English Translations of Scandinavian/Nordic Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

For the month of November 2025 we have 9 books to choose from at the present time. We will add books as they come available during the month. Good Reading.

1) When Shadows Return: Book 7 in the nordic noir series "The Find" by Venezia Miller to be published on the 1st of November 2025. Sweden. 327 pages.

When a pool of blood is discovered in a shuttered paper factory in Gävle—no body, no witnesses, no explanation—Superintendent Isa Lindström knows the case won’t be simple.
The deeper her team digs, the stranger the trail missing security footage, sabotage, and a wall of silence from those who should know more.

Meanwhile, former detective Timo Paikkala is drawn into a cold case of his own—a young woman who vanished twenty years ago without a trace.
What begins as two separate investigations slowly converges, revealing a web of secrets, buried loyalties, and betrayals no one dared to face.

And at the heart of it all lies a question no one wants to
How much blood must be spilled before the truth surfaces?

Because when shadows return, they never come alone.

2) Bitter Honey by Lola Akinmade Åkerström to be published on the 4th of November 2025. Sweden. 416 pages.

Two women. Four decades. A lifetime of secrets.

1978: A scholarship draws Nancy from Gambia's warmth into Sweden's winter. When her friendship with charismatic scholar Lars blossoms into something more, she thinks she may have finally found her place. But there's more to Lars than his charming persona, and Nancy is about to discover the danger of being drawn into his world.

2006: Tina has had her taste of fame as the nation's sweetheart pop princess. But beneath her glittery façade, Tina is desperate to discover who she really is. Her mother, Nancy, seems desperate to keep the past under wraps, but will an unexpected figure help open the door?

Spanning four decades and three continents, Bitter Honey is a story of mothers, daughters, and the importance of carving your own path.

3) Outcast: The searing, breathtakingly tense new instalment in the No. 1 bestselling Blix & Ramm series… by Thomas Enger & Jørn Lier Horst to be published on the 6th of November 2025. Norway.

Blix & Ramm hunt a sniper on the loose in Oslo, as the city boils over with fear, and it becomes clear that the next targets may be closer to home… The devastating, searing next instalment in the addictive Blix & Ramm series…

With Alexander Blix dismissed from the police force and Emma Ramm's career as a news blogger now behind her, the pair have teamed up to form their own private-investigation agency. But business is slow, until Emma's sister is shot by a sniper in Oslo's main square in the midst, leaving Emma responsible for her twelve-year-old niece, and with an extremely personal case to solve.

But the shooting isn't a one-off. Over the course of a scorchingly hot summer, the sniper strikes again – and again – striking fear into the people of Oslo and setting the police on the trail of either a serial killer or a ruthless and unpredictable terrorist, set on causing mayhem.

But Blix has other ideas. The pattern of killings suggests to him that the shooter has a single target and using others as cover for his deadly plans. With the police sceptical about his theories, Blix and Ramm must go it alone to stop a killer who seems set on avenging himself against a society from which he is an outcast … before he strikes again…

Searing, tense and full of twists and turns, Outcast is the breathtaking sixth instalment in the number-one bestselling Blix & Ramm series, and this time danger is far too close to home…

4) The Writing in the Water . by John Ajvide Lindqvist to be published on the 11th of November 2025. Sweden. 460 pages.

In this sweeping and suspenseful start to the Bloodstorm series, an ex-cop turned crime writer teams up with a mysterious hacker to solve a murder—and uncovers corruption along the way.

Julia Malmros is thriving. A former police officer making her way in the world of crime fiction, she’s turning popularity into fame by writing the next book in a world-renowned suspense series.

To help her research, Julia connects with Kim Ribbing. More hacker than man, Kim bears a dark past that’s the very antithesis of the promising future she has planned for herself. They share an undeniable spark—yet it’s likely to implode.

That’s the least of Julia’s worries.

