English Translations of Scandinavian/Nordic Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

For the month of November we presently have 10 books to chose from. We will add books as they become known to us. good reading.

1) Her Viking Saviour: Lore&Love Trilogy by Steffy Smith to be published on the 1st of November 2024. Viking. 144 pages.

The Aesir, the Norse Gods, enjoyed watching over Midgard, the realm of humans, who provided them with curiosities and entertainment. Odin, the All-Father, took a vested interest in his Nordic believers, particularly the three Ulfson siblings. Their lineage paid homage to the Raven, Odin’s winged companions.

Torben “Hel-Bringer” Ulfson, Chieftain of his people, occupied a bay side settlement called Klavik at the foot of the mountains in Norway. After many years of raids and battles, he wanted more for his family and people than the way of the Viking. The moniker Hel-Bringer, given to him by his Viking brethren was a sign to embark on a different purpose in life.

Wynflaed of Northumbria, a handmaiden abducted by marauding Vikings, was meant to be sold as a slave. Moments away from death after defying her captor, the last thing she expected was to be rescued. By a Viking no less. Torben was formidable, gentle and righteous - frustrating Wynflaed to no end.

Neither is prepared for the fierce connection of their spirits. The burning bond threatens to consume them. Both teeter on the edge of succumbing to their heart’s desire - but first, they must lay bare their souls.

2) The Road of Bones by Demi Winters to be published on the 5th of November 2024. Viking. 500 pages.

A woman on the run. A crew of Viking mercenaries. A forbidden romance. And the secret which threatens them all.

Silla Nordvig is running for her life.

The queen of Íseldur has sent warriors to bring Silla to Sunnavík, where death awaits her. When her father is killed, his last words set Silla on a perilous quest: travel the treacherous Road of Bones–a thousand-mile stretch haunted by warbands, creatures of darkness, and a mysterious murderer–and go to Kopa, where a shield-house awaits her.

After barely surviving the first stretch of road, a desperate Silla sneaks into a supply wagon belonging to the notorious Bloodaxe Crew. To make it to Kopa, she must win over Axe Eyes, the brooding leader of the Crew, while avoiding the Wolf, his distractingly handsome right-hand man. But the queen’s ruthless assassin has other plans and hunts Silla obsessively.

Will Silla make it safely to Kopa? Or will she fall prey to the perils of the Road of Bones?

Featuring an immersive world blending fairy tale with Vikings, The Road of Bones leads you on an adrenaline-fueled chase with fun banter and a slow-building enemies to lovers romance. The first book in the Ashen Series, you are one click away from reading it!

3) Ice Town by Will Dean to be published on the 7th of November 2024. Sweden. 356 pages.

ONE WAY IN. NO WAY OUT.

Deaf teenager goes missing in Esseberg. Mountain rescue are launching a search party but conditions hinder their efforts.V The tunnel is being kept open all night as an exception.

When journalist Tuva Moodyson reads this news alert she knows she must join the search. If this teenager is found, she will be able to communicate with him in a way no one else can.

Esseberg lies on the other side of a mountain there is only one way in and one way out. When the tunnel closes at night, the residents are left to fend for themselves. And as more people go missing, it becomes clear that there is a killer among them ...

ICE TOWN is the unputdownable new Tuva novel, which will delight existing fans of the series and bring many new readers to it.

4) Out in the Cold by Steve Urszenyi to be published on the 12th of November 2024. Finland. 336 pages.

Special Agent Alex Martel is thrown back into a deadly world of deception when a series of attacks threaten to incite World War III in this action-packed thriller.

While sailing across the Mediterranean, the megayacht Aurora is rocked with explosions, taken under siege by unknown assailants. On board are some of Europe’s wealthiest and most powerful political players, including the secretary general of Interpol, a high-ranking Finnish diplomat, and Special Agent Alex Martel―whose lethal sniper skills kick in to bring them safely to shore.

Someone is waging a ruthless campaign of attacks against Finland, one of NATO’s newest members, in an attempt to throw the Alliance into turmoil. Teaming back up with CIA agent Caleb, Alex is thrust into the middle of the fray, pursuing the villains from the waters off of Monaco to the Baltic Sea and home to American soil.

As the US is pulled deeper into the conflict, a global catastrophe seems inevitable. But who is really responsible for these escalating attacks on Finland? The Russians, or someone much closer to home? As new allies surface and old enemies reappear, Alex has no way of knowing who to trust―and she might only have one last shot to keep the world from going to war.

5) Lowest Common Denominator by Pirkko Saisio to be published on the 12th of November 2024. Finland. 312 pages.

