossible to put down, The Doll cements Yrsa Sigurdardottir's reputation as a master of storytelling tension and surprise.

9) Winter Bounty: A Polar Task Force Thriller, Book #3 by Christoffer Petersen to be published 27th July 2021. Finland.

During a murder investigation in the vast Finnish wilderness, the Polarpol team quickly learns it doesn’t pay to play by the rules.

When the boyfriend of Finnish Border Guard Eerika Seppä is found dead inside a cold war bunker, evidence suggests he was killed with a Russian weapon. Commander Etienne Gagnon and the Polarpol team are called in to mediate as tensions between the Finnish police and their Russian colleagues escalate.

But as the case unfolds, and more bodies are uncovered, Etienne soon discovers, for the third time in a row, the team from Polarpol is in over its head. And upon each head shadowy powers have placed a large bounty.

Winter Bounty is the third book in Christoffer Petersen’s Polarpol Arctic Task Force thriller series. If you like Matthew Reilly’s Scarecrow Series and Bear Grylls’ Will Jaeger books, then you’ll love Christoffer Petersen’s police action thriller.

>>>>>As always we will add books as they become available to us during the month of July 2021. Good reading.

21 Grams by Charles T. Daube , an American author will be published 21 July 2021. Iceland.

When Tara and Sophia plan an Icelandic vacation they seek waterfalls, relaxation, and adventure. But something sinister awaits along its craggy shores.

Deep in the heart of the mountains, Doctor Anri Pyke works to uncover history’s greatest mystery, yet his unconventional methods have ostracized him from the scientific community. Haunted and fueled by the dark days of his past, nothing will stop him from cementing his revolutionary discovery.

While trekking through the picturesque Nordic island, the two women struggle in an increasingly turbulent relationship. Tara’s life is changing and Sophia wants only for things to remain the same. Plagued with secrets and turmoil, they find themselves on a collision course with the most profound, and dangerous, experiment known to man.

21 Grams follows Anri’s shocking path to answering one of humanity’s oldest questions—does a soul exist, and if so, can it be proven?