Midwinter Sacrifice is the first book in a new series of Swedish crime fiction. This series, written by Mons Kallentoft, introduces a unique and very interesting Swedish detective: Malin Fors of the Linköping police.

Malin Fors is an intriguing and complex heroine – she is tough, has had serious problems in her marriage and is now divorced. She also has a problematic relationship with her daughter, and tends to drink too much. She is mostly unbalanced and on the edge. I tend to think of her as a blend: one part Irene Huss, one part Inspector Winter and one part Harry Hole. She is talented, ambitious, tough, smart and unpredictable. She listens and ponders:

‘An investigation consists of a mass of voices, the sort you can hear, and the sort you can’t. You have to listen to the soundless voices, Malin. That’s where the truth is hidden.’

In Midwinter Sacrifice, a man is found hanging in a tree in the middle of the winter in Sweden. He is very beaten up and was most likely murdered, possibly in a ritual of some kind. We follow Malin Fors as she doggedly investigates this difficult case, first seeking to determine the identity of the deceased. Then the investigation progresses into the life of the murdered man – including his very strange and tangled relationships. He was, it seems, a bit of a loner and a man harassed by many and liked by few.

The investigation is thorough and very interesting to read. Midwinter Sacrifice in some ways may be viewed as opening up and shining a light on the inner workings of a seemingly peaceful social democratic and egalitarian Swedish small town; it shows the hidden life under the picturesque surface. Gradually the investigation reveals that the dead man was much damaged and that he played a role in an earlier, very tragic event. We also learn more about a group of strange, quite destitute people living outside the city.

The author uses supernatural-like elements to great effect in this book. I usually don’t like “whispering voices” or similar devices in crime fiction books, but this, I suppose, is a matter of taste. Mons Kallentoft writes these sequences in a different prose, and creates effects that are peculiar, esoteric, and almost dreamlike.

I liked the book – it is an intriguing exploration of evil; this is not a new theme in crime fiction exactly, but Kallentoft manages to penetrate deep enough into its origins and into some pretty cold hearts to make the plot plausible. The investigation is very interesting and the ending quite satisfactory and very suspenseful.
Moreover, Kallentoft is an outstanding writer, and the translation is excellent too. Also, the character descriptions are very good, and his descriptions of the settings and the wintery Swedish landscape very evocative. So, as you understand, I enjoyed Midwinter Sacrifice and I also very much enjoyed reading about Malin Fors. She is an interesting character that I look forward to meeting again!

Reviews of Midwinter Sacrifice:

“Mons Kallentoft has realized that the language in a mystery story does not have to be one-dimensional and totally focused on suspense. His first novel about Linköping police officer Malin Fors is definitely one of this spring’s highlights.” — Svenska Dagbladet

“The action takes place in Linköping, a town surrounded by snow-covered plains that could have come from the Coen Brothers movie, Fargo, although with different overtones. (…). Kallentoft shifts the perspective ever so slightly, to a different language, a different mood. Only just enough so that one feels lost. It’s a new territory, that Linköping where Malin Fors lives.” —
Lotta Olsson, Dagens Nyheter

“More very impressive input from another Scandinavian writer with something refreshingly different to say and with a different way of saying it . . . the background of Sweden in the grip of a cruel and punishing winter is brought vividly to the page. His illustration of the complex character of his heroine is also impressive . . . An impressive book.” —Tangled Web

Links to books by Mons Kallentoft at Amazon US, Amazon UK, and Amazon CAN.

This is the fourth book in Swedish author Asa Larsson’s series about Rebecka Martinsson and Inspector Anna-Maria Mella. Following the terrible events in the previous book, The Black Path, where she killed three men in self-defense, Rebecka Martinsson has now moved to the town of Kiruna in the Northern part of Sweden, where she works as public prosecutor.

Until Thy Wrath be Past starts with a bang. The 17-year-old Wilma Persson, who together with her boyfriend is diving beneath the ice of Lake Vittangijärvi, looking for the wreck of a Nazi transport airplane that crashed there during the War, tells the story of how she and her boyfriend is murdered. They have dived from a whole they have sawed in the ice, and someone has closed the hole, thus preventing them for surfacing. Wilma fights desperately to survive, but knows that soon there will be no more air. And then the air runs out, and there is only the ice cold water of Lake Vittangijärvi.

