English Translations of Scandinavian/Nordic Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

For March we have 7 books to choose from which are mainly from Sweden. We will add books as they become known to us. Good reading.

1) Thor's Revenge by Donovan Cook to be published on the 1st of March 2024. Viking. 272 pages.

A kingdom without a crown. A boy forsaken by his God. A warrior bent on revenge. After the bloody Battle of Jelling, Denmark’s throne lies empty and chaos reigns as Jarl’s jostle for power.Sven survives the bloodshed only to return home to find Ribe sacked by those he trusted and Charles, a pawn in a much bigger political game, kidnapped.Consumed by the loss of Charles, Sven is shocked by the arrival of the Abbess Hildegard, daughter of his nemesis King Louis of East Francia, who seeks the whereabouts of Charles, her son, and also the cross of Charlemagne.But whilst others want revenge for the chaos Sven has caused, Denmark burns and Sven must stand in the shield wall one more time if he is to survive and rescue his grandson.Outnumbered and outmaneuvered, Sven and Charles must put their fate in the hands of the gods if they ever want to see each other again.Praise for The Charlemagne's Cross Series'A fabulous Norse tale of family secrets, betrayal and conflict right up until the very last page.

2) Your Absence is Darkness by Jón Kalman Stefánsson to be published on the 5th of March 2024. Iceland. 456 Pages.

A spellbinding saga about the inhabitants and inheritors of one rural community, by one of Iceland's most beloved novelists. A man comes to awareness in a church in rural Iceland, not knowing why he’s there or how he arrived. When a local woman offers to reunite him with her sister, he realizes he’s lost not only his bearings, but his memory as he doesn’t recall either sister, nor their mother, the woman buried beneath the stone. As their stories unfold, he’s plunged into a history spanning centuries and a city girl drawn to the fjords by the memory of a blue-eyed gaze; a pastor who writes to dead poets and falls in love with a stranger from afar; a woman who must abandon her son to save her family; a musician plagued by cosmic loneliness; and an alcoholic transfixed by the night sky. Faced with the violence of destiny and the effects of choices, made and avoided, that cascade between lives, each discovers the cost of happiness and must answer the difficult question of how to love and be loved.
An incandescent romance about the misfortune of mortality and the strange salve of time, Your Absence is Darkness is a spellbinding story of death, desire, and the perfect agony of star-crossed love.

3) Deliver Me: A Novel by Malin Persson Giolito to be published on the 5th of March 2024. Sweden. 544 pages.

Scandinavian noir meets legal thriller in this brilliant, gut-wrenching story of childhood friends torn apart by gang violence and class differences in Stockholm—from the internationally bestselling author of Quicksand .

Dogge is from affluent Rönnviken. Billy lives in the concrete towers of Våringe, only a few hundred yards across a highway, but a world apart. They met as 6-year-olds at Rönnviken’s playground and have been unlikely best friends ever since. From the outside, Dogge looks he lives in a large home and there is plenty of money—at first. But his parents are addicts whose negligence becomes a form of abuse. Meanwhile, Billy’s family are poor first-generation immigrants unable to escape the no-go zone where they live, but their cramped apartment is nonetheless a bastion of love.

When gangs tighten their grip on Våringe, a ruthless small-time boss seeks recruits, and both Dogge and Billy become runners by the time they’re 12. Fast cash, easy access to drugs, and the dream of gaining status draw them in. But when Billy wants to leave the gang and finds himself trapped, the boys must face the violent rules of the adult game they tried to play.

When children commit horrible crimes, who bears the responsibility? With piercing prose and a breathless sense of urgency, Deliver Me is at once a poignant portrayal of the power of friendship and a shattering depiction of what happens when society fails to protect those that need it most. What does justice mean for these lost children, and is the law capable of delivering it?

4) The Queen of Thieves by Johan Rundberg to be published on the 5th of March 2024. Sweden. 207 pages.

