English Translations of Scandinavian/Nordic Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

For the month of April 2024 we presently have 10 books to choose from. As new books are found they will be added to the rest. Good reading.

1) Marvel: What If...Loki Was Worthy? (A Loki & Valkyrie Story) by Madeleine Roux to be published on the 2nd of April 2024. Viking, gods. 307 Pages.

Loki and Valkyrie seek redemption in the first adventure of an epic new multiversal series that reimagines the origins of iconic Marvel heroes.So many worlds, so little time. Infinite possibilities, creating infinite realities. Long have I watched the trickster god sow chaos. But . . . what if Loki saved Asgard from Tony Stark’s revenge? Thor—Son of Odin, God of Thunder, Wielder of Mjolnir—is dead. And Loki is responsible. It was meant to be only a joke—tampering with the Destroyer, changing Thor’s course to Midgard—a bit of mischief with a chance of maiming. But Loki’s harmless prank spiraled out of control, unleashing death and destruction on New York City and the heroes sworn to protect it. The city was saved, at the cost of Thor’s life. Furious and heartbroken, the All-Father banishes Loki to Earth for his crime. Loki finds himself in a realm of boxed wine, instant noodles, and some sort of regional performance troupe known as the “Buffalo Bills.” It’s a meager existence, far from Asgard’s grand courts, but he finds his new friend, Brian the Gecko, a much more engaging companion than the sycophants back home. It’s a true meeting of the minds. Loki is the God of Mischief—but he knows, deep down, that he never truly deserved to stand next to their father’s golden child, Thor, as two true sons of Odin. Yet he cannot endure his exile in peaceful isolation. A Valkyrie—Hel-bent on carrying out her oath to Thor—barges into Loki’s trailer home with his brother’s final words from the a plea to find a certain Dr. Jane Foster and pass the hammer Mjolnir on to its rightful heir. While Loki struggles to fulfil his brother’s last request, the far-reaching consequences of his fatal prank return to haunt him. Blinded by grief over those he lost in the chaos wrought by Asgard, Iron Man vows revenge on those who consider themselves gods. Determined to protect Earth from the might of this unpredictable alien power, Stark forges Asgard’s own weaponry into a lethal suit of armor, set on eradicating any tether between their worlds—consequences be damned. When Asgard looks to Loki for salvation, he must answer the Am I truly worthy?

2) The Lost Patrol: A Constable Petra Jensen Novella by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 2nd of April 2024. Greenland. Short Story.

When a ferocious winter storm ravages Northeast Greenland National Park, the operating area of the Danish Sirius Sledge Patrol, Constable Petra ‘Piitalaat’ Jensen is worried about patrol member Jonas Hallander, and even more so when his team misses several scheduled radio checks.The Lost Patrol is the twenty-sixth in the Greenland Missing Persons series of novellas and novels set in the harsh, unpredictable Arctic, rich in tradition, myth and culture.The Lost Patrol 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.

3) Chooser of the Slain by E.S. Oliver to be published on the 3rd of April 2024. U.S.A. & Denmark. 279 Pages.

From felling dead trees in the Colorado Rockies to slitting the throats of her enemies, Antje had her work cut out for her. Too bad the Norse gods don't offer paid time off.

After a premonition of a terror attack nearly kills her, the god Odin jolts Antje into a violent and confusing spiritual awakening. Seeking answers, she travels to the world's most exclusive school for magic concealed beneath Copenhagen. Immediately thrust into a world of dark magic and global conspiracy, Antje discovers she's no mere mortal—but the incarnation of a valkyrie.

With the help of Cole—a charming CIA agent—and the school's eccentric professors, Antje unravels a sinister the Dark Queen and her putrid army are planning a siege on humanity. Antje must thwart the carnage, not only for Midgard's sake—but to prevent all of the nine realms from plunging into eternal darkness.

There's just one there's no manual on how to be a valkyrie.

CHOOSER OF THE SLAIN is a dark fantasy thriller packed with magic, Norse mythology, gore, dark humor, and a cast of lovably complex characters. With copious twists and turns, this book will keep you guessing until the end. This is book 1/9 in the WATERS OF WYRD series.

4) Girl Friends by Alex Dahl to be published on the 11th of April 2024. Norway. 416 Pages.

Two best friends
A girls' trip to Ibiza
One night that changes everything...

