What with so many Scandinavian crime writers getting translated lately, a trip down the mystery aisle has been getting more and more like a visit to IKEA. I mean seriously – you be the judge:
SCANDINAVIAN CRIME WRITER, or IKEA FURNISHING?
- ALÄNG 6. BOHOLMEN
- FOSSUM 7. KARLJOHAN
- BIRKELAND 8. NESSER
- NESBØ 9. KJELL
- KNUTAS 10. HAGALUND
1.) table lamp 2.) author 3.) bed frame 4.) author 5.) detective 6.) sink 7.) side table 8.) author 9.) author 10.) sofabed
- Non-voilence statue in Malmo, Sweden. (Image courtesy of elsamu)
On Friday, April 8, Henning Mankell, author of the hugely popular Swedish crime series featuring Kurt Wallander, will be appearing at the Central library to talk about the end of the Wallander series, and to sign books. Mankell, (much like his predecessors Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö who created the landmark series of Martin Beck police procedurals in the 1960s and 70s), invests his crime stories with a level of moral anxiety and social conscience seldom found on the mean streets of American crime fiction.
If you like your mystery with a side of existential angst chased with aquavit, Mankell is just the tip of the Nordic iceberg. Check out this list of crime novels set in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland. (We have yet to find a mystery set in Greenland, but if you know of one do let us know!)
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