That’s the setup of the mystery in Until Thy Wrath be Past. As readers we know two young people have been murdered in the lake. We don’t know why and we don’t know who did it. But the police do not know they have been murdered at all. All the police know is that they are missing.

Sometime later, in the Spring, Wilma’s body is found. Not in the lake, but in a river some distance away from the lake. She has clearly drowned. It seems very much like an accident, but there are some details that are strange. Under her fingernails there are traces of green paint. Both Anna-Maria Mella and Rebecka Martinsson, who takes charge of the investigation, feel there is more to the case then meets the eye. The facts don’t add up the way they should.

When they start to dig deeper into the case and talk with family and people who knew the dead girl, they soon come face to face with people trying to prevent the truth about certain incidents during World War II from surfacing. In the strange rural villages of Northern Sweden they encounter odd, twisted love and people who will go to any length to protect their secrets. Some of the wounds and conflict from the War are still not healed. As the investigation progresses, more people are brutally murdered to prevent the investigators from learning more. Somewhere in the cold lurks a murderer who will continue to kill as many as it takes to keep the past firmly buried.

This is a remarkable and interesting book, very well written, about repression, violence, devotion and ruthlessness. The epigraph from the Book of Job – Until Thy Wrath be Past – with reference to the pain of human existence, is very appropriate as a title. While I did not particularly like the literary device Asa Larsson uses in this book – letting the dead Wilma talk from the grave, so to speak – I really liked the book, it is perhaps the best Asa Larsson has written so far!

Until Thy Wrath be Past is a great crime fiction novel, and I am already looking forward to the next Rebecka Martinsson novel!

Links to books by Asa Larsson at Amazon US, Amazon UK, and Amazon CAN. And (in German) from Amazon DE: Sonnensturm, Der schwarze Steg, or Weiße Nacht.

The Hidden Child (original title Tyskungen) is the fifth novel in Camilla Läckberg’s bestselling Swedish crime fiction series, and the sequel to The Gallows Bird.

Like many Swedish fathers, Detective Patrik Hedstrom has chosen to take a paternity leave to stay home for awhile with his one year old daughter Maja. His wife, Erica Falck, wants to spend this time writing a new crime book. However, they both have a hard time adjusting to the new situation. Erica has discovered her mother’s wartime diaries in her attic, along with a mysterious Nazi medal and a blood-stained baby shirt. Curious to learn more, she consults a local World War II historian about the medal and begins to read her mother’s diary.

Soon after, the ageing historian is found brutally murdered in his house, where he lives alone with his brother – a man engaged in the worldwide hunt for Nazi war criminals. Why has the historian been killed now, so long after the war? Did he represent a threat to the growing Neo-Nazi movement in Sweden? Did he have knowledge of long-hidden secrets from the war years in Sweden?

Patrik practically jumps at the chance to involve himself in the investigation. And his assistance really is badly needed – in his absence from the Tanumhede police station, his boss Mellberg quickly takes control over the investigation. As readers familiar with this series well know, Mellberg completely lacks the skills and the intuition of a good detective.

The murder case in The Hidden Child clearly seems to have its roots in war time Sweden. Back then, as a teenager, Erica’s mother Elsy was one of a small group of friends which included the murdered man and his brother, as well as a young boy who later became a leading Swedish neo-Nazi, and the beautiful and flirtatious Britta. When Britta, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, is killed, it starts to look as if the murders have something to do with this little group of friends. But why? How could their actions then possibly result in mayhem sixty years later?

Both Patrik and Erica feel strongly that something must have happened that was related to the group or possibly within the group, but what, exactly, eludes them. As they get closer to the hidden mystery, Erica will discover things about her mother that will forever change her life. She has been haunted by a childhood of neglect, and now she will finally uncover the reasons why – and reveal a stunning truth in the process.