Charlotte Vinge is famous throughout Norway for her low-carb cookery shows and self-branded merchandise. She is the face of 'having it all'. When she meets Bianka Langeland, the two hit it off straight away. Bianka is creative and artistic, she makes Charlotte feel a little looser and wilder. The women quickly become inseparable.

But when Charlotte suggests a girls' weekend in Ibiza, their friendship takes a darker turn. What should have been a trip full of sun, sea and cocktails soon becomes a living nightmare.

Can what happened on holiday stay there? Or will the events from this weekend ricochet through Charlotte's perfectly planned life back in Oslo?

5) Arctic Caveat: A Constable Maratse Stand Alone novella by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 16th of April 2024. Greenland. Short Story.

As negotiations for Greenland’s future relationship with the United States of America begin, leaked documents reveal several caveats to cooperation that threaten to derail the talks, pitting Maratse and the guerrillas once more against an emboldened and repurposed IGA.Arctic Caveat continues the stand-alone speculative storyline begun in Arctic State, set in Greenland in the near future.Arctic Caveat is the seventh book in the Guerrilla Greenland series of novellas.

6) What Kingdom by Fine Gråbøl to be published on the 16th of April 2024. Denmark. 152 Pages.

“An incredibly moving and gripping novel . . . so sure-footed, clear, vibrating, like chiffon or a cigarette.” — Olga Ravn

An incandescent debut about young adults learning how to care for themselves — from within the limits of the psychiatric system

Perfect for fans of Tove Ditlevsen and devotees of Sylvia Plath

In honest, crackling investigations of the psychiatric system and the young people trying to find their way, Gråbøl’s soaring debut offers a critique of institutionalization and an urgent recalibrating of the language and conceptions of care.

“I’m not inarticulate, but I leave language to the room around me,” says Fine Gråbøl’s nameless narrator as she dreams of furniture flickering to life in the room she occupies at a temporary psychiatric care unit for young adults. A chair that greets you, or shiny tiles of floor that follow a peculiar grammar of their own. Our narrator is obsessed with the way items rise up out of their thingness , assuming personalities and private motives. She also cannot sleep, and practices her daily routines with the urgency of survival – peeling a carrot, drinking prune juice – all an acutely calibrated exploration into having a home.

Structured as a series of intimate vignettes like those of Olga Ravn, What Kingdom thrums with the swirling voices of this shared home. Hector blares Michael Jackson from the recreation room and recalls a past in Peru when his psychoses were treated with exorcism. The town would shake the devil out of his small, teenage body before he was relocated to Denmark. Or Marie, who has lived in the temporary unit since she was eighteen, has no idea that her mother lives just four floors below in a permanent care unit.

Echoing the aching writings of Janet Frame on electroconvulsive therapy, or Linda Boström Knausgård’s mythical meditations on silence and mental health, Fine Gråbøl renders a delicate and deep uncoupling from the world.

7) The Rocks Will Echo Our Sorrow: The Forced Displacement of the Northern Sámi by Elin Anna Labba to be published on the 23rd of April 2024. Sami. Norway & Sweden. 168 Pages.

The deep and personal story—told through history, poetry, and images—of the forced displacement of the Sámi people from their homeland in northern Norway and Sweden and its reverberations today
More than a hundred years have passed since the Sámi were forcibly displaced from their homes in northern Norway and Sweden, a hundred years since Elin Anna Labba’s ancestors and relations drove their reindeer over the strait to the mainland for the last time. The place where they lived has remained empty ever since. We carry our homes in our hearts, Labba shares, citing the Sámi poet Áillohaš. How do you bear that weight if you were forced to leave? In a remarkable blend of historical reportage, memoir, and lyrical reimagining, Labba travels to the lost homeland of her ancestors to tell of the forced removal of the Sámi in the early twentieth century and to reclaim a place in history, and in today’s world, for these Indigenous people of northern Scandinavia. When Norway became a country independent from Sweden in 1905, the two nations came to an agreement that called for the displacement of the Northern Sámi, who spent summers on the Norwegian coast and winters in Sweden. This “dislocation,” as the authorities called it, gave rise to a new word in Sámi language, bággojohtin, forced displacement. The first of the sirdolaččat, or “the displaced,” left their homes fully believing they would soon return. Through stories, photographs, letters, and joik lyrics, Labba gathers a chorus of Sámi expression that resonates across the years, evoking the nomadic life they were required to abandon and the immense hardship and challenges they children left behind with relatives, reindeer lost when they returned to familiar territory, sorrow and estrangement that linger through generations. Starkly poetic and emotionally heart-wrenching, this dark history is told through the voices of the sirdolaččat, echoing the displacements of other Indigenous people around the world as it depicts the singular experience of the Northern Sámi. For her extraordinary work, Labba was awarded Sweden’s most important national book prize in 2020, the August Prize for Best Nonfiction.

