English Translations of Scandinavian/Nordic Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

The month of August 2023 we have five books to choose from. We will add books as the become known to us, Good reading.

1) The Details by Ia Genberg to be published on the 8th of August 2023. Sweden.

An acclaimed Swedish author makes her English language debut with this intoxicating novel in the vein of Rachel Cusk and Sheila Heti, about a woman in the throes of a fever remembering the important people in her past, her memories laid bare in vivid detail as her body temperature rises.

A woman lies bedridden from a high fever. Suddenly she is struck with an urge to revisit a novel from her past. Inside the book is an inscription: a get-well-soon message from Johanna, an ex-girlfriend who is now a famous television host. As she flips through the book, pages from the woman's own past begin to come alive, scenes of events and people she cannot forget.

There are moments with Johanna, and Niki, the friend who disappeared years ago without a phone number or an address and with no online footprint. There is Alejandro, who gleefully campaigns for a baby even though he knows their love has no future. And Brigitte, whose elusive qualities mask a painful secret.

The Details is a novel built around four portraits; the small details that, pieced together, comprise a life. Can a loved one really disappear? Who is the real subject of the portrait, the person being painted or the one holding the brush? Do we fully become ourselves through our connections to others? This exhilarating, provocative tale raises profound questions about the nature of relationships, and how we tell our stories. The result is an intimate and illuminating study of what it means to be human.

2) Fishing for the Little Pike by Juhani Karila to be published on the 8th of August 2023. Finland.

Winner of the Jarkko Laine Literature Prize
In the utterly original, genre-defying, English-language debut of Finnish author Juhani Karila, a young woman's annual pilgrimage to her home in Lapland to catch an elusive pike in three days is complicated by a host of mythical creaturers, a murder detective hot on her trail, and a deadly curse hanging over her head.

3) Murder at the Residence by Stella Blómkvist to be published on the 28th of August 2023. Iceland.

It’s New Year and Iceland is still reeling from the effects of the financial crash when a notorious financier is found beaten to death after a high-profile reception at the President’s residence. The police are certain they have the killer – or do they? Determined to get to the truth, maverick lawyer Stella Blómkvist isn’t so sure. A stripper disappears from one of city's seediest nightspots, and nobody but Stella seems interested in finding her. A drug mule cooling his heels in a prison cell refuses to speak to anyone but Stella – although she’s never heard of him. An old man makes a deathbed confession and request for Stella to find the family he lost long ago. With a sharp tongue and a moral compass all of her own, Stella Blómkvist has a talent for attracting trouble and she’s as at home in the corridors of power as in the dark corners of Reykjavík’s underworld. Stella Blómkvist delivers an explosive mix of murder, intrigue and surprise, and is one of Iceland's best-loved crime series.

4) The Girl in the Eagle's Talons by Karin Smirnoff to be published on the 29th of August 2023. Sweden.

Lisbeth Salander returns, in a trailblazing new installment to the best-selling Millennium series

Change is coming to Sweden’s far north: its untapped natural resources are sparking a gold rush with the criminal underworld leading the charge. But it’s not the prospect of riches that brings Lisbeth Salander to the small town of Gasskas. She has been named guardian to her niece Svala, whose mother has disappeared. Two things soon become clear: Svala is a remarkably gifted teenager—and she’s being watched.

Mikael Blomkvist is also heading north. He has seen better days. Millennium magazine is in its final print issue, and relations with his daughter are strained. Worse still, there are troubling rumors surrounding the man she’s about to marry. When the truth behind the whispers explodes into violence, Salander emerges as Blomkvist’s last hope.

A pulse-pounding thriller, The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons sees Salander and Blomkvist navigating a world of conspiracy and betrayal, old enemies and new friends, ice-bound wilderness and the global corporations that threaten to tear it apart.

5) The Hike by Lucy Clarke to be published on the 29th of August 2023. Norway.

Wish you were here?
Think again . . .

Maggie, Liz, Helena & Joni. Old friends bound by history, adventures, old secrets.

And now, bound by murder.

They lace up their hiking boots for the adventure of a lifetime in the Norwegian wilderness: a place of towering mountains, glass-like lakes, log cabins and forests stolen from a fairytale.

It’s the perfect place to lose yourself – until a broken body is found at the bottom of a ravine.

Somewhere out there, someone knows exactly why a woman has died. And in this deep, dark wilderness, there’s a killer on the trail . . .

6) The Fox that Barked: A Constable Petra Jensen Novella by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 28th of August 2023. Greenland.

When three teenagers dare each other to sail into the forsaken fjord, it’s up to Constable Petra Jensen to find them.

The Forsaken Fjord is the twentieth in the Greenland Missing Persons series of novellas and novels set in the harsh, unpredictable Arctic, rich in tradition, myth and culture.

The Forsaken Fjord continues the adventures of Constable Petra ‘Piitalaat’ Jensen, ably assisted by interesting characters, together with a few familiar faces making cameo appearances in the series.

