English Translations of Scandinavian/Nordic Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

For the month of June we have only 5 books far. We will add books as they become available. Good reading.

1) The Incurable Innocence of Auks: A Constable Petra Jensen Novella by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 5th of June 2025. Greenland. 70 pages.

When a group of American tourists claim their wildlife guide has abandoned them in the far north of Greenland, it's up to Constable Petra ‘Piitalaat’ Jensen to uncover the truth and to find the missing guide.

The Incurable Innocence of Auks is the thirty-second in the Greenland Missing Persons series of novellas and novels set in the harsh, unpredictable Arctic, rich in tradition, myth and culture.

The Incurable Innocence of Auks continues the adventures of Constable Petra ‘Piitalaat’ Jensen, ably assisted by interesting characters, together with a few familiar faces making cameo appearances in the series.

The Greenland Missing Persons stories are set prior to The Ice Star and Seven Graves, One Winter.

2) The White Bear by Henrik Pontoppidan to be published on the 10th of June 2025. Greenland. 168 pages.

Love, faith, and the political mingle in these two short novels by a Nobel Prize-winning Danish author. One about a young couple making a new life in Rome, the other about a priest who goes to live among native peoples in Greenland, both books explore the reaches of the human heart through their complex and unforgettable characters.

The Rearguard and The White Bear are two of Nobel laureate Henrik Pontoppidan’s most acclaimed tales of personal, political, and religious strife, full of keen psychological insight, set amid the sweeping changes of late nineteenth-century Danish society. Pontoppidan’s prose is spellbinding in its taut, unvarnished grace, a quality translator Paul Larkin masterfully captures in this stunning new translation.

Newlyweds Jørgen Hallager and Ursula Branth are as different as night and day. The brash son of a poor village teacher, Jørgen is an avowed socialist whose revolutionary beliefs translate into his work as a painter of social realism. Ursula, on the other hand, comes from an upper-middle-class family and is politically conservative. Though each strives to change the other’s worldview as they start their new life in Rome, tensions rise, and misunderstandings abound. A searching examination of art and individuality, this version of The Rearguard is the never-before-translated 1905 edition, which elucidates with greater complexity Jorgen’s character as well as Ursula’s resolve to temper him with love.

The White Bear is the odyssey of the priest Thorkild Müller, who becomes minister to a remote Inuit tribe in Greenland and is slowly integrated within the community. After spending much of his adult life in Greenland, he returns to Denmark, where his popularity among his parishioners brings the ire of the Church upon his head.

3) A Fortunate Man by Henrik Pontoppidan to be published on the 10th of June 2025. Author is Danish. Rome. 773 pages.

At the height of his powers, Per Sidenius, the son of a poor religious minister, is a fortunate man. He has the whole of the approaching twentieth century in his grasp: a fabulously rich Jewish heiress as a soon-to-be wife, burgeoning fame as a forward- and free-thinking man of the ‘New Age’ and success in having put his sorry childhood behind him. But just as he reaches the lofty heights of bourgeois success, Per begins to deeply question his life. A series of events then unfold which Nobel Prize-winning author Henrik Pontoppidan describes with unflinching honesty and intensely human passion. Here is the hectic foment of social and religious debate, the unrepentant greed of finance sharks, the hot coals of pure and illicit love. Then the biggest question of all—who am I and what have I to do?

With A Fortunate Man (1898-1904) one of Denmark’s greatest ever writers manages not only to sound the depths of his nation’s soul but also to paint a huge European canvas stretching from vintage Copenhagen to the sultry heat of Rome at the turn of the nineteenth century. Heralded by such influential figures as Thomas Mann and Georg Lukács as a seminal work, this is a truly breathtaking novel which places Henrik Pontoppidan as one of the true greats of modern European literature.

4) The Bachelorette Party by Camilla Sten to be published on the 10th of June 2025. Sweden. 304 pages.

Scream meets The Guest List in this wickedly compelling and compulsively page-turning thriller of friendship and murder from the author of The Lost Village, Camilla Sten.

On a remote, craggy island nestled off the coast of Sweden, four friends—Tilly, Anna, Linnea and Evelina—meet every year. Best friends since childhood, the idea is to drink beer, dance by the water, and shake off the weight of life's expectations. The location of the island is a secret to everyone but them. One night of reckless fun and secret-sharing, and then they return to their normal lives.

Ten years later. Ever since she was a teenager, Tessa Nilsson has been consumed by the story of four friends who disappeared on their annual trip to a remote island together. As her true crime fervor turned into a wildly popular podcast, Tessa urgently covered Sweden’s most gruesome cases, but could never find the answers behind what happened to these women who disappeared, leaving a few maddening clues but no concrete answers. Now Tessa’s podcast has crashed and burned, any chance she had at uncovering the truth vanishing with it.