Hounded by publicity, Julia retreats to her cottage in the Stockholm archipelago. It’s there that she begins to reevaluate her life, reunite with Kim…and return to her investigative roots after tragedy unfolds on a nearby pier. The a billionaire, her childhood friend.

Julia’s ex, Jonny, leads the official investigation, but Julia knows there’s no such thing as coincidence. And as she and Kim follow the trail of cash, corruption follows dangerously close behind.

5) The Ferryman and His Wife by Frode Grytten to be published on the 18th of November 2025. Norway. 176 pages.

In the spirit of Amor Towles and George Saunders, the renowned, bestselling Norwegian author Frode Grytten takes listeners on a quietly epic ferry driver Nils Vik’s last route along the fjord, on what he knows will be his last day alive.

Nils Vik wakes up on November the 18th and knows it will be the day he dies. He follows his morning routine as voices from his past echo in his mind, and looks around the empty house one last time, before stepping onto his beloved boat.

His dog, dead these many years, leaps aboard with him, and then the other dead begin to emerge—from the woods along the fjord, from each of the ferry stops along the route, from his logbook full of memories and quotations and jotted-down notes about the weather conditions. The people from the past accompany him now, prodding him, showing him what he might have missed before, as he waits for his Marta, his late, remarkable wife, to finally join him on the boat again.

Winner of the prestigious Brage Prize, and considered to be Grytten’s long-awaited masterpiece, The Ferryman and His Wife is the story of a quiet, yet utterly profound, life told in reverse. Timeless and absorbing, this is a novel about what we take with us—those moments that might seem insignificant as they happen but prove to be the most meaningful, in the end.

6) Hidden in Memories by Viveca Sten to be published on the 18th of November 2025. Sweden. 465 pages.

BOOKBEAT’S SWEDISH CRIME AUTHOR OF THE YEAR

The slaying of a hotel developer in the Swedish mountains casts a shadow over a blissful vacation paradise in a chilling novel of suspense by the acclaimed author of Hidden in Shadows.

On Easter weekend, a guest at a luxury ski lodge in Åre is stabbed to death in her plush suite. She’s Charlotte Wretlind, a property developer who planned to restore a nearby mountain hotel to its long-gone glory days. It was not a random attack. It was an act of pure aggression leveled against a woman with plenty of enemies.

As the murder spreads panic among tourists and Åre residents alike, Detective Inspectors Hanna Ahlander and Daniel Lindskog face a shady staff, a dogged press, and multiple suspects. But the case takes a turn when a cleaning woman from the lodge is found strangled to death in the woods—and Charlotte’s son goes missing.

Hanna and Daniel plunge into a winding investigation tangled with damaged relationships, corrupt power players, betrayal, and, for Daniel, a personal struggle to process the memories of a painful past. As more troubling questions arise, one thing is Åre’s killing season has only just begun.

7) The Lake by Jørn Lier Horst to be published on the 20th of November 2025. Norway. 353 pages.

*PRE-ORDER NOW! THE THRILLING NEW INSTALMENT IN THE WISTING SERIES, FROM THE NO. 1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER*

'Compelling, original and suspenseful' KATHY REICHS

Following a harsh winter, the dam gates at Farris Lake have been badly damaged, and as summer approaches the lake must be drained for repairs.

Under the intense summer sun, the idyllic lake transforms into a barren wasteland – until the secrets that have long been buried beneath the surface are uncovered…

On both sides of the lakebed, new evidence relating to unsolved cold cases is discovered – the remains of a young man who went missing eight years ago, and the belongings of a girl who disappeared four years later.

Detective William Wisting is certain these crimes are linked. The lake has long hidden its secrets – but can Wisting now bring the truth to light?

8) A Book for Christmas by Selma Lagerlöf to be published on the 25th of November 2025. Sweden. 96 pages.