For readers of Eileen Myles and Patti Smith, Lowest Common Denominator is an ecstatic coming-of-age novel by the Finlandia-prize-winning author of The Red Book of Farewells

Writing in the wake of her father’s death, the narrator of Pirkko Saisio’s autofictional novel (translated from Finnish by Mia Spangenberg) transports us to the 1950s Finland of her youth, where she navigates life as an only child of communist parents. Convinced she will grow up to become a man, a young Saisio keeps trying and failing to meet the expectations of the adults around her. Writing with her trademark wit and style, each formative experience—with the Big Bad Wolf, a bikini-clad circus announcer, and Jesus Christ “who has a beard like a man but a skirt and long hair like a woman”—drives her further and further from her family and others. Struggling to understand her place in the world around her, it’s in language that she discovers a refuge and a way to be seen at last.

6) The Silent Emperor (2) by Snorri Kristjansson to be published on the 19th of November 2024. Egypt (Icelandic author). 320 pages.

Second instalment in the bold new historical fantasy of a secret order of Roman monster-hunters.

“I am shadow, and I am terror. They call me Silent Claw."

Aemilius and his new comrades in the Hidden Legion have a new mission: to infiltrate the villa of a powerful politician and foil a plot against him.

Posing as a servant to their host’s “cousin” and her “children”—the Legion’s latest recruits, a pair of adorable orphans trained in murder and espionage—Aemilius must keep his cover, while helping expose a killer who always seems one step ahead of them.

As his newfound magical powers slowly unfold, he begins to hear the thoughts of animals and finds unexpected new allies, including a housecat with an inflated sense of its own importance.

He’ll need all the help he can get, as the Legion find themselves locked in a desperate fight for survival against a foe with even darker and more terrible powers than those they faced in Alexandria.

7) Brightly Shining by Ingvild H. Rishøi to be published on the 19th of November 2024. Norway. 192 pages.

Brightly Shining is a 'heartbreaking, funny and philosophical tale about the reality of addiction, the power of dreams and the kindness of strangers'. Christmas is around the corner, and Ronja's father is out of work again, but it seems that their luck has turned when she gets him a job selling Christmas trees. But the local pub has a stronger pull on him than his family's wellbeing, and in order to keep social services at bay, Ronja and her sister are forced to fend for themselves. If he won't sell Christmas trees, they will do it for him.

8) Biggles Defies the Swastika by W.E. Johns to be published on the 25th of November 2024. Norway. 192 pages.

Biggles' old enemy Von Stalhein has heard that he is on a recon mission in Norway and is determined to track him down.

9) A Trinket for the Taking by Victoria Laurie to be published on the 26th of November 2024. U.S.A. & Denmark. 288 pages.

This mesmerizing mystery series debut from New York Times bestselling author Victoria Laurie introduces the captivating Dovey Van Dalen, once the belle of 1840s Copenhagen, now charged with recovering magic property from mortals—whatever it takes. Dovey Van Dalen has a gorgeous day planned for her 200th driving her new Porsche, admiring the cherry blossoms abloom in her adopted city of Washington DC, and a little pampering. But her boss has other ideas. A powerful artifact has been stolen, and he fears it’s causing chaos in the unmagical world . . . The rich and connected Ariti family has suffered a string of suspicious deaths, with no signs of foul play. Yet each member has died in the way they feared most. As the enchanting agent most skilled at blending in with mere mortals, Dovey must find answers and retrieve the dangerous trinket. There’s just one unexpected by the time Dovey arrives at the art gallery where the Ariti patriarch died, FBI agent Grant “Gibs” Bartholomew has taken control of the scene. Dovey needs his cooperation to investigate—but she’ll have to hide her abilities, and her true objective, from a man who uncovers deceptions every day. And as they inch nearer a deadly truth, both will face danger even the spellbound would be lucky to survive . . .

10) Of Woven Fates by Megan Formanek to be published on the 29th of November 2024. Viking. 108 pages.

A world bound by fate and kin, entangled by the guile of men.

Svealand 877 CE
Married off by her mother, Astrid finds herself trapped in a life of domesticity, far from the freedom she once knew. Confined to her husband’s settlement, she faces his resentful son, who seeks to usurp authority, and the looming inheritance dispute that overshadows Astrid’s future.
Astrid must navigate the treacherous waters of her new reality, contending with the fate the Norns have spun.
With her husband’s health failing, Astrid faces a crucial can she find a way to influence the inheritance and secure her future, or will she be left vulnerable to forces beyond her control?

11) The Curious Heart: A Greenland Missing Persons short story by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 12th of November 2024. Greenland. 35 pages.

