Jussi Adler Olsen

Redemption

Detective:  Carl Morck
Location:   Copenhagen
Time:         Current
Genre:       Scandi-Noir

This is the third in the Adler-Olsen Department Q series. The detective Carl Morck is in charge of some form of cold case department. He is assisted by an unlikely team of his cleaner Assad, a Syrian immigrant and a ditzy woman called Rose.

The story begins with a badly deteriorated message in a bottle from a kidnap victim which finds its way to Morck via Scotland 20 years after it was launched. This leads Morck eventually to discover similar crimes being committed. As the reader, one is already following this crime which involves the mistreated son of a religious clique minister preying on families in similar cliques feeling secure in the knowledge that the way he has set up his kidnap and blackmail will ensure his victims will never reveal what has happened.

Jussi Adler olsen's website

Previously Read
Mercy
Disgrace

Jo Nesbo

The Bat

Detective: Harry Hole
Location:  Sydney, Australia
Time:        About 2000
Genre:      Scandi Noir

Yes, a Scandi Noir set in Australia. This is a prequel to the Jo Nesbo/Harry Hole series which begins with Redbreast. and tells the story of his experience in Australia dealing with a serial killer which is referred back to in many of the later novels. 

Hole is in Australia to assist with the investigation into the murder of a young Norwegian woman. His sidekick initially is  an older Sydney detective with Apborigina roots. The novel deals with the place of the Aborigine in Australian society and the detective, who is more deeply involved in the affair than might be obvious gives Hole guidance by usimng Aboriginal myths as guidance. 

Well crafted like the other Harry hole novels.

A+

Jo Nesbo's website

Previously Read
Redbreast
Nemesis
The Devil's Star
The Redeemer
The Snowman
The Leopard

Anne Holt

Death of the Demon

Detective: Hanne Wilhelmsen
Setting:      Oslo
Time:        Mid 1990's
Genre       Scandi Noir

This is the third of the Hanne Wilhelmsen series, set just after Wilhelmsen has been appointed aDetective Inspector.

The crime involves the murder, one evening, at her workplace of the manager of a children's home. the possible suspects include a lover who has been defrauding her bank account, a colleague who has been fiddling the books, a husband who could benefit from a change in her will and a 12 year old boy with an  ADHD problem (defined as MBD in the book) who has gone missing from the home.

The investigation is paralleled by a developing account, set in italics, of the mother's experience with her son and the attempts to get the social services agencies to support her rather than place him in the home.

It seems a dead end case but the pieces come together  with a twist to reveal the murderer and with a final twist in the mother's story about a key piece of evidence.

The back story concerns the challenges facing Wilhelmsen in managing a case after her promotion and her continuing nervousness about colleagues knowing about her long standing lesbian  partnership.

A+

Wikipedia background to Ann Holt

Previously read
Blind Goddess (1)
Blessed are thos who thirst (2)
1222 (8)

Liza Marklund

Vanished

Journalist: Annika Bengtzon

Location:  Stockholm, Sweden

Time:       Present (Recent Past: Pub 2002)

Genre:      Scandi Noir

This is one of the earlier novels in the Annika Bengtzon chronology.

The story opens with the murder in a transshipment area of two Balkan immigrants and the dramatic escape of a woman from the assassin. Bengtzon's paper carries the story.

Bengtzon herself is contacted by a woman who want coverage of her organisation which, she alleges can can help people, particularly battered wives,, to disappear completely from Government records.

When Bengtzon takes a phone call from and meets the escaped woman, helping her to avoid the gunman a second time, she decides to help her by putting her in touch with the woman running the organistation.

However Bengtzon is not completely sure that the organisation is completely above board and she starts investigating its probity assisted by a local government finance officer who has challenged his superiors about paying it large sums of money.

At the same time the gunman, clearly involved in Balkan mafia smuggling is still on the loose loking for a lorry load of stolen fake cigarettes.

The themes weave together well. 