Mika will do what it takes to uncover a string of thefts in the city―and keep her fellow orphans safe. After a merciless winter, spring has sprung in 1880 Stockholm, and the city awaits the arrival of the SS Vega , the first ship to have sailed the Northeast Passage. Life is busy at the orphanage, but twelve-year-old Mika quickly notices that the older orphans are up to something―and it doesn’t look good. When Constable Hoff approaches her with information about thefts around the city, Mika becomes even more concerned about what the other kids are up to―and what they might be planning for the Vega celebration. The police will have no sympathy for orphans, and she’d hate to see her friends condemned to life in jail. But Mika soon finds herself in a bind she can’t get out of―one that could condemn her own life. Can Mika uncover who is really behind the thefts in the city and keep her friends safe, without getting caught? Find out in this breathless sequel to The Night Raven .

5) The Widows: from the international bestselling author of Femicide by Pascal Engman to be published on the 14th of March 2024. Sweden. 491 pages.

FROM INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF FEMICIDE Two bodies are discovered in a Stockholm park, one a policeman and the other an unidentified young woman. With the police believing the woman to be nothing more than unfortunate collateral damage, they focus on the murder of the police officer. But Detective Vanessa Frank takes a different approach and her investigation turns out to be more personal than she could have imagined.

6) The Book of The Dead: A Constable Petra Jensen Novella by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 19th of March 2024. Greenland. Short Story.

When Constable Petra ‘Piitalaat’ Jensen looks after a house in a remote settlement, she spends her days reading the diary of a convicted police officer, unaware that her past is about to catch up with her.The Book of The Dead is the twenty-fifth in the Greenland Missing Persons series of novellas and novels set in the harsh, unpredictable Arctic, rich in tradition, myth and culture.The Book of The Dead 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) Silent Flight Holy Night by Colin Campbell to be published on the 26th of March 2024. Sweden. 180 pages.

YOU CAN FIND HOPE IN ALL SORTS OF PLACES - BUT REDEMPTION ONLY COMES FROM WITHINThe Christmas flight to Lapland for orphans from Delph Hill Children’s Home is an annual event intended to bring good cheer and season’s greetings. The subsequent plane crash in a blizzard brings anything but. It makes headlines in seventeen countries, not because of where it is or the time of year, but because of who the passengers are. Twenty-seven underprivileged children, three social workers, and two teachers. And one thorn-in-the-side who doesn’t want to be there anyway. But with the plane snapped in two, and Danny Scipio tossed out of the tail section, the thorn-in-the-side is the only hope the other twenty-seven have.

8) The Ballyfoote Two-Step: Sidekick Stories from the Ballyfoote RPG Campaign by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 21st of March 2024.

When a company of enthusiastic adventurers enter the Crowside Inn in Ballyfoote wishing to hire a thief, Derycke Burglehart is more than happy to oblige them, and to relieve them of the burden of their heavy purse.The Ballyfoote Two-Step is set in Christoffer Petersen’s roleplaying campaign world of the same name.This short story introduces the thief Derycke Burglehart, one of many sidekicks from the Ballyfoote RPG campaign.The Ballyfoote Two-Step is a fantasy story with a light touch of litRPG elements.

9) Winter Spoor: Prehistoric Action and Adventure by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 31st of March 2024. South Africa and Scotland.

From the grasslands of South Africa to the Highlands of Scotland, a young boy carries a stolen heirloom, passing it down from one generation to the next in times of need.

Winter Spoor is a short twenty-minute read, full of prehistoric action and adventure. Best read after Reviver and North Bane.

10) The Cold Edge by Trevor Scott to be published on the 26th of March 2024. Norway & Sweden.

America's new master of the international thriller is back with his next riveting Jake Adams thriller. When Jake's girlfriend Anna, an Interpol officer, has the two of them vacationing in Oslo, Norway, he has no idea he will get called back into the Network by his old Air Force commander and former CIA officer. Jake is asked to travel to Spitsbergen Island in Norway's Arctic Svalbard Archipelago, to retrieve the remains of a former officer killed there almost 20 years ago. Together Jake and Anna team up with a Norwegian Intelligence officer, who is both beautiful and deadly. What they find in the frozen permafrost leads them through Sweden and back to Norway's forests, where they must confront a Cold War nemesis from the KGB, who is up to old tricks.