A little girl receives an unexpected Christmas present; creatures of the forest gather to celebrate the New Year in the glow of a wood nymph’s torch; an evil noblewoman schemes against her beautiful niece; and a cantankerous gravedigger dines with a skull on Christmas Eve.

In this selection of her most beloved winter stories, Selma Lagerlöf weaves together magic and miracles, Swedish folklore and Biblical fables, darkness and light with heartfelt joy and boundless imagination. Newly translated into English for the first time, these stories comprise the ultimate festive anthology from one of the most important woman writers of the twentieth century.

9) The Hunters: Book X In The Winter Sniper Series by James Mullins to be published on the 30th of November. Finland. 347 pages.

Lieutenant Hale Karhonen thought the war ended on the Raate Road. He was wrong.

Ordered to advance from Loytavaara Hill, Hale and the men of the 9th Division move to recapture Kilpelänkangas, a shattered stretch of forest now crawling with Soviet troops. The operation should be straightforward, until a single bullet changes everything.

The Wraith strikes first, the shot isn’t random, it’s a challenge. Viktor knows Hale will come for him.

As Finnish forces close in on Kilpelänkangas, Hale abandons the fight to hunt the enemy marksman who haunts the trees. The two snipers stalk one another through blizzard, darkness, and blood. Their duel unfolds against the backdrop of a battle that will decide the fate of the entire front.

The Hunters is a tense, unflinching sniper thriller set in the frozen hell of the Winter War. A place where vengeance and survival blur, and every breath in the snow could be your last.

10) For a Viking’s Heart : Scottish Historical Romance by Laura Strickland to be published on the 18th of 2025. Viking. 352 pages.

Two enemies bound together by one love.

At the hall of a Scottish chief deep in the western Highlands, a bard sings and plays on his harp, spinning tales to the gathered company. The hour grows late indeed, but his listeners, caught deep in the enchantment woven this night, beg for one more tale. From his heart he tells of a woman so brave and strong that his words, however beautiful, can scarcely do her justice.

Hulda Elvarsdottir is a woman striving to make her way in a man’s world. Devoted to the idea that no man should ever give up his life to defend hers, she has learned to fight and battle in her own right. But when her beloved brother dies while raiding on a Scottish shore, she sets her sights on revenge.

Quarrie MacMurtray’s ancestors have held the settlement on Scotland’s western coast for generations uncounted. He knows his duty is to follow in his father’s footsteps as chief. For him, that means watching the horizon for black sails and spending his life against the Norse, if necessary.

The last thing he expects when he meets the woman who’s come seeking vengeance is to feel an irresistible pull toward her.

Or to hear the echoes of a song as ancient as it is beautiful, with the power to change his very life.

11) Deception in Denmark by Dan DeKoningo be published on the 10th of November 2025. Denmark. 230 pages.

Some treasures are meant to be found. This one was meant to stay buried.

When Ingrid Snyder guides her friends on a geocaching trip through Denmark, they expect cache finds and scenic hikes.
What they discover is a clue to one of Scandinavia’s greatest unsolved a secret that leads to a lost Viking treasure.

Following cryptic hints, the group soon realizes they’re onto more than a game. Each find draws them deeper into Denmark’s shadowed history—from a secret mission of the Danish resistance during World War II, to Viking burial mounds.

But Ingrid, Allie, Geneva, and Drake aren’t alone on the trail. Treasure hunters seek the same prize. For them, the treasure isn’t a piece of history; it’s a pay day.

As the geocachers race through windswept fjords, ancient ruins, and forgotten German bunkers, the lines between game and survival begin to blur. The final coordinates will uncover more than a geocache — they’ll reveal the dark price of obsession and the haunting truth of a treasure best left buried.

Deception in Denmark is a pulse-pounding adventure of history, mystery, and the lure of lost treasure.

Deception in Denmark is the fifth book in the Geocaching Mystery series.