The backround story arc involves

a) Bengtzon meeting the man who is to feature as her partner/husband in later novels (the local government officer)

b) The politics of the editorial battle at the Evening Post as an editor with vision begins to position himself to achieve dominance in an attempt to improve the quality and integrity of the paper,

A

Liza Marklund Website

Previously read

Prime Time

The Bomber

Red Wolf

Last Will

Helene Tursten

The Glass Devil

Detective: Irene  Huss
Setting    ; Gothenburg, Sweden
Time       ; Current
Genre:       Scandi Noir

This opens with the murder of a Swedish Pastor and his wife and also  their son at a nearby cottage. Their are suggestions that the murder may have been committed by Satanists whom the Pastor has been trying to identify through the internet following an arson attack which  destroyed a local church. The only surviving member of the family, a computer expert living in London is too traumatised to offer useful information. 

Irene Huss and her colleagues pursue the possibility of Satanic links but eventually another, less esoteric but sinister motive emerges.

A

Helen Turtsten Website

Previously read
Detective Inspector Huss
The Torso

Karin Fossum

Bad Intentions

Detective: Konrad Sejer

Setting:     Norway

Time:        Current

Genre:      Scandi Noir

Once again, a different tone in a Karin Fossum novel. There is no gruesome killing. There is no race to find the killer before there are too many bodies. For a detective story, one might actually say it was gentle.

A young man staying with two friends by a lake on a weekend's outing from the hospital where he was being treated for depression, falls out of a rowing boat they are all in at night and disappears into the muddy waters. No attempt is made to save him. His friends choose to invent a fiction that he has disappeared from the cabin overnight and may have committed suicide and this is what they report to the police. There are allusions to some nefarious deed the three of them have been involved in.

When the body is fond, the story of the possible suicide does not ring true to Konrad Sejer, but he has no proof otherwise.

Later another body is found in another lake, that of a young man missing for some months. Is this death accidental. How are the three friends connected to it?

The story is well written and the plot unfurls nicely.

Rating A

Web site referring to Karin Fossum  although this book is not listed

Previously Read

Dont Look Back

What the Devil Holds

The Caller

Mons Kallentoft

Savage Spring

Detective: Malin Fors
Setting:      Linkoping, Sweden
Time:         2010
Genre:       Scandi Noir

This is the fourth of the Malin Fors sequence. As with the previous three, the novel is as much about Malin Fors coping with her personal issues, her recovery from alcohilism, her relationship with her daughter and father and coping with her mother's death.  The crime to be solved is a bombing in the middle of Linkoping resulting in the death of two children. Fors and her colleagues pursue investigations into the possibility of terrorist activity, including a brief consideration of an Islamist threat, before the reasons for the explosion take a darker tuirn.

As in the earlier books Kallentoft uses the device of the murder victims  observing  Malin Fors as she pursues her enquiries: a strange perspective but an eerily effective one.

Rating A

Mons Kallentoft's website

Previous novels
Midwinter Sacrifice
Summertime Death
Autumn Killing

Quentin Bates

Chilled to the Bone

Detective:  DS Gunnhildur Gisladottir
Time          Present
Setting       Reykjavik, Iceland
Genre        Scandi Noir

This is the third in the Gunna Gisladottir Series and is a well crafted novel. A victim of a scam run by a dominatrix dies gagged and tied to a bed. Other victims of the scam are discovered, all too embarrassed to have reported it to the police.  As Gunna and her team try to identify the dominatrix so does an ex-con just returned from prison in Lithuania although his ultimate client is somewhere hidden in the background.  At the same time a Civil Servant is under pressure to find a missing laptop. before compromising Government secrets leak out. To add to the complications a woman is mysteriously following the Civil Servant.

In the backplot, Gunna's son, who works away on the fishing fleet, advises hi mother that he has two women pregnant simultaneously.

Rating A+

Quentin Blake's Blog

Previously read novels in the series
Frozen Assests (1)
Cold Comfort (2)
Winterlude (4)

Mari Jungstedt

Dark Angel

Detective: Anders Knoutas

Journalist Johan Berg

Setting:     Gotland

Time:       Current

Genre:     Scandi Noir

This is the sixth of the Jungstedt Knutas/Borg stories set on the Swedish island of Gotland. All of them allow the issues to be developed between Knutas, the chief detective on the island, and Borg the TV journalist.

The story begins with the murder of an important Gotland social event organiser, although it soon becomes apparent that he is the accidental victim. The intended target had been his lover. The book uses the device of interspersing the current action with the autobiographical reminiscences of an unidentified character. Who this is and how he relates to the main plot is gradually revealed although it is not as one might think.