When a retired civil engineer is led into the wilds by a young girl in the far north of Greenland, it’s up to Constable Petra ‘Piitalaat’ Jensen to find her.

The Curious Heart is a light, quick read connected to Christoffer Petersen’s Greenland Missing Persons series, guest starring Cheryl Chase.

12) Thieves' Night: A Constable David Maratse short story by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 15th of November 2024. Greenland.

When Constable David Maratse breaks up a barroom brawl between local fishermen and a team of marine biologists, he learns that the root cause of the argument is beneath the surface of the sea ice.

Thieves’ Night is a short story featuring characters from Christoffer Petersen’s popular series of novels, novellas, and short stories set in Greenland.

13) Darkened Heart by Venezia Miller published on the 31st of October 2024. Sweden. 338 pages.

When two fishermen pull a decaying human heart from the icy river, it sparks the beginning of a chilling hunt. The victims—young boys—are found with their hearts removed, the organ placed in an eerie wooden box adorned with ancient symbols. As the killer's pattern emerges, so does the scale of the horror: a murderer who moves effortlessly across Europe, leaving a grisly trail behind.

For the Gävle police, the case takes a disturbing turn when an old case appears hauntingly linked to the current killings. As shocking evidence surfaces, long-held beliefs are shattered, forcing the investigators to question everything they once thought was true.

With each new clue, they find themselves drawn deeper into a sinister web of deceit. But as they edge closer to the truth, the stakes grow deadlier—and the killer is always one step ahead. Time is running out, and the final, most devastating revelation may come too late.

Venezia Miller's Darkened Heart is a gripping psychological thriller that probes the shadowy boundaries between justice and vengeance, revealing the terrifying darkness lurking within us all.

Keywords: mystery, nordic noir, suspense

14) Sharp Edges: A Constable David Maratse short story by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 9th of November 2024.
Greenland. 40 pages.

When a seal safari on the sea ice ends in catastrophe, Constable David Maratse sledges onto the ice to rescue a mother and daughter before the ice breaks.

Sharp Edges is a short story featuring characters from Christoffer Petersen’s popular series of novels, novellas, and short stories set in Greenland.

15) Myth in Malmö: The tenth Inspector Anita Sundström Mystery by Torquil MacLeod to be published on the 20th of November 2024. Sweden. 340 pages.

On the peaceful summer residential allotments in Simrishamn, a dog is killed. A few weeks later, so is one of the plot holders. She is a woman who had access to many secrets that certain locals wouldn’t want to come to light. As Anita Sundström’s team is brought in to investigate, the chief inspector also has to deal with the disappearance of a British archaeology student who has gone missing in Sweden while searching for an ex-colleague, who has also vanished. The case, brought to her by her long-time, long-distance partner, Detective Kevin Ash, who has run into a dead end in the UK, seems to be linked to two separate archaeological digs – one in Skåne and the other in the famous Viking centre of Birka. So, what has this all to do with a Scanian Viking who once fought in the Varangian Guard for a Byzantine emperor? Anita Sundström needs to find out before another life is lost in the tenth Malmö Mystery.

16) Cold Reckoning by L.T. Ryan & Biba Pearce to be published on the 12th of November 2024. Sweden. 274 pages.

She’s hunted him for years—now he’s returned to finish what he started.

FBI Special Agent Avril Dahl has spent a decade chasing shadows—the Frost Killer, a meticulous murderer who stole fifty-three lives, including her mother's. Now, after years of silence, Avril returns to her childhood home in the snowy streets of Täby, Sweden, desperate to leave the hunt behind. But as she sorts through the remnants of her past, she discovers eerie signs that the killer is not only alive but watching her.

When a postcard from Stockholm arrives with a cryptic message—This one is for Agent Dahl—her worst fear is confirmed: the Frost Killer has returned, and she’s his next target. As bodies begin to appear in the familiar, snow-covered woods, Avril must confront her haunting past and outwit the monster she’s been hunting her entire career.

But with the line between hunter and prey blurring, Avril faces an unsettling truth: the closer she gets to him, the more he seems to know about her deepest fears. And as the game of cat and mouse escalates, one question remains—will she catch the Frost Killer before he catches her?

Gripping, chilling, and filled with unexpected twists, Cold Reckoning will leave you breathless—because when the past refuses to stay buried, some secrets can kill.

17) Chill Factor: A Short Story of Fighter Pilots from Greenland by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 19th of November 2024. Greenland.

During some much needed down time, Ukaliina takes a break from the skies, only to be tempted back into the cockpit when a test pilot calls in sick and an experimental project needs a replacement.

