Monday, August 2, 2010

Nordic Noir: Scandinavian Crime Fiction


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The Ice Princess / by Camilla Lackberg; trans. by Steven T. Murray
Erica Falck, a moderately successful Swedish author, returns to her recently deceased parents small coastal fishing village to deal with their estate issues only to discover that her best friend from childhood has committed suicide. Or has she? When Erica decides to seek out some answers, she discovers more than she bargained for concerning the true goings-on in her quaint childhood hometown. (MYS LACKBERG)
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Black Seconds / by Karin Fossum; trans. from the Norwegian by Charlotte BarslundIn
Oslo, grizzled Inspector Sejer must seek out answers behind the disappearance of a young girl. In this, Fossum’s seventh Inspector Sejer novel, familiar themes of vicious criminals lurking among the everyday world and psychological suspense are intriguingly brought to the forefront. (MYS FOSSUM)
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The Inner Circle / by Mari Jungstedt; trans. from the Swedish by Tiina Nunnally
On a small island off the coast of Sweden, several archaeology students are working at a site unearthing some ancient Viking relics when one of the group, a girl named Martina Flochland turns up dead, her body hung from a tree. Inspector Anders Knutas must now sift through the evidence, including some actual Viking warrior remains, to find the culprit. (MYS JUNGSTEDT)

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Mind’s Eye: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery / by Haykan Nesser; trans. from the Swedish by Laurie Thompson
A man named Janek Mitter falls asleep after a night of heavy binge drinking only to awake the next morning to find his wife dead in the bathtub--murdered. Then, only weeks after Mitter is swiftly convicted of the crime (despite only circumstantial evidence) and sentenced to a mental institution, he’s found brutally murdered in his own bed. It’s now up to Inspector Van Veeteren to see the real killer brought to justice. (MYS NESSER)


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To Siberia / by Per Petterson; trans. from the Norwegian by Anne Born
In the years leading up to World War II, two young Danish youths live a near-blissful existence in the Jutland countryside. But with the onset of the war, the German occupation and the plight of their nation, their idyllic childhood is cruelly brought to a close and their world changes tragically forever. (FIC PETTERSON)
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Echoes From the Dead / by Johan Theorin; trans. by Marlaine Delargy
Twenty years ago on the island of Oland off the eastern coast of Sweden, a young boy named Jens vanished without a trace. Now in the present day, a package suddenly appears in the mail of the boy’s grandfather bearing the lost youth’s sneaker worn the day he disappeared. (FIC THEORIN)
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The Quiet Girl / by Peter Hoeg; trans. by Nadia Christensen
Kaspar Krone is a well-known performer in a traveling circus. He’s a clown, well-known for his hearty, laugh-inducing performances. But his real face isn’t the only thing his makeup conceals; he’s also a gambling addict in debt for a very large sum of money to some pretty shady characters now out for blood. (FIC HOEG)

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