This is third book in Icelandic writer Yrsa Sigardardottir’s series about Thóra Gudmundsdóttir, a single mother and lawyer living in Reykjavik, Iceland. Yrsa Sigurdardottir is among my favorite writers; she writes excellently and keeps improving.  Ashes to Dust mostly takes place at Vestmannaeyjar (The Westman Islands), a small archipelago off the south coast of Iceland. Interestingly, the archipelago came to international attention in January 1973, when the volcano Eldfjell erupted. The eruption created a 700-foot-high mountain where a meadow had been, and caused the island’s 5000 inhabitants to be temporarily evacuated to the mainland. This is the backdrop for the dark mystery in Ashes to Dust.

When the authorities decides to dig out some of the houses that were buried when the volcano erupted at the Westman Islands more than 30 years ago, in order to create a volcanic tourist attraction dubbed ‘The Pompeii of the North’, Markus Magnússon hires Thora to try to prevent the excavation of the house where he and his family lived. When that proves impossible, he makes Thora negotiate for him so that he is permitted to be the first person into the basement when it becomes accessible. When it is, he enters the basement alone.

Soon after, he calls for Thora to come down there:

Thóra peered at the floor, but couldn’t see anything that could have frightened Markús that much, only three mounds of dust. She moved the light of her torch over them. It took her some time to realize what she was seeing— and then it was all she could do not to let the torch slip from her hand. ‘Good God,’ she said. She ran the light over the three faces, one after another. Sunken cheeks, empty eye-sockets, gaping mouths; they reminded her of photographs of mummies she’d once seen in National Geographic. ‘Who are these people?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Markús…

The basement contains three dead bodies, covered with volcanic ash, and in addition a skull that had been kept in a box. The body belonging to the skull is missing.

Markús Magnússon, Thora’s client, was only a teenager when the volcano erupted. He claims that he had been asked to pick up the box for a woman who was his childhood sweetheart, and that he didn’t know that it contained a skull. Now he falls under suspicion and hires Thóra Gudmundsdottir to defend him. The case is difficult, and when the childhood sweetheart is murdered it gets even more complicated.

Thora feels the police are not doing enough for her client, and starts to investigate the murders herself. She travels to the Westman Islands, where she encounters a wall of silence. Everywhere there are omissions, lies, hidden facts and nothing is quite what it seems to be.

The plot in Ashes to Dust is clever, rich and very intriguing, with several surprising twists and turns, and Thóra Gudmundsdóttir is an excellent protagonist. Yrsa Sigurdardottir’s story telling seems to be improving from book to book, and I thought this book was fabulous – in my opinion her best so far; tense and perhaps even a little terrifying. This is outstanding, very intelligent crime fiction!

Links to Yrsa Sigurdardottir’s books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

©2010 Nordic Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

This is an interesting Swedish crime fiction novel; a book that to some extent is a cult novel in Sweden, and that has attracted much attention because it provides a possible explanation for the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme in February 1986. The author, Leif GW Persson, is a professor of criminology at Rikspolisstyrelsen (National Police Board) in Sweden and one of Sweden’s bestselling crime fiction writers. Some believe the explanation to be the truth or close to the truth, others that it is completely misleading. Be that as it may – this is a book of fiction based on an actual event, and as such doesn’t need to be true. Instead, it needs to be entertaining and fun to read, and that it is, and more.

The intriguing and somewhat lyrically named story – deliciously told, with lots of humor and with live, fallible and flawed characters – starts with the apparent suicide of a young American, John Krassner, visiting Stockholm. Krassner was working on a book detailing the exploits of his uncle, Col. John Buchanan, an OSS agent in the years following WWII. The young man has seemingly fallen from a window in a student dorm, and his loose shoe killed a little dog taken for an evening stroll by its owner. Had the man been Swedish, the case might have stopped there. But he wasn’t – he was an American. So, to be on the safe side, a small investigation is launched. As it turns out, the search of his room reveals a few strange things. Even so, the case is classified as a suicide.