Climb into the cockpit with Greenlandic fighter pilot Ukaliina “Sled Dog” Nakinngi in this short, adrenaline-fuelled, story set in the Arctic and America, and join self-confessed Top Gun fanboy Christoffer Petersen in this tongue-in-cheek adventure from Greenland.

18) Arctic Shadows: A Lenin Aslanov Story Omnibus Trilogy by Maxwell Hoffman to be published on the 11 of November 2024. Iceland. 158 pages.

Lenin Aslanov and his Palestinian friend Salem Barid embark on a journey that takes them from the borders of Finland, to the Russian city of Vyborg and across the Baltic Sea and Atlantic Ocean as their final destination is Iceland! Will they survive? Find out in the omnibus trilogy!

19) Nordic Shadows: The Architect by Daniel Fankhauser to be published on the 14th of November 2024. Sweden. 128 pages.

n the remote coastal town of Smögen, Detective Erik Johansson’s tranquil life is shattered when a chilling discovery pulls him into the shadowy depths of an international conspiracy. A brutal murder unveils a network of power, corruption, and violence, led by a mysterious figure known only as "The Architect."

Erik and his team—including the unflinching Lars Berg and the brilliant analyst Ingrid Hallström—race against time to dismantle a powerful criminal network spanning continents. But as they unravel its intricate threads, they uncover bioagents capable of mass devastation. The stakes rise when a second shipment slips through their grasp, leaving them battling not only a relentless enemy but also their own fears of what could come next.

With an open ending that promises further intrigue, Nordic Shadows: The Architect is a dark and gripping Nordic noir thriller filled with twists, betrayals, and moral dilemmas. Perfect for fans of Jo Nesbø and Viveca Sten, this debut will leave readers on the edge of their seats, desperate for the next installment in the Nordic Shadows series.

The Saint by Carin Gerhardsen to be published on the 12th of November 2024. Sweden. 336 pages.

In this internationally bestselling Nordic noir, the investigation into the murder of a beloved soccer coach in a quiet Stockholm neighborhood reveals a dark truth.

Local girls’ soccer coach Sven-Gunnar Erlandsson is practically a saint in the community, known for his good works and volunteering. So when his body is found in Stockholm’s beautiful Herräng forest, shot at close range in the back of the neck while walking home from a late-night poker game, the police struggle to find a motive. Nothing has been taken from his pockets except his cell phone, and the only other clues left behind are a cryptic handwritten note and a handful of playing cards.

The Hammarby murder squad takes the case, splitting up the leads between their eclectic mix of officers. Led by Detective Chief Inspector Conny Sjöberb, the team also includes a veteran inspector who balances his career with caring for his disabled daughter, a widow who has returned to police work after several decades spent as a homemaker and pursuing a law degree, a new transplant who recently achieved minor celebrity status as an Idol contestant, and a young police assistant struggling with trauma she can’t share with her colleagues.

Each member of the team pursues a different lead and, as they interview Erlandsson’s friends and family, they discover a disturbing web of secrets, including a possible link to the cases of two missing girls. Could Erlandsson have been less of a saint than everyone thinks?

A dark and layered story told through multiple perspectives, The Saint is the fourth in the highly acclaimed Hammarby police series from Swedish author Carin Gerhardsen.

21) Legacy of the Gods: Idunn: Mythology meets Thriller by Mikael Lundt to be published on the 4th of November 2024. Sweden. 340 pages.

Iðunn – the fountain of eternal youth or an instrument of death?
Iðunn once granted the Norse gods eternal youth and immortality. But she took her secret to the grave long ago. Now, a reckless expedition is following in the footsteps of this myth, summoning great disaster. A mystical storm costs the lives of two expedition members, and the group's leader disappears without a trace. What the sole survivor reports sounds incredible: an archaic warrior of superhuman strength guards Iðunn's grave and will not rest as long as her heritage is in danger.

A divine power that would have been better off buried forever
Archaeologist Anika Wahlgren is hired by eccentric billionaire Edgar Renqvist to unlock the secret. But it soon dawns on her that this is much more than science alone can explain. Mysterious silver runes seem to be the key to solving the riddle and proof that Iðunn's power still slumbers in secret. But this is far darker and more dangerous than expected. Unleashing it could cause disastrous consequences. Nevertheless, Edgar Renqvist is willing to sacrifice everything for his dream of immortality – even the lives of his own son and Anika Wahlgren.

Science meets mythology
Join Anika Wahlgren on a breathtaking journey into the mystical past and an even more fantastic future. In her second adventure, myths and modern science merge into a unique mix that sheds a whole new light on the Norse world of the ancient gods.