The Hidden Child is among the very best novels (so far) in the Fjallbacka series about Patrik Hedstrom and Erica Falck. The narration alternates between the war time – the years from 1943 to 1945 – and the investigation in the present. As Patrik and his colleagues, along with Erica, try to excavate the past, they increasingly get the feeling that critical information is systematically being withheld from them. Several people seem to know more than they are willing to reveal and seem determined to keep old secrets well buried. But who kills so ruthlessly to bury secrets so old?

The Hidden Child is well-written and excellently translated from the Swedish by Tiina Nunally. The sentences are short and the style straightforward, which makes it easy to keep turning the pages. Camilla Läckberg has crafted an intelligent novel which is nicely balanced. The side stories are quite engaging and interesting in their own right, and the mystery is intriguing. The combination of a police procedural with details of family life and relationships is interesting, and the historical twists work very well too. As I read, the felt the suspense build as my curiosity was activated and I started to long more and more for those dark secrets from the past to be revealed. The Hidden Child is very entertaining, and I had a great time reading it.

Praise for Camilla Läckberg:

‘Camilla Läckberg is probably the hottest female writer in Sweden at the moment… Lackberg’s job is to make the reader pleasurably uncomfortable – one of her ironclad skills’ Independent

Links to books by Camilla Läckberg at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

The Dead of Summer is the fifth crime fiction novel in Mari Jungstedt’s series that takes place on the idyllic island of Gotland. As with the previous books, it features detective Anders Knutas – a relatively quiet and thoughtful man living in a great marriage – and TV-reporter Johan Berg, a man with a love life that is rather complicated and that moves in very mysterious ways indeed. The side stories about the main protagonists in this series are great, and in some ways more interesting in this book than some of the previous ones.

This time, Knutas and Berg are faced with a real mystery. An early morning jogger is killed on the beach in the wee hours of the morning. The victim, Peter Bovide, is a carpenter who runs his own business with a friend. He is seemingly quite successful. Also, he is happily married and generally well-liked. But now he is dead. Very dead. Shot down, first with a bullet fired from close range in the head, after which the murderer has fired seven bullets into his stomach. What a strange way to kill somebody! And, even stranger, analyses of the bullets show that the Peter Bovide was shot with a very unusual weapon – a pistol with a very unusual caliber produced in Russia during the 1920’s.

Anders Knutas and his colleagues are forced to cast a wide net in their investigation – to keep all possibilities open. And gradually their hard work seems to start paying off – they find some irregularities in Bovide’s business involving illegal workers from the Baltic countries. Money could have been a motive. They also uncover dealings with smuggled liqueur. Is there a connection to organized crime? In addition, Bovide’s wife is lying to the police – what is she hiding?

However, as the investigation progresses, Anders Knutas increasingly feels that something is not right –the way Peter Bovide was killed and the gun used makes him feel that they have overlooked something important. And when a second man is murdered in the same fashion – killed by a shot to the head, then several more shots fired into his stomach – Anders Knutas is certain that what they have uncovered so far is of little if any value at all to the murder investigation.

Then, a new angle to the case, introduced by Karin Jacobsson, Knutas’ deputy, seems opens up a whole new set of possibilities. However, as it turns out, this new path will lead Karin Jacobsen into a situation where she will be forced to face some very old and extremely painful memories and to make perhaps the most difficult decision she has ever made – one that may well change her life forever.

The Dead of Summer is well written Swedish crime fiction novel and has an interesting plot with some very intriguing twists. It’s a well crafted crime fiction novel, and I greatly enjoyed reading it. The side stories and Jungstedt’s excellent characterizations contribute significantly to making the series interesting to follow. The ending is quite surprising and superb. Mari Jungstedt has once more written an excellent crime fiction and a book that you will greatly enjoy if you like a good, solid read with a smart, well thought-out plot!

Links to books by Mari Jungstedt at Amazon US, Amazon UK, and Amazon CAN.

Lars Kepler’s The Hypnotist starts with a bang; with the brutal murder – or perhaps slaughter is a better word – of a whole family in a Stockholm suburb. Two parents and their little daughter have been stabbed to death. An older brother, Josef Ek, 15 years old, is the only survivor in the house. He is in critical condition and extremely weak. All the members of the family, including Josef, have received multiple stab wounds. An older sister that has moved away has also survived the disaster.

