English Translations of Scandinavian/Nordic Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

For the Month of September 2025 we have 7 books to choose from so far. We will add books as they become know to us. Good reading.

1) The Wax Child by Olga Ravn to be published on the 2nd of September 2025. Denmark. 176 pages.

Based on a real-life seventeenth century Danish witch trial, The Wax Child tells in vivid prose the story of Christenze Kruckow, a noblewoman long pursued by a scandal of sorcery. People whisper that in her wake one finds illness, death, and unsettling behaviour by pigs and cats. Some even say she once fashioned out of wax a child, an instrument of the most sinister magic. Christenze will flee the rumours to Aalborg, that great city of seawater and mist. But even there suspicion and fear rule, and once a rumour of witchcraft has taken hold, it can prove hard to shake…

2) Meet Me Under the Northern Lights by Mandy Baggot to be published on the 4th of September 2025. Iceland. 346 pages.

Can one kiss melt a cold, broken heart?

When career-focused Chloe Bellamy is sent to Iceland on a last-minute work trip, it’s her big chance to prove she deserves a seat at the top.

But there’s one problem, she may have embellished her CV a little… saying she speaks Icelandic when she doesn’t! And now, to add to her woes, she’s landed with no place to stay.

Gunnar Eriksson has a habit of saving people. First, when he rescued a young boy from a volcano and offered him a forever home. Then opening his door and welcoming in a spirited yet accident-prone Octogenarian. Now Gunnar has somehow tied himself to Chloe who needs all the help she can get but, for some reason, is reluctant to accept it.

Neither of them are looking for love, but under Iceland’s spell, and with a little extra help from those around them, something begins to shift. Could one kiss beneath the Northern Lights change everything?

This Christmas, escape to Iceland for festive feels, unexpected friendships and maybe even a chance at love.

3) The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer by Ragnar Jónasson to be published on the 9th of September2025. Iceland. 320 pages.

One winter evening bestselling crime author, Elín S. Jónsdóttir goes missing.

There are no clues to her disappearance and it is up to young detective, Helgi, to crack the case before it's leaked to the press.

As he interviews the people closest to her – a publisher, an accountant, a retired judge – he realises that Elín’s life wasn’t what it seemed. In fact, her past is even stranger than her stories.

As the case of the missing crime writer becomes more mysterious by the hour, Helgi must uncover the secrets of a very unexpected life . . .

4) The Book of I by David Greig to be published on the 9th of September 2025. Viking. 160 pages.

A brilliant Scottish debut, shortlisted for the Highland Book Prize and the Bookmark Book Festival Book of the Year.

825: In the aftermath of a vicious attack by raiders from the north, an unlikely trio finds themselves the lone survivors on a remote Scottish isle. Still breathing are young Brother Martin, the only resident of the local monastery to escape martyrdom; Una, a beekeeper and mead maker who has been relieved of her violent husband during the slaughter; and Grimur, an aging Norseman who claws his way out of the hasty grave his fellow raiders left him in, thinking him dead.

As the seasons pass in this wild and lonely setting, their inherent distrust of each other melts into a complex meditation on the distances and bonds between them. Told with humor and alive with sharply exquisite dialogue, David Greig deftly lifts the curtain between our world and the past. The Book of I is an entirely unique novel that serves as a philosophical commentary on guilt and redemption, but also humanity, love, and the things we choose to believe in.

5) Hungry Like a Wolf: A Viking Historical Romance by Lily Harlem to be published on the 12th of September 2025. Viking. 202 pages.

Sex, Drugs, & Rock ‘n’ Row

Meet the Vikings who not only adventure, seduce, battle, and love hard, they also rock ‘n’ roll. That’s right, the Rhalsons of the Northlands are a different breed altogether. They’re tough and rough and make up their own rules. Why not? They can. No one can stop them.

Carmel of the Westlands is living as a lowly slave. Which is all wrong! She’s a princess, a warrior, and a good, Christian woman. So how come she’s found herself washing the feet of an entitled Viking in the kingdom of Tillicoulty?

She must pray for her mother’s army to rescue her and hope that her precious maidenhood is not taken against her will.

Yet everywhere she goes, her master’s tall, strong brother is watching her with his piercing, glacial-blue eyes. She can barely turn around without bumping into his broad, battle-scarred torso.

Ravn Rhalson, King of Drangar, is a broken man. His quest for power has blurred the path of his destiny and he must fight to step back on it.

His only choice is to throw himself at the mercy of Njord, the God of the Seas and Winds, and journey to find his siblings—a journey that lands him on the shores of a new kingdom as he sheds his old skin.

