English Translations of Scandinavian/Nordic Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

For the month of May 2023 we have 9 books to choose from so far. Books will be added as they become known to us. Good reading.

1) The Perfect Ones by Nicole Hackett to be published on the 2nd of May 2023. Iceland and U.S.A.

A picture-perfect trip goes horribly wrong in this fast-paced exploration of friendship and the dark side of social media, perfect for fans of Lucy Foley and Andrea Bartz.

Everyone wants to be them, but internet fame comes at a price…

Two days after arriving in Iceland for an influencer trip, Instagram celeb Alabama Wood goes missing. With no leads, the Icelandic police start their investigation by focusing on the two influencers seemingly closest to Alabama on the trip. Celeste Reed, Alabama’s best friend of ten years, and Hollie Goodwin, fitness guru and Alabama's unwilling idol.

Celeste and Alabama have grown apart recently because Celeste has been too distracted by her five-year-old’s behavioral issues and her husband’s refusal to admit that there’s a problem. What Celeste doesn’t tell them is how she has been coping with these worries and how it involves Alabama in ways no one would guess.

On the outside, Hollie appears to have everything—the husband, the body, and over one million Instagram followers. In reality, however, Hollie came to Iceland to escape the implosion of her life behind the screen. The only person who suspected something amiss behind Hollie’s precisely filtered pictures is Alabama.

As secrets are revealed and loyalties are tested, debut author Nicole Hackett asks: do we control our online image, or does it control us?

2) The Girl by the Bridge by Arnaldur Indridason to be published on 2nd of May 2023. Iceland.

When a young woman known for drug smuggling goes missing, her elderly grandparents have no choice but to call the retired Detective Konrád.

Still looking for his own father's murderer, Konrád agrees to investigate the case.

But digging into the past reveals more than he set out to discover, and a strange connection to a little girl who drowned in the Reykjavík city pond decades ago recaptures everyone's attention.

A brilliant, chilling tale of broken dreams and children who have nowhere to turn.

3) Even If Everything Ends by Jens Liljestrand to be published on the 5th of May 2023. Sweden.

Life goes on in the face of a climate crisis in this astonishing and unforgettable debut novel that follows four characters as they struggle to survive in a burning world.

Even when the climate crisis escalates beyond our worst nightmares and people become refugees, the world keeps turning and life carries on as usual: teenaged love stories, marital collapses, identity crises, and revolts against hopeless parents continue to play out.

Didrik is a forty-year-old media consultant whose misguided efforts to become the family hero render him a pathetic vision of masculine incompetence. Melissa is an influencer with a suitcase full of lost dreams after denying climate change for years. André is the nineteen-year-old loser son of an international sports star who uses the erupting violence around him to orchestrate his own personal vengeance on his negligent father. And Vilja is Didrik’s teenaged daughter who steps into a leadership role in the face of adult ineptitude.

“Simultaneously nerve-wracking, astute, and consumedly entertaining” (Sydsvenskan, Sweden) and through these four related stories, Even If Everything Ends eloquently illustrates a picture of a very near future that is at once extraordinary and entirely realistic.

4) Darkness Calls: An Inspector Cecilie Mars Thriller by Michael Katz Krefeld to be published on the 16th of May 2023. Denmark.

When a newly promoted police inspector becomes the target of a blackmailer, she struggles to clear her name. But is she fighting for justice—or revenge?

Police inspector Cecilie Mars is a different kind of cop. She has a heavy cocaine habit, fantasizes about vigilante violence, and constantly falls in love with men she shouldn’t. Late one night, while tailing a suspect, Mars makes an ill-fated choice that has far-reaching consequences. Unluckily for her, her misstep has been observed and filmed. Now, an anonymous foe is threatening to reveal the truth unless she submits to his terrifying agenda.

Inexorably, Mars is drawn into a sinister blackmail scheme that could derail her career. At the same time, she’s haunted by the feeling that the shadowy figure behind the threats is well known to her—and growing ever stronger. But who is he? And how far is she willing to go to stop him before she loses everything?

Perfect for fans of The Bridge and Netflix’s The Chestnut Man , Darkness Calls is the first book in a trilogy of hard-hitting, big-city thrillers from Scandinavian King of Crime Michael Katz Krefeld.

5) Thirty Days of Darkness by Jenny Lund Madsen to be published on the 25th of May 2023. Denmark.

A Danish literary author is challenged to write a crime novel in thirty days, travelling to a small village in Iceland for inspiration, and then a body appears ... an atmospheric, darkly funny, twisty debut thriller, first in an addictive new series.

Copenhagen author Hannah is the darling of the literary community and her novels have achieved massive critical acclaim. But nobody actually reads them, and frustrated by writer' s block, Hannah has the feeling that she' s doing something wrong.

When she expresses her contempt for genre fiction, Hanna is publicly challenged to write a crime novel in thirty days. Scared that she will lose face, she accepts, and her editor sends her to Hú safjö ð ur – a quiet, tight-knit village in Iceland, filled with colorful local characters – for inspiration.

But two days after her arrival, the body of a fisherman' s young son is pulled from the water ... and what begins as a search for plot material quickly turns into a messy and dangerous investigation that threatens to uncover secrets that put everything at risk ... including Hannah.

Atmospheric, dramatic and full of nerve-jangling twists and turns, Thirty Days of Darkness is a darkly funny, unsettling debut thriller that marks the start of a breathtaking new series.

6) Sweet Dreams: A nerve-wracking dark suspense full of twists and turns to be published on the 25th of May 2023. Sweden.

Two little girls go missing on the same day in Stockholm. Their disappearances are never explained. In time, the investigations are abandoned.