The police investigator in charge of the case, Joona Linna (also featured in The Paganini Contract – the next book in the series) feels certain that the killer will try to kill the surviving sister. But there are no clues on the murder scene. He cannot find any motive. And the only witness, Josef Ek, is still in a coma. So he decides to try to have the boy hypnotized, hoping that Josef has information that can lead him to the murderer. A specialist in hypnotism, Dr. Erik Maria Bark, very reluctantly agrees to return to his trade after a 10-year absence to help solve the crime.

The hypnotism works. Dr. Bark is able to make Josef talk about the killing of his family. However, the story he tells is puzzling, very surprising and not at all what Erik Maria Bark and detective Joona Linna had expected. And – is it turns out – the hypnotism sets in motion a new and terrifying chain of events. Without warning, a tidal wave of unforeseen violence and inexplicable events hits Erik and his family. And soon Erik will have to confront his past in an unexpected way. Instead of solving the case, the hypnosis has transformed the situation, and now the violence escalates. A door to a tormented brain – a human abyss – has been opened. It can’t easily be closed.

The Hypnotist has been a best-seller in the Scandinavian countries. And the sequel, entitled “The Paganini Contract” has topped the lists as well. The Hypnotist is a book with a special and interesting story. The reason is that there is no Lars Kepler. Lars Kepler is a pseudonym, and when The Hypnotist (original title Hypnotisören, published in Sweden in 2009) was published in Sweden it soon became clear that this was an outstanding book and would become a best-seller. Thus the media started a regular witch-hunt in Sweden to try to find out who had written it. And several well-known Swedish authors, including Jan Guillou and Henning Mankell, had to publicly deny that they had written it. So in the end, the authors – Alexander and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril, a married couple, 42 and 43 years old, had to go public.

The story in The Hypnotist is very intense and quite violent; there are graphic images, physical abuse, psychological abuse, revenge, gang violence, and more.

The plot is outstanding, original and smart – and much in the plot is in the end very different from what it initially seemed, and it is full of twists and turns that make it hard not to start biting nails. Lars Kepler and The Hypnotist keep readers guessing to the very end. I really enjoyed this book, and felt that it was as even better than I had expected – and as the reception in Scandinavia and elsewhere clearly indicates, this is a spectacular debut novel. The Hypnotist is a breathtaking thriller!

Praise for The Hypnotist:

“A carefully woven web of suspense, a sharp dialogue and a very inventive way indeed of dealing with how a tormented brain works.” Swedish Radio

“The book’s structure is tremendously skillful. The suspense and the uneasiness only increase, while I chew my nails shorter and shorter.” Aftonbladet

”Lars Kepler enthralls readers with The Hypnotist, just like Stieg Larsson did with the Millennium-series… I just sit there, spellbound, while racking my brains trying to figure out who Lars Kepler is. The man who, with his magic wand, has created one of the best crime novels I have ever sacrificed a good night’s sleep for.”
(Norrköpings Tidningar)

“A carefully woven web of suspense, a sharp dialogue and a very inventive way indeed of dealing with how a tormented brain works – add some Swedish ice to this mixture and what you get is Lars Kepler’s creation.”
(Swedish Radio)

Links to books by Lars Kepler at Amazon US, Amazon UK, and Amazon CAN.

This must be an exciting time for Liza Marklund. Postcard Killers, the thriller she wrote with James Patterson, will be released in the US on August 16th. And Red Wolf, her most recent book in the Annika Bengtzon series, will be released in UK October 14th, 2010, and in the US on February 15th, 2011 (it is already available for preorder both places).

Red Wolf is the fifth book in Swedish crime fiction writer Liza Marklund’s series featuring reporter Annika Bengtzon. It is set in the middle of a very cold spell during the Swedish winter. Annika is still recovering from the traumas suffered in The Bomber, and still struggles with anxiety.

Now she has arranged a meeting with a journalist up in the northern Swedish town of Lulea about an old case of terrorism – a terrorist attack on a military airport named F21 by a group that called themselves The Beasts. However, when she arrives in Lulea to meet him, she is told that the journalist has been killed in a hit and run accident. It doesn’t take Annika long to find out that he has been brutally murdered.