Then, by accident, police inspector Lars Martin Johansson and his colleagues get involved in the case. And as Johansson starts to look into it, he unearths more than he bargained for, and a larger and quite complex context for the apparent suicide quickly emerges. There is seemingly a huge puzzle surrounding the event – a puzzle that involves international espionage, attempted cover-ups, greed, and other ingredients. A high-ranking Swedish politician known by the code name “Pilgrim” features prominently in the puzzle. Also, several factors seem to point towards incompetent police work and possibly behind the scenes involvement and disinformation by Sweden’s secret police. The deeper Johansson looks, the more he sees that simply doesn’t add up the way it is supposed to.

Between Summer’s Longing and Winter’s End is at the same time fascinating and shocking. We embark on a journey deep into the underbelly of the Swedish police force, and meet lazy, incompetent and perverse police officers concerned mostly with position, power, pay, comradeship, drinking and sex. We meet cynical politicians and spin masters in controlling positions.

It’s a dark novel and a dark journey which not only seems very realistic but also masterfully recreates the blanket of uncertainty, the multiple ways insights get lost in huge and complex organizational environments where most actors have their own agendas. Fortunately there is also sarcasm, black satire, dark humor, mind boggling insights, and dialogues that make you laugh out loud. It is a wonderful novel, a riveting anti-procedure police procedural, a psychological drama, and an adventurous journey into a murky landscape we can perhaps only hope doesn’t exist but most likely does. The publication of Between Summer’s Longing and Winter’s End by Leif GW Persson is one of the major crime fiction events of 2010!

Links to books by Leif GW Persson at Amazon US, Amazon UK, and Amazon CAN.

“Laced with irony and satire . . . Reminiscent of Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson in its toughness . . . Persson does a fine job of pitting one desperate soul against another in a philosophically charged tale worthy of Ingmar Bergman—but with lots more guns.”
—Kirkus (starred)

“A brilliant political thriller.”
—Der Tagesspiegel

“One of the best Swedish crime novels of all time.”
—Expressen

“One of the most exhaustive investigations ever to have been written about. A plot full of suspense, a great adventure, and a philosophical view of the dark and painful sides of life.”
—Il Giornale di Vicenza

“Leif GW Persson’s big lush novel is a tale of mystery and intrigue and murder. .. From a country known for terrific crime novelists, Sweden’s great crime writer Leif GW Persson brilliantly takes the reader into a world of fascinating mystery and secrets.”
—Joseph Wambaugh

©2010 Nordic Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

This book is classic Varg Veum, and a strong addition to the series. Originally entitled Din til døden and published in 1979, it was the second book published in Gunnar Staalesen’s much celebrated series about the Bergen sleuth Varg Veum, and Staalesen’s Norwegian breakthrough. Yours Until Death is a relatively noir crime fiction novel, set in bleak and rainy Bergen and featuring a disillusioned Veum, a man with a past as a social worker – but without much of a present. He is now divorced detective, nearly broke, has no clients to speak of, and lots of unpaid bills.

Then one rainy day he actually gets a new client. Roar, a little man, eight and a half years old and sharp as a tack , comes to Varg’s office with a problem. He has found the sleuth in the telephone book, listed under “Detective Bureaus”.

“Maybe it was because he was the youngest client I’d ever had. Maybe it was because he reminded me of another little boy in another part of Bergen. Or maybe it was because I had nothing else to do. Anyway, I listened to him.”

Somebody has stolen Roar’s bike, and he wants Varg to help him get it back. He knows who stole it, and he knows where it is. The bike is being held hostage by a gang of teenagers from his neighborhood who specialize in terrorizing the locals, and are led by a nineteen year old psychopath named Joker. These bad boys want to lure Roar’s mother to their hut in the forest to get the bike so they can molest her, as they have molested others.

Varg Veum recovers the stolen bike, and meets Roar’s mother Wenche Andresen – a beautiful and blue-eyed, shy, and very sensuous woman – and becomes infatuated by her. However, what seemingly is the conclusion of yet another trivial case turns into the beginning of something far bigger and more ominous.; Varg gets sucked into a murder case where the victim is Roar’s father and the person accused of the murder is Roar’s mother.- Varg is convinced that Wenche is innocent, even though all the evidence points to her. Trying to prove her innocence, and perhaps also to win her love, Veum very soon finds himself in grave danger.