The previous novels have detracted a little from the detective plot by exploring the developing relationship between Borg and his wife. This is not so apparent in this novel, but Knutas' difficulties in relating to his teenage son forms much of the backplot

Rating A

Marie Jungstedt's website

Previously Read

 Unseen,

 Unspoken,

 Unknown

 The Killer's Art

 The Dead of Night

Torquil Macleod

Murder in Malmo

Detective Anita Sundstrum
Setting      Malmo
Time         2008/09
Genre       Scandi Noire

This is the second of the Anita Sundstrum, Malmo, novels. Sundstrum is returning to work after the controversy which concluded the first book and she finds herself sidelined to dealing with an art theft whilst the rest of the detectives concentrate on the murder by gassing of an advertising executive. It is not until a third murder that the plots start to come together and Sunstrom is reconciled to the main action. At the same time there is a rogue gunman randomly killing members of the Malmo immigrant community. As in other Sedish novels the rise of racist reaction to immigration is an aspect of the plot.  The plot develops well as information is skilfully revealed and there are some well crated twists.

In terms of backplot, Sundstrom is still drawn emotionally to the killer she arrested at the end of the first novel and she still has to handle the advances of a sexist and slimy colleague and professional rival.

A
Torqil Macleod's website

Previous novel 
Meet me in Malmo

Sara Blaedel

Blue Blood
(Also published as "Call me Princess")

Detective: Louise Rick
Time:        Current
Setting:     Copenhagen
Genre:       Scandi Noir

This is the second of Blaedel's Louise Rick novels. It concerns a brutal rape of a young woman  and dwells a lot on the consequences for the victim before there is a second rape, this time resulting in the death of the victim.In order to trace the perpetrator Rick is drawn into exploring the world of internet dating which takes her dangerously close to the villain. At the same time Rick's best friend, a journalist is trying to exploit the problems of the original victim and unwittingly exposes her to further danger.

The background story of Rick's problems with her partner are a little drawn out and slow the pace of the story.

Rating B+

Sara Blaedel's website

Torquil MacLeod

Meet me in Malmo

Detective: Anita Sundstrum
Time:       2008
Setting    Malmo, Sweden
Genre:    Scandi Noir

This is heralded as the first in the Detective Inspector Anita Sundstrum series. An English journalist arrives in Malmo to interview a university contemporary who is now a Swedish celebrity only to walk into his flat to find the film star wife murdered. Until the discovery of the body the pace is slow but it speeds up after this. There are a number of possible leads until the crime is solved and there is a final last page twist. 

Sundstrum is part of a team of detectives with differing personalities, including the almost inevitable over-bearing boss although he can be supportive  of Sundstrum's insights and pursuit of her own theories.

A promising start to the sequence

A

Torquil McLeod's Website

Quentin Bates

Winterlude

Detective:Detective Sergeant Gunhilder Gisladottir
Time            Present
Setting:      Iceland; Reykjavik
Genre:        Scandi Noir

This is the fourth of Bates' "Gunni" Gisladottir novels although much of the investigative work in this one is carried out by her assistant Helgi, following up leads in his home village. Interestingly in the first two books Gunni is based in a small town away from the capital and the gets transferred to th city. Hasaving done that ates' seems to feel the need to set his plot back in rural Iceland.

Essentially its a well crafted but simple plot. An ex-con, freed early from his sentence for killing a child in a road accident is found battered to death in a warehouse he owns in Reykavik. The most likely perpetrator, the child's father, has a cast iron alibi as he was at sea at the time of the murder. However he has three brothers living in Helgi's small home town. Did one of them do it and if so which?

Rating A-

Quentin Bates' Blog

Previously Read Novels in the Series
Frozen assets (1)
Cold Comfort (2)

Anne Holt

Blessed are those who thirst

Detective: Hanne Wilhelmsen
Time:        Current to publication 1994
Setting:     Oslo, Norway
Cenre:      Scandi Noir

This is the second of Anne Holt's Hanne Wilhelmsen sequence. The plot involves both the solving of puzzling massively blood stained locations, christened "Saturday Night Massacres" but with no bodies and the horrific rape of a medical student.Inevitably they are linked. Wilhelmsen struggles to make progress on both cases whist by persistence the father of the rape victim, and by chance the victim herself, identify the rapist and plan revenge. The action builds well to a horrific climax. 