Annika Bengtzon, an experienced crime reporter, suspects that the murder is linked to an attack against a nearby air base in the late sixties – the case she came up there to talk about. She makes a few small findings and starts to pursue them. And as more people are killed she uncovers evidence that links the killings: A mass-murderer is one the loose in Sweden. Seemingly one of the terrorists that were involved in the attack on F21 – a man who has since fled to France, and who is a known assassin – has now returned to Sweden and is behind the brutal murders. He was the leader of The Beasts and used to be code-named Dragon.

But who is Dragon? And who were the other members of the group – in particular Red Wolf? And why has Dragon returned to Sweden and started to kill people? While Annika investigates and increasingly finds herself drawn into a spiral of violence, she also – by accident – finds out that her husband is having an affair with a colleague. And when she tells her editor what she has found out, including evidence that suggests the case involves a member of the sitting Government, he tells her to stop investigating and drop the case.

Annika disregards the order from her boss. She is persistent and stubborn, and continues her investigation. Soon she finds that she has been betrayed by her editor for political gain, and is able to connect the dots and move in even closer to Dragon, the terrorist cell, and the well-hidden secrets of the past. She is determined to find the truth and expose the people involved in the atrocities. To achieve this, Annika is again forced to fight for her career, for her life against a deadly psychopath, and this time for her marriage as well.

Red Wold is a remarkable and very good crime fiction novel, with an excellent, very exciting plot. Liza Marklund’s writing is fast-paced, direct, and very good. She masterfully builds suspense and when she releases it, it is with a bang. The ending is excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book – Red Wolf is one of the best Scandinavian crime fiction books translated into English this year.

Praise:

“Pick up a Liza Marklund book, read it until dawn, wait until the stores open, buy another one.”
— James Patterson

“Liza Marklund is the next great Nordic export for fans of crime fiction to discover…Edge-of-your-seat suspense, sophisticated plotting, complex characterisation and unique locales.”
— Harlan Coben

Links to books by Liza Marklund at Amazon US, Amazon UK (books and DVD’s), and Amazon CAN.

(Läckberg in Swedish) is a young (born 1974), very talented Swedish crime writer. She was voted Swedish Writer of the Year for 2005. Her books have so far sold in millions in Europe, where she was the 6th bestselling author last year, ahead of among others John Grisham. Her books – including The Ice Princess – feature an interesting couple – the police detective Patrik Hedstrom of the Tanumshede police and his wife, author Erica Falck.

Camilla Lackberg became a writer after her husband and parents enrolled her in a writing course as a Christmas present. She was Sweden’s best-selling author in 2006. The same year she also won the People’s Literature Prize. And The Ice Princess, very well translated by Steven T. Murray, was the winner of France’s 2008 Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for Best International Crime Novel. Even so, it is not her best book – Camilla Läckberg has developed a lot both as a plotter and as a writer over time, and her later books are even better than this.

The Ice Princess, as Lackberg’s other books, takes place in the small town of Fjällbacka. In an interview, Camilla Lackberg says that “It’s a place I know very well. I think a small town is more interesting and dynamic than a big city. It’s the setting that gives the flavor.” Läckberg says the town’s history has shaped its inhabitants – and her characters. “The people there don’t take things for granted and always want to be one step ahead of fate. I try to bring that out in my books as well,” she says. And she certainly does in The Ice Princess.

When writer Erica Falck returns to her hometown after the funeral of her parents, she finds her childhood friend Alex dead, possibly murdered. Her wrists are slashed, her body frozen in an ice-cold bath. At first, is seems that she has taken her own life. Lackberg paints a portrait of a small, closed community where everybody knows everything about each other and where appearances are of immense importance. Under the wrong circumstances, this may lead to tragedy.

Local police detective Patrik Hedstrom and his colleges at the Tanumshede police station investigates the case. Detective Hedstrom follows his own suspicions about the case. Meanwhile, Erica conceives a memoir about the beautiful but remote Alex, one that will help to overcome her writer’s block as well as answer questions about their own past.