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

7) The Last Viking by Griff Hosker to be published on the 3rd of August 2023. Viking.

The journey of Erik the Viking is almost done but the Norns have not yet finished spinning and their webs threaten to engulf Erik, his family and his growing clan. He may be getting old, but Erik is still a force to be reckoned with and when others falter, the last Viking in the New World is there to steer the clan to safety.
This is the last book in the saga that has been the story of Erik the Navigator.

8) Mirror Image by Gunnar Staalesen to be published on the 31st of August 2023. Norway.

As Bergen PI Varg Veum investigates two different cases, it becomes clear that they are uncannily similar to harrowing events that took place thirty-six years earlier… A gripping instalment of the award-winning Varg Veum series, by one of the fathers of Nordic Noir. `As searing and gripping as they come´ New York Times `One of my very favourite Scandinavian authors´ Ian Rankin `The Norwegian Chandler´ Jo Nesbø ________________________ Bergen Private Investigator Varg Veum is perplexed when two wildly different cases cross his desk at the same time. A lawyer, anxious to protect her privacy, asks Varg to find her sister, who has disappeared with her husband, seemingly without trace, while a ship carrying unknown cargo is heading towards the Norwegian coast, and the authorities need answers. Varg immerses himself in the investigations, and it becomes clear that the two cases are linked, and have unsettling – and increasingly uncanny – similarities to events that took place thirty-six years earlier, when a woman and her saxophonist lover drove their car off a cliff, in an apparent double suicide. As Varg is drawn into a complex case involving star-crossed lovers, toxic waste and illegal immigrants, history seems determined to repeat itself in perfect detail … and at terrifying cost... A chilling, dark and twisting story of love and revenge, Mirror Image is Staalesen at his most thrilling, thought-provoking best. ________________________ `Every inch the equal of his Nordic confreres Henning Mankell and Jo Nesbø´ Independent `Staalesen continually reminds us he is one of the finest of Nordic novelists´ Financial Times `There are only two other writers that I know of have achieved the depth of insight in detective writing that Staalesen Chandler, and Ross MacDonald …´ Mystery Tribune `Employs Chandleresque similes with a Nordic Noir twist … simply superb´ Wall Street Journal `Masterful pacing´ Publishers Weekly `The Varg Veum series is more concerned with character and motivation than spectacle, and it's in the quieter scenes that the real drama lies´ Herald Scotland For fans of Henning Mankell, Jo Nesbø, Jorn Lier Horst, Harlan Coben and Jussi Adler-Olsen

9) Nordic Pink by Richard Antoine Langlais to be published on the 1st of August 2023. Sweden.

SOMETIMES
AN ALTERNATIVE VISION
CAN CHANGE THE WORLD

Will the next Dalai Lama be a small girl from Vancouver?
Will China select the new Tibetan leader?
If not, who will?
A secret last will and testament must show the way.


The Dalai Lama has died. Shangri-La needs a new leader. The whole world holds its breath. Everyone wonders, Who will be the successor? Will it be a servile lackey who the Chinese appoint? Will Tibetans win the race to find and designate the successor before the Chinese do? The outcome will transform the fate of nations and alter the balance of power.

Beat Bergson, a foreigner secluded in a Buddhist monastery in the Swedish mountains, has to make sure the right choice is made. Can he find the strength and courage to overcome his own limitations? His small team, based in Sweden and India, handpicked by Tibet's top oracle, have banded together so that the last wishes of the Dalai Lama can be honoured. The oracle's job is to uncover and interpret the Dalai Lama's testament in the best way. The Swedish government and Norway's Nobel Peace Prize committee are helping the team. India is also helping, because they are in conflict with the Chinese over the border between India and Tibet, and the choice of the new Dalai Lama will affect everything. The team travels between the Swedish alps, where Sami reindeer herders live, the Indian Himalaya and China to find the answer to the puzzle. Spies, passionate Buddhists, the armies of several countries, and former British hill towns all play into this gripping adventure. The surprising answer they eventually discover shifts global geopolitics in unexpected directions, and opens doors to a more peaceful world. Open the door . . . the astonishing alternative is a gateway to thinking outside the box.

This uplifting story sweeps you away into Nordic intrigues, staggering action and tantalizing suspense that locks you into its mesmerizing pages. Nordic Pink takes you beyond Shangri-la to adventure and mystery, where ancient conflicts generate modern puzzles that only you can enter.

10) "The Night That Changed Sweden Part 1: 1963 - 1983" by Timothy Frojd to be published on the 9th of August 2023. Sweden.

