Scandinavian Fiction

'The Quick'. A woman swims in a remote, milky-blue lagoon. Steam rises from the water, and as it clears, a body is revealed in the ghostly light. 'The Dead'. Miles away, a vast aircraft hangar rises behind the perimeter fence of the US military base. A sickening thud is heard as a man’s body falls from a high platform. 'The Forgotten'. Many years before, a schoolgirl went missing. The world has forgotten her. But Erlendur has not.

In an orphanage outside Oslo, twelve-year-old Olav is causing havoc. The institution's ageing director, Agnes Vestavik, sees sheer hatred in the boy's eyes. When Vestavik is found murdered at her desk, stabbed in the neck with a kitchen knife – with Olav nowhere to be found – the case goes to Hanne Wilhelmsen, recently promoted to superintendent in the Oslo police. Hanne suspects that Olav witnessed the murder and fled, and she orders an investigation of the orphanage staff.

Jen Beeny is leaving her turbulent past behind and now it's time to start living. Or at least she's trying to. Between her dead-end job, live-in-landlord and disastrous dates, life in London is not quite turning out as she'd planned. When her dates start to go missing, Jen is determined to ignore the sense of dread building inside her. She continues on with life...until the police come knocking. All signs suggest Jen is the culprit, and the internet sleuths are gaining traction. But Jen didn't do anything wrong, did she?

It seemed like an open-and-shut case. But they couldn’t have been more wrong. When a 25-year-old woman is found dead in Stockholm, detective Vanessa Frank knows that there is more to the case than meets the eye. And when Vanessa finds herself on the trail of a dangerous internet community who call themselves "incels", her world starts to unravel. These ‘involuntarily celibate’ men have fostered hatred towards the women who turn them down, and now women are turning up dead.

When Kurt Wallander first appeared in Faceless Killers back in 1990, he was a senior police officer, just turned 40, with his life in a mess. His wife had left him, his father barely acknowledged him; he ate badly and drank alone at night. The Pyramid chronicles the events that led him to such a place. We see him in the early years, doing hours on the beat whilst trying to solve a murder off-duty; witness the beginnings of his fragile relationship with Mona, the woman he has his heart set on marrying.

Nora bliver sendt på sommerferie langt ude på landet hos sin mormor, som hun ikke rigtig kender, og som er svær at komme ind på livet af. Heldigvis møder hun den jævnaldrende Abbas, som har store, grønne øjne og får alt i hende til at gnistre. Sammen går de på opdagelse i skoven, hvor de finder en forladt hytte og gør den til deres egen. Men der er noget, Abbas ikke fortæller. Hvorfor er han egentlig så bange for Dorrit, der har den lokale café nede i byen? Snart går det op for Nora, at det her vil blive en sommer, der vender op og ned på alting.

The leader of a religious cult in Guyana instigates a mass suicide. He succeeds in killing himself and his whole flock of worshippers, save one. One man escapes. In the wood in the country land outside Ystad, the police make an horrific discovery: a severed head, and hands locked together in an attitude of prayer. A Bible lies at the victim's side, handwritten corrections and amendments on every page.

Has anyone seen Andreas? Andreas's disappearance is a mystery to all, including his inseparable friend Zipp. But its not easy for Zipp to come forward with details of the last time he saw his friend - they had been following an old woman, an easy target for some quick cash, and Andreas boldly followed her into her home brandishing his knife, the next moment he was gone.

Sebastian Bergman ist zurück: Eine Vergewaltigungsserie erschüttert Uppsala. Als eines der Opfer stirbt, wird die Stockholmer Reichsmordkommission hinzugezogen. Doch das einstmals eingespielte Team um Torkel Höglund muss sich erst wieder zusammenraufen und persönliche Konflikte beilegen. Vor allem, als auch Kriminalpsychologe Sebastian Bergman in den Fall eingeschaltet wird. Bergman ist schon länger nicht mehr Teil des Teams, das Verhältnis zu seiner Tochter Vanja, Hauptverantwortliche für die Ermittlungen vor Ort, zerrüttet.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Darkness by Ragnar Jonasson. A young woman, an asylum seeker from Russia, is found murdered on the seaweed-covered rocks of the Vatnsleysuströnd in Iceland. Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdottir of the Reykjavik Police is called to investigate this - the final case in her career before she is forced into retirement. When Hulda starts to ask questions, it isn't long before she realises that no-one can be trusted and that no-one is telling the whole truth.