8) The Prophet and the Idiot by Jonas Jonasson to be published on the 23rd of April 2024. Sweden. 437 Pages.

The brand-new, hilarious, feel-good adventure from the internationally bestselling author of The Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared

Sweden, late summer of 2011. Self-taught astrophysicist Petra has calculated that the atmosphere will collapse on the 21st of September that year, around 21.20 to be more precise, bringing about the end of times.

Armed with this terrible knowledge, Petra meets Johan, a domesday prophet, and Agnes, a widow of 75 who has made bank living a double life on social media as a young influencer. Together, the trio race through Europe as they plan to make the most out of the time they have left, in more ways than one.

But of course, things rarely go to plan, even the end of the world…

9) Death on the Beach: Essays from a Marginal World by Per Högselius to be published 0n the 30th of April 2024. Sweden. 208 Pages.

A wondrous and haunting deep-dive into landscape and culture. "Countless are they, the people who for one reason or another – or for no reason at all – have met their fate on the beach.” This fascinating essay collection, translated from Swedish, walks global shores, looks to the sea and transcends the everyday. Beaches have shadows. They are places of tragedy that look upon the unfathomable abyss of the ocean. Per Högselius skirts our history, shipwrecks and bodies, relics of war and vanished lives. He draws on his encounters with painters, writers and movie directors. He invokes Casper David Friedrich, Frankenstein and Jaws . Prepare for a haunting journey that leaves you fragile and shows you wonders.

10) The Order of the Furies: 1795 by Niklas Natt och Dag to be published on the 30th of April 2024. Sweden. 400 Pages.

The spellbinding and eerie finale to the #1 internationally bestselling “cerebral, immersive” ( The Washington Post ) historical trilogy follows two unlikely allies as they struggle to end the reign of a powerful cabal of depraved hedonists in 18th-century Stockholm.

For more than a year, brilliant lawyer Emil Winge has dedicated himself to capturing the diabolical Tycho Ceton, with the invaluable assistance of one-armed army veteran and watchman Jean Michael Cardell. Their mission is made more difficult by the ever-increasing paranoia gripping Sweden’s royal family, who fear that a bloody revolution is brewing. A letter with the names of the revolutionary conspirators is said to be in the possession of Anna Stina Knapp, a good friend to Cardell. Now, Anna is missing and Cardell is determined to find her before the secret police take her into custody.

While Winge and Cardell fight for justice and for life, they find themselves caught between powerful enemies—those who will do anything to maintain the status quo, and those who will only be satisfied with its total destruction.

Writing with “thrilling, unnerving, clever, and beautiful” (Fredrik Backman) vigor and style, Niklas Natt och Dag brilliantly concludes his immersion into the dark and turbulent waters of 18th-century Stockholm.

11) Retribution by Mr Terry Hannington to be published on the 1st of April 2024. Sweden. 170 Pages.

Retribution is the fourth and final novel in the Skillinge Series. Start reading at the first novel in the series, Old Violins and then continue to Amnesia and Foggy Monday. The book's geography revolves around Skillinge and Österlen Sweden. The theme is how a foolish act of bravery can bring violence and death to the quiet village of Skillinge. The pace is fast. The English is easily read.

12) Arctic Caveat: A Constable Maratse Stand Alone novella by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 25th of April 2025. Greenland.

As negotiations for Greenland’s future relationship with the United States of America begin, leaked documents reveal several caveats to cooperation that threaten to derail the talks, pitting Maratse and the guerrillas once more against an emboldened and repurposed IGA.

Arctic Caveat continues the stand-alone speculative storyline begun in Arctic State, set in Greenland in the near future.

Arctic Caveat is the seventh book in the Guerrilla Greenland series of novellas.

13) Hunting the Marsh Widow: Sidekick Stories from the Ballyfoote RPG Campaign by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 11th of April 2024. England.

When strange tidings of a cursed dowry in the Ballyfoote marshes reach a company of adventurers at the Crowside Inn, the leader hires a Half-Orc to replace a fallen comrade.Hunting the Marsh Widow is set in Christoffer Petersen’s roleplaying campaign world of the same name.This short story introduces Kannza the Half-Orc, one of many sidekicks from the Ballyfoote RPG campaign.Hunting the Marsh Widow is a fantasy story with a light touch of litRPG elements.Pick up Hunting the Marsh Widow and meet your next companion, for better or worse, today!