The frequent issue of crimes against mmigrant communities features in the novel.

In terms of underlying sub plot, Wilhelmsen is a covert Leasbian coming to terms with the need to come out.

Rating A+

Wikipedia Reference to Anne Holt

Previously Read Novels in the Sequence
Blind Goddess (1)
1222 (8)

Karen Altvegan

Shadow

Detective: None
Location:: Stockholm
Time: Spans 1975 to present
Genre: Scandi Noir


The opening concerns a boy abandoned in a park in 1975. Eventually we come to conclude that he is the adult writer and drifter Kristofer. But what is the connection with the disfuncyional  family of the successful writer and nobel prize winner Ragnerfeldt and the natural death of their former housekeeper at the age of 92?

The puzzles are carefully unravelled. A disturbing read, but one that is compelling

Rating A

Karen Altvegan's website

Liza Marklund

Last Will


Investgative Journalist: Annika Bengtzon
Location:                     Stockholm, Sweden
Time:                          Present
Genre:                         Scandi Noir

This is the sixth of Marklund's Annika Bengtzon Novels which have followed her career from fist being appointed as a reporter. This plot begins with a murder of a member of a Nobel Prize selection committee by a hired assassin at the annual awards ceremony in front of Bengtzon

As the plot develops there is a questioning of the relationship between the integrity of the Nobel Prizes and the commercial pressures on medical research. A sub plot is developed as a terrorist cell takes credit for the murder and the Swedish Government is too happy top collude with the CIA to allow the rendition of suspect to Jordan.

Although the hired assassin returns to cover her mistakes, this is incidental to the main concern of the plot and the way Bengtzon becomes the target of the killer happens very rapidly at the end as an almost afterthought and is the least satisfactory aspect of an otherwise impressive thriller.

The underlying story ARCs concern 
a) Bengzon's professional development and the integrity of tabloid journalism competing with emerging electronic media 
b) Benggzon's personal life with the stresses on her marriage as she copes with her job, two small children and a husband with his own developing career as a Government adviser working on anti-terrorist legislation and which at one stage leaves hi trying to justify the rendition.

Rating A++ (I read it non stop in a day)

Liza Marklund's web site

Previously read, 
(in chronological but not published order)


Prime Time
The Bomber
Red Wolf

Arni Thorarinsson

Season of the Witch

Investigative Journalist: Einar
Location:                     Akureyi, Iceland
Time :                         Present
Genre:                         Scandi-noir

The protaganist, Einar (no other name given) has been transferred from Reykjavik to the northern town of Akureyi as part of a bid to increase regional sales of his paper covering local issues. The early stages seem as much concerned with his settling in as the development of what will be the main plot.  The story doesn't seem to get going until at least a third of the way in.

It concerns the apparent accidental death of a local businessman's wife and the murder of a student. Eventually the cases converge. Set against the background of an imminent General Election and Iceland's economic problems, there is also underlying concern about the impact of immigrant labour.

This appears to be the only Thorarinson novel traslated into English so far.although there are oher novels translated into other European languages

Rating B

Karin Fossum

The Caller

Detective: Konrad Sejer
Location:  Norway
Time:        Present
Genre;      Scandi-Noir

There's something quite different about Fossum's novel, her eighth featuring Konrad Sejer. This is not about a murder and its solution. It's about a maladjusted and negelected young man who vents his discontent on the world through seemingly harmless but still malicious practical jokes such as covering a sleeping baby with animal blood,  posting  a premature death notice for an old lady or sending a mother rushing to a hospital following a false call that her daughter had had a traffic accident. Fossum explores the impact of the hoaxes on the lives of the victims, particularly the parents of the blood covered child.

There is no intentional murder but the hoaxes seem to culminate in the horrific death of a child which may or may not have been the fault of the hoaxer followed quite quickly by the accidental death of the young man's much loved grandfather, as far as the police know at the hands of the hoaxer's drunkard mother. But the reader knows better. 

Eventually the hoaxer meets his fate and only the little girl who has been one of his victims knows the truth.

Rating A

Web site about Karen Fossum

Other Inspector Sejer Books read previously

Don't Look Back (1)
When the Devil Holds (3)