12) The Scuttled Enigma: Codebreaking, Nazi Gold, and a Missing Spy. From Bletchley’s Shadows to Iceland’s Shores by Malabika Ray Malabika Ray to be published on the 15th of November 2025. Iceland. 298 pages.

A scuttled Nazi freighter. A vanished spy. A cipher that should never have seen daylight.

When physicist Srija Ray is handed a faded Enigma message linked to Bletchley Park cryptanalyst Joan Clarke, she thinks it’s a curiosity. Then MI6 golden boy Neil Basu disappears—and the same code points to the last known position of the SS Minden, a German ship scuttled in 1939 and rumoured to be carrying a fortune.

With only maverick PI Matthew Holmes at her side, Sri is dragged into a race that runs from the stacks of the British Library to the windswept Westman Islands of Iceland, and into the modern underworld where far-right networks hunt for old gold to fund new terror. Every answer the code yields raises the a dead charity that wasn’t, a crew with too many aliases, a treasure map hidden in plain sight—and a man Sri can’t afford to lose.

To find Neel and stop a wave of coordinated attacks, Sri must crack the uncrackable—before history’s darkest secrets bankroll tomorrow’s nightmare.

Perfect for fans of The Imitation Game, Robert Harris and Daniel Silva, The Scuttled Enigma blends codebreaking, cold seas and cold war legacies into a propulsive, heart-twisting spy thriller.

Enigma & Bletchley Park, Nazi treasure, Icelandic noir atmosphere, modern extremism, found family, will-they/won’t-they tension.

13) If the Owl Calls: A Novel by Sharon White to be published on the 18th of November 2025. Norway. 376 pages.

Set in 1979 Norway, If the Owl Calls is a mesmerizing literary mystery that masterfully blends historical intrigue, cultural identity, and environmental resistance. As the Sami community fights to protect ancestral lands from the controversial Alta Dam, Oslo detective Hans Sorensen is sent to the far north to investigate a series of sabotage attacks. But when a body is discovered in a remote ravine, what seemed like a political act of defiance spirals into something far more complex—a case that will force Hans to confront his own past, his buried heritage, and the meaning of justice. Hans, who is Sami, has spent his life on the fringes of his culture. Still mourning the recent death of his wife, he is reluctant to return to the land of his childhood. But as he follows the trail of two suspected saboteurs he is pulled into a web of secrets, betrayals, and shifting alliances. His search for the truth leads him into the lives of two compelling women: Kari, an ambitious journalist hungry for the real story, and Ingrid, a musician harboring devastating secrets. Meanwhile, an American traveler and a young German farmhand—both outsiders drawn to Norway’s stark beauty—become entangled in the mystery, mirroring Hans’s own journey of displacement and belonging. As he unearths the past, Hans also discovers the writings of his great-uncle, Johan Turi, a real-life Sami author, whose accounts of struggle and survival resonate deeply. Richly atmospheric and deeply evocative, If The Owl Calls is a stunning exploration of identity, loss, and the fight to reclaim one’s past. Its gripping mystery, lush historical detail, and unforgettable characters linger long after the final page.

14) The Clover: A Nordic Noir Police Procedural by VM Larsson to be published on the 12th of November 2025. Sweden. 382 pages.

When everything has a price, are you willing to pay?
A boat slows off the Friland Islands in the North Sea.The transponder goes dark as a man drifts off to sleep in his car on deck. A hand signals the all-clear, and metal meets water. During a routine training dive near the oil platform, divers stumble upon a chilling discovery: a body strapped in a Ferrari at a depth of twenty-five meters. Forensic Technician Moa Bakke and her team are called to the scene as newly appointed Detective Inspector Fredrik Dal eagerly begins his first day on the job.
A chilling crime wave shakes the once-peaceful North Sea community to its core. As the investigation deepens, friendships fracture, loyalties are tested, and it becomes clear that everything, even life itself, has a price.
Set on a fictional group of Swedish islands in the North Sea, this police procedural novel immerses you in a chilling Nordic Noir experience. The books in the Friland Murders series can be read as standalones.