14) Back From the Dead by Heidi Amsinck to be published on the 18th of April 2024. Denmark.

‘Page-turningly brilliant…a fiendishly clever plot…vibrant and expertly penned’ Abir Mukherjee

A missing person, a headless corpse, Jensen is on the case.

June, and as Copenhagen swelters under record temperatures, a headless corpse surfaces in the murky harbour, landing a new case on the desk of DI Henrik Jungersen, just as his holiday is about to start.

Elsewhere in the city, Syrian refugee Aziz Almasi, driver to Esben Nørregaard MP has vanished. Fearing a link to shady contacts from his past. Nørregaard appeals to crime reporter Jensen to investigate.

Could the body in the harbour be Aziz? Jensen turns to former lover Henrik for help. As events spiral dangerously out of control, they are thrown together once more in the pursuit of evil, in case more dangerous than they could ever have imagined.

15) Long November: A Constable Petra 'Piitalaat' Jensen novel by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 9th of April 2024. Greenland.

There is a darkness in the forests of Germany, darker than the blackest night in Greenland.

When a young climate activist from Greenland is threatened, Constable Petra ‘Piitalaat’ Jensen accompanies her to a Green Energy conference in Germany, where the stakes are high and the threat of violence even higher.

Long November is a standalone novel from the popular Greenland Missing Persons series of novellas and novels.

16) The Finnish Jewish Enigma: The unknown story of a Nazi extermination squad in Finland during World War II by Josef Yossi Berger to be published on the 10th of April 2024. Finland.

On 30 October 1942, the Gestapo commander in Estonia received a message from the Helsinki police that the Finnish government intended to hand over nine Jewish refugees to Germany.
One week later, only eight Jewish refugees were handed over to the Nazis.
Where did the ninth disappear to?

Nadav, a young Israeli photographer lost in the frozen wilderness of Finnish Lapland, is saved by a survival hut he stumbles upon at the last moment. A mysterious text engraved in a hidden corner of the cabin arouses his curiosity and together with Heidi, a young Finnish woman he has met, they return to the site and discover a cache of mysterious objects from the Second World War. With the help of Kurt, a German journalist, they manage to decipher the story behind the cryptic writing and discover the connection between a Jewish-Finnish sniper unit that killed Nazis in the Second World War, a stolen treasure of diamonds and the mysterious disappearance of the ninth Jew.

In Kibbutz Yad Hashmona, near Jerusalem, founded by a group of Finnish immigrants in memory of the eight Jews, the long-standing mystery is finally solved and brought to light.

The message conveyed by the ninth Jew in the hidden script takes on special significance after the horrific massacre that took place in Israel on 7 October 2023, linking the fate of Nadav and Heidi with human evil.

This historical fiction thriller is based on true events from World War II and takes place in Finland, Austria, Germany, and Israel. It was inspired by real people and places.

17) Pole Stone: Gravity. The New Battleground by Philip.R Broom to be published on the 17th of April 2024. Denmark.

Special Forces, Secret Agents, Gangsters and Gravity Defying Forces!....Tighten your seatbelt, you're in for a ride!
In the chilling expanse of the Arctic Circle, a ground breaking discovery of ultra-rich deposits of lithium and cobalt sets in motion a series of events that promise to reshape the world. Two ruthless billionaires harbour plans to dominate the global supply of lithium and revolutionise electric generation and ultimately the world with blackmail and bribery.

However, an unexpected earthquake, triggered by the mining, not only disrupts the operation but reveals extraordinary stones with gravity-defying properties, the Pole Stones.

The Danish Geo team are suddenly caught up in a cat and mouse chase for magical stones. Pressed into action, step forward the band of brothers protection team of Ex-SAS soldiers, hired to protect the Danes . Chased by ruthless Russian assassins and Chinese Special Forces who stop at nothing to get what they want.

The tale is a riveting blend of corporate intrigue, geopolitical machinations, ecological dilemmas, and law defying phenomena, making it a compelling and multifaceted read.

The story weaves through clashes between the Danish, Russian and Chinese government agencies. Wrapped around the discovery of the Pole Stones, which challenge the laws of quantum and modern physics with mind bending results.

The race begins. Capture the Pole Stones and control the universe.