Yours Until Death is great crime fiction by Gunnar Staalesen (left on the picture, with Varg Veum – actor Trond Espen Seim right), wonderfully written and excellently translated into English by Margaret Amassian; very dark yet full of dark and understated humor and at times almost unbearably tense. It is a novel more than anything about the potentially destructive force of lust and passion.

‘one of the finest, most serious, most ambitious books in post-war Norwegian crime writing’ – Norwegian critic Nils Nordberg

‘Staalesen is another fine representative of Scandinavian crime fiction’—
Independent

‘Varg Veum is in the best traditions of sleuthery’ —The Times

See also our reviews of the Varg Veum movies on DVD!

Links to Gunnar Staalesen’s books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

©2010 Nordic Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

The Danish crime fiction writer Jussi Adler-Olsen has won the Glass Key Award for his book Flaskepost fra P.

This is the third book in Adler-Olsen’s outstanding series about police commissioner Carl Mørck and his odd and intriguing Department Q. The books in this series are all excellent, so full of suspense that it is hard to sit still while reading them, very well plotted and written, and full of humor to boot!

The case in this book starts with a message in a bottle that reaches the eccentric commissioner. It is an old message from two boys in dire straits. A wonderful tale!

I hope the publishers in the UK and the US move quickly on this series, as I am sure it will be a huge hit. Also, I hope they this time publish the series in the right sequence.

A well deserved prize for Jussi Adler-Olsen! Good for Denmark too – it is now 11 years since the last time a Dane won this prestigious award; Leif Davidsen won the award in 1999.

©2010 Nordic Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

This book introduces Kurt Wallander’s daughter Linda as a main character. Many authors have tried similar solutions to the problem of continuation and failed miserably. Henning Mankell, on the other hand, makes it seem very easy and succeeds. In this crime fiction book, often labeled as a “Linda Wallander mystery”, but really a Kurt and Linda Wallander book (just as his most recent Wallander-mystery Den uroliga mannen, published in Swedish in 2009), Linda starts working at the Ystad police and is – partly by courtesy of Kurt – let into the picture. And to make it very natural, Mankell lets Before the Frost deal with growing up, relations between fathers and daughters, and such. Those are very smart moves by Mankell. Impressive, actually.

As is common in Mankell’s books, this novel too opens with violence – two acts of violence in this case. And, of course, seemingly unrelated. The first is a massacre in Guyana. The second is a very sadistic killing of swans on a lake in Sweden.
Meanwhile, Linda has graduated from police college, and shares flat with the moody, sometimes over-drinking Kurt, and hangs out while waiting to start her new job with the Ystad police with Martinsson as her mentor. So Kurt allows her to tag along on one of his investigations. She is pretty frustrated, however, as one of her friends seems to have disappeared. So, on the side, and using somewhat unorthodox methods, Linda starts investigating the disappearance.

The plot is very exciting, to a large extent due to Mankell’s excellent writing, and it soon becomes clear that we are dealing with a dangerous mix of religious fanaticism, ritual murder, sacrifice, and such. Mankell shows how religion can be a most powerful tool for manipulating people, and can (also) be used for evil purposes.

Before the Frost is good – in my opinion not among the best in the series, but even so more than good enough. It is exciting and very entertaining. The plot is a little too far-fetched for my taste, but I still enjoyed the book a lot, and had a very hard time putting it down, especially towards the end.

Praise for Henning Mankell:

“Mankell is a master of the traditional arts of the crime novel, narrative pacing and suspense.”

–Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“An arresting story by an arresting writer … [Mankell] understands and probes the underside of everyday living – in an elegant and artful way.… He is able to look loneliness square in the eye. The result is writing that walks a line between ephemeral and everlasting.”

