1. The Snowman, by Jo Nesbo
2. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, by Stieg Larsson
3. Hypothermia, by Arnaldur Indridason
4. Box 21, by Roslund Hellstrom
5. The Darkest Room, by Johan Theorin
6. The Man from Beijing, by Henning Mankell:
7. The Water’s Edge, by Karin Fossum
8. The Stone Cutter, by Camilla Läckberg
9. Postcard Killers, by James Patterson and Liza Marklund,
10. The Consorts of Death, by Gunnar Staalesen

(Links to reviews of the books.) These are my favorites among the recently published and forthcoming Scandinavian crime fiction books, as of the end of March, 2010. It is hard to rank order books that are so good and as different as these, but I think this is about it.

I have saved the Peter’s Top 10 at Amazon US if you are interested in the books.

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 Erik Winter is a very interesting and intriguing, somewhat withdrawn character.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