Eine Tote hing kopfüber in einem Baum und keiner weiß, was damals geschah. Siebzehn Jahre lang hat Polizeikommissar Habersaat versucht, den tragischen Tod der jungen Frau aufzuklären. Doch jetzt, kurz nachdem er das Sonderdezernat Q um Hilfe bittet, kommt er selbst auf schockierende Weise ums Leben - und wenig später stirbt auch sein Sohn. Die Recherchen bringen Carl Mørck und sein Team auf die Insel Öland, zu einem Mann, der mit seinen Heilsversprechen Sinnsucher aus ganz Europa anlockt.

Først stak Emil fra Lønneberg hovedet i suppeterrinen og måtte af sted til lægen i Mariannelund for at komme fri igen. Så hejste han lille Ida op i flagstangen, og til slut skabte han vildt postyr til markedet på Hultfreds slette. - Og det var endda kun nogle af alle de skarnsstreger, Emil fra Katholt i Lønneberg i Småland i Sverige bedrev den sommer.

Emelie is a young lawyer who's just started her own firm. Teddy is a reformed criminal looking for a fresh start. The first time they teamed up, in Stockholm Delete, they uncovered the secrets of a Swedish sex ring. Though their partnership proved rewarding - both professionally and personally - they haven't seen each other since. But when a vulnerable young client of Emelie's is murdered before she can testify against her abusers, Emelie turns to her ex-partner/lover for help.

En 1949, el mismo día en el que recibió la sentencia del tribunal noruego que le juzgaba por un supuesto delito de traición a la patria, Hamsun, un anciano de ochenta y nueve años que había pasado de ser el escritor más amado de su país al más odiado, escribió la frase final del manuscrito que se convertiría en su último libro, Por senderos que la maleza oculta: "San Juan 1948. Hoy el Tribunal Supremo ha dictado sentencia, y yo acabo mi escrito". Había comenzado a escribir en mayo de 1945, el mismo día en el que él y su esposa fueron arrestados.

Left to her own devices, Detective Sergeant Charlie West struggles with the responsibility of a full-blown murder investigation when a man is pushed off a cliff. Not ready to have her apron strings severed so soon, West finds Munro who reluctantly agrees to shed light on the Ayrshire detectives' most challenging case yet. Once the police have discovered the identity of the dead man, and established his demise was the result of foul play, the race is on to hunt down the murderer.

Midsummer approaches, and Wallander prepares for a holiday with the new woman in his life, hopeful that his wayward daughter and his ageing father will cope without him. But his summer is ruined when a girl commits suicide before his eyes, and a former minister of justice is butchered in the first of a series of apparently motiveless murders.

Der Auftakt der großen neuen Krimi-Reihe von Michael Kobr, Mitautor der Kluftinger Krimis. Weiße Strände, goldgelbe Felder, idyllische Küstendörfer und Sonne rund ums Jahr: Die gemütliche dänische Urlaubsinsel Bornholm scheint der ideale Platz, um das Leben ein wenig ruhiger angehen zu lassen. Das denkt sich zumindest der hochdekorierte Kriminalpolizist Lennart Ipsen und übernimmt daher – frisch geschieden und gesundheitlich angeschlagen – bewusst die Leitung der überschaubaren Insel-Kripo.

La primera nevada cae en noviembre este año en Oslo. La mañana siguiente, al despertarse, un niño no encuentra a su madre en casa. Se le hace raro encontrar su bufanda favorita colgando del cuello de un muñeco de nieve que alguien ha hecho en el jardín. El detective Harry Hole empieza a sospechar que hay un psicópata suelto, desde hace demasiado tiempo, cuando descubre que un alarmante número de madres y esposas han desaparecido en circunstancias similares, tras caer la primera nieve.

Nel romanzo che chiude il ciclo della Settologia di Jon Fosse seguiamo, in un viaggio a ritroso nel tempo, le vite dei due Asle: il narratore incontra il suo amore di una vita, Ales, si unisce alla Chiesa Cattolica e inizia a guadagnarsi da vivere cercando di dipingere le immagini dalle tinte fosche che si imprimono nella sua mente. Un’esplorazione trascendente della condizione umana e un’esperienza di lettura ammaliante, ipnotica e trascinante, una riflessione a tutto tondo sull’essere umano e su quello che è capace di provare dentro di sé.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell, read by Sean Barrett. Sweden, winter, 1991. Inspector Kurt Wallander and his team receive an anonymous tip-off. A few days later a life raft is washed up on a beach. In it are two men, dressed in expensive suits, shot dead. The dead men were criminals, victims of what seems to have been a gangland hit. But what appears to be an open-and-shut case soon takes on a far more sinister aspect.