–The Washington Post

“Powerful…. Thoroughly engaging…. Amazingly human characters…. It’s a testament to Mankell’s skill with plot that the story gets more and more urgent as he transforms a series of small mysteries into a much larger thriller…. Mankell [is] a master storyteller.”

–San Francisco Chronicle

Links to Henning Mankell’s books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

©2010 Nordic Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

(Original title Marekors.) Jo Nesbo (Norwegian name Nesbø), author of the best-selling series featuring Detective Harry Hole, has won many prizes for his novels, including the Glass Key Award, the Riverton Prize and the Norwegian Bookclub’s prize for best ever Norwegian crime novel. His first novel published in English was The Devil’s Star (it was first published in the UK in 2005), which has sold more than 100,000 copies in Norway alone. To get a perspective on this – that means 1 of every 45 Norwegians have bought it – if it sold the same in the US, that would be 6.8 million books.

The main character in Nesbo’s books, first introduced to UK readers in The Devil’s Star, is detective Harry Hole: an angry, hard-drinking, near alcoholic, and off-the-rails detective who wants to play the game by his own rules.

As The Devil’s Star starts, it’s a sweltering summer in Oslo when a young woman is found murdered in her flat. One finger has been cut off, and beneath her eyelid is a tiny red diamond in the shape of a five pointed star.

Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case with Tom Waaler – a colleague Harry suspects of running an arms smuggling gang and of having murdered his partner – and initially Harry Hole refuses to become involved. But he is already on notice to quit the force and is left with no choice but to drag himself out of his alcoholic stupor and go to work.

PS: The Leopard is now available for preorder at Amazon UK.

Five days later, a man reports his wife missing. When her severed finger is found wearing a ring mounted with the same star-shaped red diamond, it seems Oslo has a serial killer on its hands. The case in The Devil’s Star revolves around a riddle of fives: five points to the star, five fingers on the hand, and every fifth day a new victim to be counted. In his pursuit of the truth behind both mysteries, Harry Hole unwittingly finds himself on the run from the police and forced to make difficult decisions about his future as a detective.

The Devil’s Star is an extremely exciting and entertaining book, a great crime novel by a brilliant author that has recently been nominated for the Edgar prize (for Nemesis)! The plot is superb, the action is intriguing, inspector Harry Hole has plenty to deal with, and the story is told in a fascinating and appealing manner as well. I am sure he will be well received in England and the US, as he has been in Scandinavia.

Links to books by Jo Nesbo at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN. See also Barnes & Noble: Nesbo

©2010 Nordic Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

Postcard Killers is the result of an interesting collaborative effort between James Patterson, with a record number of New York Times bestsellers, and Liza Marklund, well established Swedish crime fiction writer. Nothing out of the ordinary for James Patterson – he collaborates extensively – but a daring move by Liza Marklund. Two quite different writing styles, two very different backgrounds.

Perhaps not so surprising, the Patterson style of thriller making won! Postcard Killers has short sentences in short paragraphs in short chapters. And it moves at a blistering pace, if possible even faster than the usual Patterson bestseller.

The story is also well plotted. It seems a young serial killing couple is traveling all over Europe. In each of the countries they visit, they kill a young couple. The murders are bloody and brutal, and after they have killed, the murderers take photos of the dead victims. The photos are sent as postcards to newspaper reporters. The killers want publicity and soon get it. In the media they are nicknamed the Postcard Killers.

Very little is known about them. They are extremely professional. No traces are left after their horrendous deeds. No DNA, no fingerprints, no pictures that make identification possible. Nothing. They kill, they leave, they send a postcard, they steal and sell valuables belonging to their victims and clean out their credit cards. Then they move on, to the next country, the next victims.

Now they have arrived in Sweden. A female Swedish newspaper reporter, Dessie Larsson, receives their postcard. That means someone in Stockholm is going to die. On the back it says:

“To be or not to be
In Stockholm,
That is the question
We’ll be in touch”

She gets in touch with the police. The same night an American cop, NYPD detective Jacob Kanon, knocks on her door. He has pursued the postcard killers all over Europe after they killed his daughter Kimmy in Rome, always one or several steps behind. He is desperate but extremely determined. Even if Hell freezes he will continue to pursue them until the bitter end.

