Scandinavian Noir

An in-depth and personal exploration of Scandinavian crime fiction as a way into Scandinavian culture at large.

Sweden’s far north is growing colder; even in springtime, the town of Gasskas is buried under a relentless snow. As temperatures drop, tensions rise between a global corporation shamelessly exploiting the area's natural resources and wary locals who have scores to settle. A bomb blasts apart a crucial bridge. Soon after, a young journalist is found murdered. Meanwhile, Lisbeth is at home in Stockholm, looking to fill the void her last lover left behind. When she discovers that fellow hacker Plague has been kidnapped and taken up North, she has no choice but to return to Gasskas.

Five years ago, DCI John Lomond led the search for notorious Glasgow child-killer ‘The Sandman', until personal tragedy forced him off the case. In Lomond's absence, the killer was never found. Now, with nothing but work left in his life, Lomond remains obsessed with the case–despite the nightmares it brings. When a child is abducted in similar Sandman fashion from an affluent Glasgow suburb, Lomond is brought in to find them before it's too late.

The Bucket List starts when undercover FBI Agent John Adderley wakes up in a hospital bed in Baltimore with extensive gunshot wounds. He knows he’s lucky to be alive. And just a few beds away is the man who 24 hours ago pointed a gun to his head. Soon, a high-profile cold-case file is sent to Agent Adderley, now living in Sweden (where he’s not lived since he was a boy) in witness protection, hiding until he can testify against the drug cartel he infiltrated back in the States. Adderley is determined to solve the case, even with a price on his head....

In a Stockholm city park, police discover the hideously abused body of a young boy. Detective Superintendent Jeanette Kihlberg heads the investigation, battling an apathetic prosecutor and a bureaucratic police force unwilling to devote resources to solving the murder of a nameless immigrant child. But with the discovery of two more mutilated children's corpses, it becomes clear that a serial killer is at large.

When a boy leaps to his death from a bridge in the northern town of Umeå, Sweden, police discover drugs scattered in the snow near his body. The town has seen a dramatic increase in narcotic use among its youth, but nobody knows where the pills are coming from.

Detective Leonore Asker seems to have the leading position at Malmö’s Major Crime Division within reach. But things go awry when, in the middle of a high profile kidnapping case, management relegates her to the so-called Department of Lost Souls—the unit for odd, cold cases banished to the basement of the police station.

It’s been more than 20 years since Olof Hagström left home. Returning to his family’s house, he knows instantly that something is amiss. The front door key, hidden under a familiar stone, is still there. Inside, there’s a panicked dog, a terrible stench, water pooling on the floor: The father Olaf has not seen or spoken to in decades is dead in the bathroom shower.

Detective Kjeld Nygaard wants nothing more than to forget his family and Varsund, the small mining town he once called home, even exist. But while on suspension after his last case went disastrously wrong, his estranged father, Stenar, leaves a message on Kjeld’s phone claiming he’s seen a murder. But with no evidence and Stenar suffering from Alzheimer’s, the local police think he must have imagined it.

When a teenage girl is found dead in the woods, her body posed like an angel, Stockholm holds its breath. The kill bears a chilling resemblance to those of the Angel Maker, a serial killer caught two decades ago.... One who just died in prison. Detective Inspector Jamie Johansson is taking some much-needed time away from the London Met when the call comes in. Her father, one of Stockholm's most notorious detectives, caught the Angel Maker when she was just a girl, and Jamie has long since closed the door to that part of her life.

On the day Stockholm police officer Hanna Ahlander’s personal and professional lives crash, she takes refuge at her sister’s lodge in the Swedish ski resort paradise of Åre. But it’s a brief comfort. The entire village is shaken by the sudden vanishing of a local teenage girl. Hanna can’t help but investigate, and while searching for the missing person, she lands a job with the local police department. There she joins forces with Detective Inspector Daniel Lindskog, who has been tasked with finding the girl. Their only lead: a scarf in the snow.

The quiet northern Swedish town of Kurrajakk is rocked when a popular teenager is found dead, mounted on a sacrificial altar, body covered in strange cuts, a crow shoved down his throat. Rumors begin to swirl. A local ghost story, Krakornås Kung, The King Of Crows, is back. Jamie left the Violent Crimes department in Stockholm to rebuild her life. Her body. Her mind. To get away from cases like this. But Jamie can’t let injustice go unpunished – and now, she’s all out of compassion. The King may think Kurrjakk is his for the taking, but he’s never met Jamie Johansson.

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.

"The North" is simultaneously a location, a direction, and a mystical concept. Although this concept has ancient roots in mythology, folklore, and fairy tales, it continues to resonate today within modern culture. McIntosh leads listeners through the magical and spiritual history of the North, as well as its modern manifestations, as documented through physical records, such as runestones and megaliths, but also through mythology and lore. This mythic conception of a powerful, mysterious Northern civilization was known to the Greeks as "Hyberborea" - the "Land Beyond the North Wind".

New propulsive thriller from Denmark’s King of Crime Criminal investigator Thomas Ravnsholdt—better known as Ravn—is on leave from Copenhagen’s special crime unit following the brutal murder of his wife. Racked with guilt over her death, Ravn must navigate the seedy underbelly of Stockholm he'd hoped to leave behind when he is informed of a young woman's strange disappearance. As he races to determine if the woman is still alive, Ravn's investigation takes a dangerous turn when he is drawn into the web of a sadistic murderer...

The body of a homeless woman is found in the river, viciously beaten and with all her teeth removed. A young immigrant, the prime suspect in a recent spate of robberies in Umeå, was seen running in the vicinity around the time the body was dumped. Trouble is, he hasn’t been seen since. When he does appear, in the town square, he’s wearing an explosive vest and holding a detonator.

Former cop Emma Tapper and her lawyer boss Angela Köhler are defending shipping boss Anita Spendel, charged with murdering her billionaire husband. Anita insists Martin Spendel is still alive, but his car is soaked in his blood. Emma must clear Anita’s name by finding the missing man—dead or alive… Meanwhile, on a luxury yacht off the coast of Ibiza, Bianca Aguilera is relaxing in the sun when a drone delivers an unexpected parcel. The contents: chilling evidence that someone close to her is dead. Horror quickly turns to realisation.