And the light that shows him the way? His brother’s slave, a thrall woman, the daughter of an enemy captured in battle. She’s delicate and beautiful, her eyes shine with intelligence and strength, and she moves with a regal grace that captivates him utterly.

So when the solution to a problem is for him to keep her at his side, he drops her onto his longboat and sails off into the sunset.

She doesn’t want to go with him. She doesn’t like him. He’s a big brute, a heathen monster. But can he persuade her otherwise? Can she see that he’s a changed man and she’s become his world? He’ll do anything to protect her, anything to ensure her happiness and, most importantly, her satisfaction.

6) The Blazing Sea by Tim Hodkinson to be published on the 11th of September 2025. Viking. 311 pages.

The thrilling new Whale Road Chronicles Viking adventure. Einar and the Wolf Coats venture south, but danger and bloodshed is never far away.

Einar and the Wolf Coats have angered most of the kings of Northern Europe. With England no refuge, their only solution is to set sail across the Whale Road.

A chance encounter with a slave trader leads them to Muslim Spain, but what starts as a joyous homecoming for one of the crew ends in the Caliph's infamous dungeons.

The Mediterranean proves a perilous sea. Byzantine warships roam, armed with liquid fire that can torch man and ship alike. Viking mercenaries and pirate lords alike spill blood for gold or glory.

With a chance to retake his stolen kingdom of Orkney, Einar must first save an innocent life... and risk his own and those of his crew once more.

7) 25 Days by Per Jacobsen to be published on the 30th of September. Denmark. 358 pages.

25 days, 25 chapters. This December, the countdown to Christmas will chill you to the bone.

Hoping to bring his family closer together, Adam Gray arranges a vacation in a remote cabin on a snowy mountain. Things take a dark turn, however, when someone starts leaving gifts in the Christmas stocking mounted on the barn door.

Each morning brings something new, and with every passing day, the contents become more terrifying. Soon, the family makes a spine-chilling they’ve been dragged into a deranged game of Secret Santa, and if they want to survive, they will have to fight.

8) What good does it do for a person to wake up one morning this side of the new millennium by Kim Simonsen tp be published on the 16th of September 2025. Faroe Islands. 172 pages.

Nominated for the 2024 Nordic Council Literature Prize, Kim Simonsen introduces a new perspective to Faroese literature rooted in the materiality of all natural organisms.

The rhetorical title of the collection posits the crisis that is underway. Simonsen as a species among species, all comprised of the matter of the universe, how has our compulsion to hierarchically categorize everything estranged us from ourselves, each other, and the rest of this world? Simonsen challenges our anthropocentric pursuit of knowledge, exploring the human relationship with itself as an element of the natural world. The collection follows the process as the narrator reckons with estrangement from his fellow organisms, and turns to the greater materiality of the world to find continuity, connection, and solace.

9) The Mischievous Two: A Historical Thriller Based In Sweden Featuring Vikings, Their Gods, Their Treasure, A Modern Day Hunt For It, Some Laughs, And Some Really Bad People. by I A Scott to be published on the 15th of September 2025. Sweden. 133 pages.

Two friends, Mats Gildersson and John Auric, stumble across something strange in the Swedish mountains. While trying to find out what it is, they meet an archaeologist, Eva Ericsson, who wants to be involved in the investigations.

Her goal is to enrich the world's knowledge of the Vikings. The blokes want to enrich their bank accounts.

Their search uncovers much more than anyone bargained for. Stuff that some people want to take from them, and are prepared to do bad things to get their hands on. And other stuff that some people would much rather stayed hidden, and are prepared to do bad things to make sure it does.

11) A Lethal Legacy by Guðrún Guðlaugsdóttir to be published on the 20th of September 2025. Iceland. 243 pages.

Nothing has changed at Bjargarlækur for as long as anyone can remember – so are moves to bring change to this remote farm in the Icelandic countryside a motive for murder?

Three elderly siblings have lived more or less peacefully in this isolated place their whole lives, until Brynjólfur is found dead in his own bed. Called on to help out at the farm, freelance journalist Alma is far from certain that the old man died a natural death. Determined establish the facts of the matter, she finds herself caught up in a vicious family feud.

Sisters Klara and Thórdís are unable to agree on the future of the farm, just as others with an interest in the place circle hungrily around them. Echoes of missed opportunities, lost love and age-old crimes surface as a reckoning takes a bitter toll on those left behind – and Alma struggles to get to the truth.