Against her will, Dessie is drawn into the case. And reluctantly she is drawn towards the strange, single-minded detective from America as well. But what can she do? Why has she been singled out by the killers? What do they want, and what do they want from her?

As the stubborn detective and the resourceful reporter close in on the Postcard Killers, we follow them on a twisting and turning journey of action, brutality and obsession. Into a reality where art is lived and made in life and through death by the charming, attractive, calculating, cunning and raving mad serial killers.

Postcard Killers will, of course, be panned by a number of critics, as it provides a great opportunity for big-name bashing. And, for sure, it does have its weaknesses: Some elements of story are fairly implausible; the characters are a little stereotypical. But it is actually a great crime fiction novel; not the best I’ve ever read, but solid, fast-paced, with some smart twists and turns, and quite suspenseful. Even though the characters could have been more firmly drawn and feel a little distanced, I liked them. Postcard Killers is better than I had expected, and a book I enjoyed reading. Also, it is a book I do not hesitate to recommend.

(Review based on the Norwegian edition – Postcard Killers is available for pre-order at Amazon US)

Links to books by Liza Marklund at amazon US and
amazon UK: Liza Marklund (books and DVD’s). Links to books by James Patterson at amazon US and amazon UK.

Here’s an interview with the two authors:

©2010 Nordic Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

In Shame, Karin Alvtegen’s exploration of human emotions continues. This time it is the common, perhaps all too common, feeling of Shame that occupies the center stage. Here, as in the other books by Alvtegen, this one emotion is singled out, turned into the primary or most important emotion in the lives of key characters, and inserted into a plot where events trigger responses more or less dictates by the strongly held feelings of the characters.

Like the other books by Karin Alvtegen, this psychological thriller is a book without detectives, policemen or even heroes. Her writing style are in many ways similar to that of Inger Frimansson.  Thus it is not really a crime novel, but something else, something more.

The main characters in Shame are two women that on the outside are extremely different. Maj-Britt, one of them, is fat, very fat, and intensely ashamed of her body. She is so over weight that she can no longer function normally, and is she lies down or falls, she cannot get up without assistance. In Shame, the fat on her body in a sense serves as a layer between Maj-Britt and real life. A layer she badly needs. For under the thick layer of shame over her body, Maj-Britt hides another layer of shame, even more damaging – shame associated with event that took place during her youth in a very strict, religious Swedish family, where sex was shameful and a taboo. Maj-Britt is highly intelligent, but has lost interest in contact with others. Instead she uses her intelligence as a weapon to keep people that threaten her to keep a distance or scare them off.

Monika, on the other hand, is a very successful doctor, lives in a beautiful, expensive house, is well off economically, and is admired by colleagues and friends. But underneath the successful surface is a small, scared human being with extremely low self-esteem who knows what to do to appear skilled, in control, and successful, but in reality cultivates this image in order to deflect attention from herself. She demands perfection of herself always, both professionally and personally. And under the surface she carries a burning shame dating back to the death of her brother. She could have saved him. If only she had done what was expected of her, and what she had promised, he would still have been alive.

Karin Alvtegen lets Maj-Britt and Monika go through events that revive all their evil memories, and the leads them toward one another, forces them together. In the process, the excitement builds – what will happen? How bad will it be? How will their lives change?

Shame is well written, intense, intelligent and entertaining. It is very well worth reading. Karin Alvtegen is a master when it comes to describing the power of irrational emotions, the brains capability to repress things that is too painful to remember, and the consequences when bad memories can no longer be avoided and must be confronted!

Links to books by Karin Alvtegen at Amazon US, Amazon UK, and Amazon CAN.

©2010 Nordic Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

Sun and Shadow is the first book (translated to English) in Ake Edwardson’s crime book series about Swedish detective, Chief Inspector Erik Winter (see also our reviews of the other books by Ake Edwardson). Erik Winter is a very interesting and intriguing, somewhat withdrawn character. He is a bit of a snob, jazz fan and fond cook, and loves Italian clothes. But he is also considerate and philosophical, and the youngest policeman of his rank in Sweden. However, Winter is not a lone wolf, he is part of a team, and in the book the sense of teamwork and group effort is something Edwardson is good at portraying.