The night of 28th of February 1986 changed Sweden forever. Swedish Prime Minister, Olof Palme, was gunned down on a busy street, after leaving a Cinema mere minutes earlier. Although there had been lots of people present when it happened, the killer still managed to get away, and none of the witnesses could provide a decent statement or description of the killer. For over thirty-four years, the heinous crime remained unsolved. Until the summer of 2020, when the head of the investigation claimed that the killer had been identified. A killer that had been dead for the past two decades. Whether or not you want to believe that the real killer has been identified, doesn’t matter. I want to you meet Svend Kullberg, who was one of the investigators. I want you to come along on a trip through the decades, from when he was a young boy, until he was a full-grown man. What made him want to become a secret agent? What made him the man that he became? Who is Svend Kullberg? Find out who he is, in this first part of two.

11) "The Night That Changed Sweden Part 2: 1984 - 2019" by Timothy Frojd to be published on the 9th of August 2023. Sweden.

The night of 28th of February 1986 changed Sweden forever. Swedish Prime Minister, Olof Palme, was gunned down on a busy street, after leaving a Cinema mere minutes earlier. Although there had been lots of people present when it happened, the killer still managed to get away, and none of the witnesses could provide a decent statement or description of the killer. For over thirty-four years, the heinous crime remained unsolved. Until the summer of 2020, when the head of the investigation claimed that the killer had been identified. A killer that had been dead for the past two decades. Whether or not you want to believe that the real killer has been identified, doesn’t matter. I want to you meet Svend Kullberg, who was one of the investigators. I want you to come along on a trip through the decades, from when he was a young boy, until he was a full-grown man. What made him want to become a secret agent? What made him the man that he became? Who is Svend Kullberg?
Join us in this final part, to find out more about Svend, and if he manages to find the assassin or assassins.

12) A Dog called Blitzen by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 1st of August 2023. Greenland.

When Blitzen, the Greenland police drug detection dog, goes missing in Nuuk, Constable Petra ‘Piitalaat’ Jensen enlists the help of the police force’s most experienced dog handler – Constable David Maratse – to find her.

A Dog Called Blitzen is a Christmas in July Summer Advent Story, previously released one chapter per day on each day in July 2023 on Christoffer Petersen’s patreon page.

13) Annika and the Treasure of Iceland by Antje Bothin to be published on the 1st of August. Iceland.

“It was as if there were two Annikas, the loud, lively girl at home and the silent shadow of herself in public. It was unbearable to be called names and thought of as unkind when she did not manage to say hello or thank you to people.

Most people had never heard of her problem and expected so much. Annika had only known for a short time that her silence had a name. A diagnosis.

Selective Mutism. “

Since childhood, Annika has struggled to talk thanks to Selective Mutism. Then one day, she receives an invitation out of the blue – to participate in a treasure hunt. But it’s a treasure hunt with a difference, encompassing the whole island of Iceland.

What follows is an adventure that belies all expectations, involving a host of differing characters, including Ragnar, Gunnar, Margret and Oskar, Anton, Jonas, Sigrun and Helga. All travel across the beautiful landscape of Iceland, seeking and finding clues, and at the same time, learn something about themselves during the hunt, but none more so than Annika.
Join all of them on this journey of self-discovery and take in the wonder of Iceland and the incredible strengths of the human spirit.

14) The Kindness by John Ajvide Lindqvist to be published on the 3rd of August 2023. Sweden.

A shipping container is mysteriously dumped in the Swedish port town of Norrtalje. Due to their ignorance of its ownership it isn't until a week has passed that the authorities can have it forced open. There the remains of twenty eight refugees are found, a situation of unrelenting horror. Not only that; a black sludge pours out which contaminates the river and is the cause of a new, sickening dread that affects Norrtalje's inhabitants, causing a lack of trust, aggression, violence. It seems like an end to Kindness.

Six characters are at the centre of this extraordinary novel, six people in search of love and connection, whose extraordinary qualities will confront the metaphysical illness consuming their town.

'As Lindqvist has increasingly devoted himself to the subtle plumbing of the human soul he has become a distinctive and urgent voice in contemporary literature' - Svenska Dagbladet

15) The Discreet Charm of the Big Bad Wolf by Alexander McCall Smith to be published on the 29th of August 2023. Sweden.

In the new Detective Varg novel, Ulf Varg's future with the Department of Sensitive Crimes is put to the test, but in the face of upheaval he must forge ahead with the latest delicate case that will take him out of the streets of Malmo and into the great forests of Sweden.

The Department of Sensitive Crimes has been asked to downsize in light of a recent downturn of sensitive crime, and staff members are wondering who among them will be transferred elsewhere. As the bickering between colleagues intensifies, Ulf tries his best to stay above the fray.

In the midst of all this, Ulf embarks on an important inquiry: a wealthy businessman's holiday cabin has mysteriously disappeared from its spot in the woods and Ulf is tasked with finding out what happened. How exactly does one steal a house? And, more to the point, how does one track down a stolen house? Meanwhile, a promising veterinary treatment for deafness in dogs has been announced, and Ulf's dog, Martin, might be the perfect patient.

This latest novel is another masterful, farcical installment in the series that defines the genre that Alexander McCall Smith is singlehandedly championing: Scandi blanc.