About the Series
In the Friland Murders, Detective Inspector Fredrik Dal, Forensic Technician Moa Bakke and their team investigate the most brutal and bizarre crimes haunting the Swedish Friland Islands. This gripping Nordic Noir series transports you to windswept, remote islands, where complex characters confront buried trauma and twisted crimes expose killers shaped by madness, scars, and chilling ingenuity. Uncover the darkness lurking beneath the idyllic islands, where shadows meet suspense.

15) Scars of Silence by Johana Gustawsson to be published on the 20th of November 2025. Sweden. 300 pages.

When two teenagers are found brutally murdered on the island of Lidingö, dressed in white tunics and wearing crowns of candles, former French police officer Maïa Rehn joins local Commissioner Aleksander Storm to unravel a mystery with a shockingly dark heart. The highly anticipated sequel to the international bestselling gothic mystery, Yule Island.

As Autumn deepens into darkness in Lidingö, on the Stockholm archipelago, the island is plunged into in the space of a week, two teenagers, the son of the island's mayor and that of a powerful businessman, are brutally murdered. Their bodies are left deep in the forest, dressed in white tunics with crowns of candles atop their heads, like offerings to Saint Lucia.

Maïa Rehn has fled Paris for Lidingö, where her husband has grown up, trying to come to terms with the death of their only daughter in a car accident. But when the murders shake the island community, the former police commissioner is drawn into the heart of the investigation, joining Commissioner Aleksander Storm to unravel a mystery as chilling as the Nordic winter. As they dig deeper, it becomes clear that a wind of vengeance is blowing through the archipelago, unearthing secrets that are as scandalous as they are inhuman.

But what if the victims weren't who they seemed? What if those long silenced had finally found a way to strike back? How far would they go to make their tormentors pay?

And you – how far would you go?

Dressed in a white tunic and adorned with candles, a teenager is found dead on the island of Lidingö, his skill smashed in. Twenty-three years earlier, a young girl was also found murdered in the same place, in the same garments, traditionally intended to celebrate Saint Lucia. At the time, the victim's boyfriend was convicted of her murder, which he has always denied. Was he innocent? Has the real culprit struck again? But why now? Commissioner Aleksander Storm, with the unexpected help of French policewoman Maïa Rehn who recently moved to Sweden, stubbornly attempts to untangle the bizarre case and, in the process, uncovers a long-buried secret that holds the key to a deeper, darker mystery that will put everyone at risk…

16) Blood Revenge: Viking Brotherhood by Finn Sparks to be published on the 21st of November 2025. Viking. 432 pages.

If you like lots of action, a plot where characters are changed by their experiences, and a story immersed in a deeply authentic Viking world, then try this page- turner that is book one of The Viking Brotherhood series.

The story, the writing, the characters, it's all so engaging. I'm truly looking forward to the next instalment! Cody. Arc reviewer.
The journey of Alrek with a past shrouded in secrecy is what pulled me into the story the most. I also liked reading about Haakon and his courage at a young age to try to do the right thing and be a courageous leader. Patty. Arc reviewer.

An exceptional young man at just thirteen, Haakon, youngest son of King Harald Finehair, is already proving himself a worthy leader of men and is now a threat to his brother, newly declared King, the ruthless, Eirik Bloodaxe.
Alrek Einarfostersson, untainted by politics, principled in character but naive in the way the world really works, becomes Haakon’s friend and shield. But Alrek is himself on a path of revenge to discover the identities of raiders following an attack that failed to kill him but slew those dear to him.
During a fierce longship fleet battle with the Danes, Alrek discovers the identity of the killers. Should he pursue them to the end and leave Haakon at the mercy the murderous intentions of Eirik Bloodaxe, or honour his oath as his friend’s protector?
Alrek’s decision results in an unexpected twist and confrontation of shock and brutality.