But it is only when they start working together that the truth begins to emerge about this small town with a deeply disturbing past. There is more to little Fjallbacka than meets they eye, and many secrets some of the people there would have preferred to remain buried.

Patrik and Erica are interesting characters, and this first meeting with them is important to the understanding of the series. The plot is very good, almost Agatha Christie-ish. The characters emerge with clarity and feel genuine. And Lackberg gradually lets secrets about the little community be revealed that builds suspense.The Ice Princess shows Lackberg’s ability to work with emotional responses and her considerable psychological insight. In The Ice Princess she builds like a master.

Praise for The Ice Princess:

‘Strong portrayals and ice-cold suspense from Sweden’s new Agatha Christie’ — My Life

‘This is unputdownable. Lackberg keeps the thrills coming until the very end’ — Viva

Links to books by Camilla Läckberg at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

Swedish crime fiction writer Mari Jungstedt keeps getting better and better. This is her fourth book translated into English, after Unseen, Unspoken and Unknown (A Killer’s Art is, as of now, only available in the UK). The translation by Tiina Nunnally is excellent.

Mari Jungstedt’s books are all set on the scenic tourist island of Gotland in Sweden, and the all feature the sleuthing duo Inspector Anders Knutas and Swedish news reporter Johan Berg. They are all quite good, but to my mind this book is the best to date.

The action in A Killer’s Art starts with the murder of a very well-known local art-gallery owner, Egon Wallin. Egon was a prominent and visible man in the local community, and well respected locally as well as in the art world. And now he is found brutally murdered and hanging from the medieval town gate in the beautiful and quiet little town of Visby.

As Knutas and his colleagues start digging into the case dark secrets and unknown facts start to surface. The gallery owner, who has just opened a new, very interesting exhibition featuring a young Lithuanian artist, had sold his gallery without anyone knowing it, not even his wife. Both he and his wife secretly had lovers, each without the other knowing about it. Also, his wife, going through the house after her husband’s death, found a number of extremely valuable paintings hidden there. Further investigation showed that they had all been stolen from various Swedish owners over the last few years.

Then, while Knutas and his colleagues are still more or less completely in the dark, struggling to make sense of the case and not finding anything that seems to lead them in the direction of the killer, a new killing takes place. A man is reported missing from the local hotel and the police feel certain that he has been or will be killed. When he is finally found, his is lying half-naked on the snowy grave of the first victim, badly mutilated and seemingly tortured. Time is running out for the police.

We touch base, of course, with the private lives of both Knutas and Johan Berg as well. And especially with the somewhat complicated relationship between Berg and his beloved Emma, which at least for a while in this book seems to change for the better. However, that changes when their little daughter becomes a target and is kidnapped – Emma hurls his engagement ring across the room.

This is a very enjoyable book, excellently written, very clear and at times elegant. Also, it is a book that will perhaps be of particular interest to art lovers, as it moves in the world of art in Sweden, and features a number of interesting paintings and artists such as “The Dying Dandy” by the Swedish impressionist Nils Dardel along with several paintings by Zorn.

I loved this book. The main characters are well-drawn and well-known at this point in the series and seemed very alive to me. Some of the scenes and elements of the plot are wonderful, for instance a James Bond-like art theft in Stockholm that was brilliantly executed and very memorable. I read A Killer’s Art very fast, as I found it hard to put down. It is very suspenseful and intriguing, and I highly recommend it.

Links to books by Mari Jungstedt at Amazon US and Amazon UK.

The Stonecutter is the third novel by Camilla Läckberg translated into English and released in England. It features policeman Patrik Hedstrom and his wife Erica Falck from Fjallbacka in Sweden. Patrick and Erica now have a newborn daughter, Maja. Erica suffers from a post-birth depression, and Patrik has a hard time coping with all the new demands on him at home.

In The Stonecutter a little girl is found dead in a fisherman’s net. The post-mortem reveals that this is no accidental drowning! The girl has fresh rather than salt water in her lungs. Also there are traces of soap in her lungs and ash in her mouth. Someone has murdered the little girl indoors, dressed her and thrown her into the sea. So now Patrik has a murder case that requires his full attention. To some extent he is relieved to be able to return to work.