A chance discovery puts Detective Ewert Grens back on the trail five years later. His own personal trauma makes him determined to find out what happened to these children who were snatched from a supermarket and a car park and never seen again.

His search leads him into the recesses of the dark web and the discovery of a paedophile ring that can only be cracked from the inside. Grens is forced to call upon his retired partner, Piet Hoffman, the best undercover operative he knows, to try to infiltrate the group.

They will have only one chance - but are they up to the darkest challenge of their lives?

7) Sólja: A chilling and prescient Arctic thriller by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 29th of May 2023. Greenland.

As the race for control of the Arctic intensifies, a Danish journalist becomes a person of extreme interest for the Arctic nations’ intelligence services, when she unwittingly uncovers the identity of a secret agent codenamed Sólja.

Set partly on the Faroe Islands, Sólja takes the reader on a roller coaster ride of global politics orchestrated from the capitals of big nations with devastating consequences for small Arctic communities.

Christoffer Petersen writes chilling thrillers in harsh, isolated environments. Too dark for some. Too cold for everyone. Óskar Guðmundsson, author of The Commandments.

Sólja is a what if? thriller grounded in the intrigue and tension of current Arctic affairs, featuring several characters from Petersen’s popular Greenland crime and thriller series.

Sólja is a full length novel.

8) Keep Her Secret by Mark Edwards to be published on the 30th of May 2023. Iceland.

In this sinister tale from 4 million copy bestselling author Mark Edwards, a deadly secret turns a couple’s new romance into a nightmare. And they’re not the only ones who know the truth…

After twenty years apart, Matthew and Helena have rekindled their college romance and are away in Iceland on their first holiday together. Swept up in the romance on a mountain hike, one moment they are taking the perfect photo, the next Helena is hanging from the cliff edge…

Terrified, Matthew almost misses Helena’s sudden and shocking confession—but what he hears chills him to the bone. And when Helena reveals the full truth Matthew is horrified, not only by what she’s done, but why she did it. Does he really know her at all?

His shock turns to horror when, back in England, they discover that someone not only overheard Helena’s confession but plans to blackmail her. Now Matthew must decide whether to go to the police or help Helena keep her secret—and as events spiral out of control, how far is Matthew willing to go to protect his ‘perfect’ girlfriend?

9) Black Heart by Morgan Greene to be published on the 31st of May 2023. Sweden.

What dreams may come ...

On the idyllic Swedish island of Gotland, another teenager is found dead. This makes 22 suicides in 17 months. Some knew each other, others didn't. There are no notes. No explanations. No reasons. Each new death rocks the island to its core, and everyone holds their breath for the next to be found ...

With the media ordered not to report on it, the police baffled, and the islanders looking desperately for someone, or something, to blame ... chaos is imminent.

Among the horror, a father whose daughter is missing searches frantically for answers.A journalism student chases the truth at all costs as fear and persecution grip her university.And a notorious detective is dragged out of exile to ask questions the police can't. Or won't ...

As terror takes root in every home and mind, and the death toll continues to rise, only one thing links the victims: a black heart, etched into their skin. What does it mean? And will it be enough to save the island before it tears itself apart?

***

Black Heart is the 10th Jamie Johansson novel, and the most harrowing book you'll read in 2023. Inspired by true events, this razor-sharp study of the far-reaching effects of death in a quiet community will keep you up at night and stick with you for years to come.

Amazon finally has Will Dean's book in Kindle for Bad Apples to be published on the 5th of May 2023. Sweden. The book was published originally on the 2nd of September 2021.

It only takes one...

A murder

A resident of small-town Visberg is found decapitated

A festival

A cultish hilltop community ‘celebrates’ Pan Night after the apple harvest

A race against time

As Visberg closes ranks to keep its deadly secrets, there could not be a worse time for Tuva Moodyson to arrive as deputy editor of the local newspaper. Powerful forces are at play and no one dares speak out. But Tuva senses the story of her career, unaware that perhaps she is the story…

10) Killing Moon by Jo Nesbø to be published on the 30th of May 2023. Norway.

In the thirteenth novel in the New York Times best-selling series, brilliant rogue police investigator Harry Hole is back, this time as an outsider assembling his own team to help find a serial killer.

Harry has gone to Los Angeles to drink himself to death, in the wake of his life back in Oslo falling to pieces. He’s nearly managed to, but Harry has been helping an older film actress, Lucille, to get away from the grips of a drug cartel to which she owes one million dollars, and in return she’s given him shelter, company and a tailored suit.

In Oslo, two girls have disappeared and been found murdered and one of the suspects is a well-known real estate magnate. Katrine Bratt wants to bring in the country’s foremost serial killings expert, but the idea of collaborating with Harry Hole is out of the question for the chiefs of police. The real-estate magnate under suspicion on the other hand wants to hire Harry as a private investigator to clear his name from the case. Harry declines, but that’s before the drug cartel takes Lucille hostage. If Harry achieves the task, the real estate magnate will award him a bonus enough to cover Lucille’s debt. He puts together a team consisting of a cocaine-dealing childhood friend, a corrupt police officer and a cancer-stricken psychologist. The drug cartel has given them ten days. The clock is ticking, and a blood moon has been forecast over Oslo.

11) Truck Stop Blues: A high octane novella on the wide open roads of Australia by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 25th of May 2023. Australia.

During a rare moment of reprieve, an aging getaway driver thrills an impressionable young man with stories of life and lost loves from his past.

Truck Stop Blues is an action-packed novella, and the second in the series featuring Noah Lee the indomitable Evie.

Christoffer Petersen is the author of the Greenland crime and thriller novels including The Ice Star and Seven Graves, One Winter.