In Sun and Shadow we are introduced to swingers in city of Gothenburg in Sweden. A couple entertains a stranger in their Gothenburg flat, a man who plays death metal music and doesn’t behave quite as expected. He kills them and leaves their apartment with the music still playing.

For more than a week a newspaper boy has watched his deliveries piling up behind a front door. The loud music playing inside the flat seems odd and the boy becomes increasingly afraid. The police are contacted.

What greets Chief Inspector Erik Winter and his team when they arrive appears as a grotesque stage setting. There are some clues, but they are hard to follow. Erik Winter feels that the murderer is providing them with a riddle of nightmares, of good versus evil, of sun and shadow.

Then another couple is killed. The same murderer has hit again. The murder has taken place very close to Erik Winter’s home, and his pregnant girlfriend is nervous. And she is also scared by mysterious phone calls. Also, the investigation unearths a possible link between the murders and the police force. So now even friendly faces are not to be trusted, and, when the killer strikes again, Winter is in a race against time.

The writing in Sun and Shadow is excellent. The plot is interesting and full of twists. Edwardson leaves a number of clues to his readers, but still the solution is a surprising. Overall, Sun and Shadow is a well-rounded and exciting crime-novel.

You can order Ake Edwardson’s books about Erik Winter, from Amazon US here: Ake Edwardson books.
Or, order Ake Edwardson’s books about Chief Inspector Erik Winter from Amazon UK: Sun and Shadow: An Erik Winter Novel, Never End, or Frozen Tracks

©2010 Nordic Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

International bestselling author Hakan Nesser made his U.S. debut with this excellent whodunit. Borkman’s Point won the Swedish Crime Writers’ Academy Prize for Best Novel in 1994.

Nesser’s protagonist, in Borkman’s Point as in other books, is Inspector Van Veeteren. He is a crusty, world weary police officer. The horrors of twenty-first-century crime weighs heavily on his shoulders, and he is at times quite grumpy, but with a great sense of humor and even, sometimes, a little charm. Like Inspector Kurt Wallander in the books by Henning Mankell , Van Veeteren listens to classical music and works methodically to solve crimes. He also plays chess, has been recently divorced, has the vice of smoking and loves fine wines. There is also more than a little Maigret in the Stockholm sleuth.

In Borkmann’s Point, Chief Inspector Van Veeteren is vacationing when his superior calls to ask him if he is willing to assist the Kaalbringen police department in solving the murders of an ex-con and a wealthy real-estate mogul, both of whom have been murdered with an ax. The victims appear to have no connection to one another.

Bored and restless, Van Veeteren agrees, happy to be able to apply his knowledge and experience to tracking the killer down. To Van Veeteren, like always, it is only a matter of time before the killer is caught. He believes deep down that he will recognize the murderer once he encounters him. However, in this case his confidence seems to be misplaced, as he is more and more forced to admit to himself as the investigation drags on for several weeks without uncovering a single promising lead.

When the killer claims a third victim and the town’s best police investigator disappears without a trace, Van Veeteren, who has left only one case unsolved in his long career, intensifies his hunt. The inspector believes that in every case a point is reached where enough information has been gathered to solve the crime with “nothing more than some decent thinking.” But can he gather sufficient information?

Borkmann’s Point is a well-written, thoughtful crime fiction novel. Borkmann’s Point is on the process of police work, the art and arduousness of investigation and detection. The book has been well received, especially in Europe. It’s a great read, and provides a good introduction to Hakan Nesser and Inspector Van Veeteren. Recommended!

Links to Borkmann’s Point and The Mind’s Eye, both by Hakan Nesser, at amazon UK, and at amazon US: Borkmann’s Point: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery, Mind’s Eye: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery, and the most recent book by Hakan Nesser Woman with Birthmark: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery.

©2010 Nordic Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.