This murder case is a delicate one for Patrik, partly because the victim is a child, partly because she is the daughter of one of Erica’s friends, Camilla. Also, it is hard to see what the motive for this terrible crime could possibly be. Patrik and his colleagues follow every possible lead. And as they dig, more and more dark secrets from the little community of Fjallbacka surface. The police find evidence that indicates that the parents may have molested their other child. They find a neighbor that is involved in a child pornography ring. They reveal feuds between neighbors, and deep family conflicts. There is much not immediately visible behind the idyllic façade of small-town Sweden, and some of it is not pretty at all.

At we follow the investigation of the murder case, we also follow the destiny of Agnes, the daughter of a rich owner of a stone quarry, from the 1923 to the present. She gets involved with a stone cutter, gets pregnant, and finds her father rejecting her, withdrawing all her privileges and forcing her to marry the stone cutter – a man for whom she has no love – when he finds out.

In the present Patrick and his colleagues tear into the heart of Fjallbacka. As other children are attacked they frenetically chase down leads, but seemingly without making much progress. As well, mistakes and conflict within the police force result in the death of an innocent witness. When Patrick in the end connects the dots and finds the solution, it turns out to solve much more than he had anticipated. What he finds is a deep hatred and evil that has been build over long, long time.

Läckberg shows us some of the not so very social sides of social democratic Sweden, another parallel world where an evil mind lurks behind the scenes. Läckberg’s writing is getting better and better, and she is becoming more and more popular in Scandinavia. Her books have topped the bestseller lists in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Reading The Stonecutter it is easy to see why.

The Stonecutter is an interesting, exciting and action-packed crime fiction novel, even better than Camilla Läckberg’s earlier book The Ice Princess. It is great reading, and the ending is a winner! The novel has been excellently translated by Steven T. Murray – it is a true pleasure to read. Läckberg is very good at describing the effects of crime on a small community with close ties and relationships among people, and also does a great job at showing how the past may, in some circumstances, exert an active influence on the present. Great entertainment!

Links to books by Camilla Läckberg at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

Two authors that have made a big splash in Sweden recently are Lars Kepler and Jens Lapidus. Soon they will both appear in English as well, and I expect them both to be very successful. Lars Kepler is the pseudonym of the two people on the image above, authors Alexandra and Alexander Ahndoril. After they had published their book The Hypnotist – a book that got rave reviews and became a bestseller in Sweden – the Swedish media started a huge investigation into the case of who had written the book. And eventually it was revealed. Regardless of the hoopla – there is also substance. Reviewers agree that the book is very well written, that it is extremely exciting and quite a bit frightening. And readers in Sweden love it.

”Lars Kepler enthralls readers with The Hypnotist, just like Stieg Larsson did with the Millennium-series… I just sit there, spellbound, while racking my brains trying to figure out who Lars Kepler is. The man who, with his magic wand, has created one of the best crime novels I have ever sacrificed a good night’s sleep for.” (Norrköpings Tidningar)

It is still unclear when exactly it is being published in English, but I am confident it will be in 2010 (it was published in 2011). The second newcomer, and equally exciting, is the young lawyer Jens Lapidus. He has written two books so far. Never fuck up (Swedish title: Aldrig fucka upp) and Easy Money (Swedish title: Snabba cash). They are part of a planned trilogy called The Stockholm Noir Trilogy. His writing has been compared to James Ellroy and Dennis Lehane. (Easy Money will be published in the US in November 2011. It is available for preorder Easy Money (US preorder), (UK))

Both novels are dark and take place in the criminal underbelly of Stockholm, where Hells Angels, Bandidos, different ethnic mafia groups and prison gangs vie for space and control over drugs, weapons, and money. They have sold extremely well in Sweden, and the first novel has already been released as a movie in Sweden. No date has been released for the English translations, but I am sure it will be soon. I am about to start reading these books, and I am confident that many of you will soon be doing the same.

PS: The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler is now available at Amazon UK: Order The Hypnotist