Black Skies by Arnaldur Indridason, translated by Victoria Cribb, is the eighth in the Inspector Erlandur procedural series set in Iceland (available September 17, 2013). Sigurdur Óli is a policeman with a lot of problems. The personal ones pile up with a bleakness and harshness which easily match the tough Icelandic backdrop of Arnaldur Indridason’s…
Strange Bird by Anna Jansson, set in Sweden on the island of Gotland, is Book One of the fourteen books in the Maria Wern series, translated into English by Paul Norlen (available September 17, 2013.) Something deadly has landed on Gotland. Ruben Nilsson raises homing pigeons and has been preparing for an upcoming race when…
The Hanging by Lotte & Soren Hammer is the U.S. debut of this Danish brother/sister writing team. (available June 11, 2013). One morning before school, two children find the naked bodies of five men hanging from the gym ceiling. The case leads detective Konrad Simonsen and his murder squad to the school janitor, who may know…
The Healer by Antti Tuomainen is a novel of dystopian, futuristic Nordic noir (available May 14, 2013). Tapani Lehtinen’s wife, Johanna is missing. She’s a reporter and routinely goes out on assignment for days at a time, but always checks in with her husband, and it’s been twenty-four hours since he’s heard from her. After…
An excerpt of Helsinki Blood by James Thompson, the fourth book in the Inspector Kari Vaara thriller series (available March 21, 2013). A missing woman too unimportant to raise alarms . . . criminal masterminds too powerful to pursue. And when the system fails, Inspector Kari Vaara must dispense his own brand of justice. Kari Vaara is recovering…
Killer’s Art by Mari Jungstedt is the latest U.S. release in the Swedish crime series featuring police inspector Anders Knutas and TV journalist Johan Berg (available February 25, 2013). On a cold Sunday morning, a man is found hanged on the old city wall that surrounds Visby, the capital of Gotland, an island off Sweden’s…
If you’re as captivated by Icelandic crime fiction as we are you’ll want to know about the guided “Reykjavík Criminally” walks run by the Reykjavík City Library every Thursday in July and August. (It’s never too early to start planning your next vacation. Summer will be here before you know it!) Developed in 2011, when…
The whispers became full-on conversation last week when it was announced that The Killing might be back for a third season on AMC and/or via Netflix. Chris Morgan mentioned this yesterday, and in my mind the conversation was drowned out by the sound of head-scratching. Seriously. Is anyone going to come back for this? I…
It was only a matter of time. First they took the Internet with their antics, worming their way into our hearts and minds. Making fools of themselves for the humans. Lulling us into submission. Now the time has come for their greater plan to unfurl. Beware the Cat Party my friends. Seriously. Recently, police in…
Henning Mankell had every right to end his Kurt Wallander series when and how he wanted to. But couldn’t he have thought of Wallander’s loyal and long time fans, just a little? Thrown us a Scandinavian bone? We’ve had to accept that The Troubled Man was the last Wallander novel instead of expecting three or…