Anneliese is Tessa’s best friend, and before she walks down the aisle, she wants to have a bachelorette party. The Baltic Vinyasa, a sleek, sophisticated yoga retreat on a small island off the coast—one with such similar characteristics to the tragedy years ago that it raises the hair on Tessa’s neck. The idea is to drink gallons of cava, do sunrise yoga, and get in their last chance to bond with the bride. Tessa will not pass this up. It’s her last chance to find out what happened to the four women, once and for all.

And it’s someone else’s last chance to get revenge.

5) OriginsOrigin by Melody Grace Hicks to be published on the 16th of June 2025. Scandinavia. 490 pages.

The nail-biting conclusion to the portal fantasy romance, the Triquetra Prophecy Trilogy!
When Prince Loki's consort marries his rival to save their son from a curse, a prophecy leads to consequences even the God of Chaos couldn't predict.

The Unseelie Goddess of War’s revenge against Loki puts Asgard’s Black Prince in a no-win scenario. Bad enough that damn Atlantean prince saved Shannon when Loki couldn’t, but now Loki has to watch as she marries Elatha so Loki’s son won’t die on his first birthday. Neither outcome will leave Shannon and Loki’s relationship intact. It’s tearing him to shreds to choose between losing his soulmate or his son.

While some of Shannon’s Elven relatives have no issue killing her son, others aren’t so blasé about the curse. Yet it’s the prophecy at Shannon’s birth that brought her and Elatha together in this arranged marriage. When betrayal strikes, it may be the key to saving not just her son, but Loki’s redemption as well. The prophecy hints at the chance to right a mistake that has haunted him, but it’s going to require more soul-searching than Loki is comfortable with.

Wait until he finds out he’ll have to get along with that Norns-cursed Atlantean to achieve their goals.

If you enjoy romantasy with magic, mythology, soulmates, enemies-to-lovers, and sword and sorcery chosen one quests with a feisty female heroine who doesn’t back down, don’t miss this explosive final book in the Triquetra Prophecy Trilogy within the Gods Among Us universe.
Please This trilogy includes three main characters who are all romantically involved.

6) Man Hunt: A short story of predator and prey in the Arctic by Christoffer Petersen this book was to be published on the 3rd of July but it was released on June 26th instead. Greenland.

When two children go missing from a remote Arctic settlement, rumours of something more sinister than bears forces Constable David Maratse onto the sea ice to find them.

Man Hunt is the twenty-eighth in a series of novellas to feature Constable David Maratse in Greenland. Each novella is set during Maratse’s career as a police constable, and features aspects of Greenlandic culture, tradition, and not least the stunning natural environment.

Constable David Maratse also features in the popular Greenland Crime series starting with Seven Graves, One Winter, and makes regular cameo appearances in the Greenland Missing Persons series.

7) The Mystery of the Factitious Falconer by Elizabeth Arthur & Steven Bauer to be published on the 3rd of June 2025. Norway. 324 pages.

The world has changed since the first time The Three Investigators went into action, but some things never go out of style. The persistence of truth. The power of perseverance. The importance of questioning everything.

Conceived and co-written by Elizabeth Arthur, the daughter of Robert Arthur, the creator of the Three Investigators universe, this exciting reboot of the classic series takes its iconic characters into a new age. They return reimagined, reinvigorated, and more relevant than ever.

In the sixth book of a 26-book story arc, Jupiter receives an unusual birthday present from his Aunt Mathilda and Uncle Titus: three fencing lessons at the Center for Falconry and Fencing. The gift launches a new case involving the Second World War, the Norwegian Resistance, "degenerate" art, and a purple-shoelaced "artist" when the theft of a painting of a medieval falconer and his falcon from the Center's lobby puts The Three Investigators on the hunt.

Soon they discover that the Salvage Yard's resident carpenters, Leif and Magnus Haldorsson, have a family connection to the artist who painted the stolen canvas - as well as a sister named Freya who seems to have a crush on Bob! At a fundraising event to save priceless frescoes by the Russian-American painter Evgeni Voronin, The Three Investigators and Mallory cross paths with Matthias Mueller, the gallery owner who sold the stolen painting to Per Jorgensen - the famous Danish actor who purchased the painting to give to the Center in the first place.

As the team moves among the Center, the Haldorssons' home, Mueller's gallery, and Jorgensen's oceanside house, they find themselves contemplating a deeper mystery. Why did artist Aksel Olsen paint ten nearly identical paintings of the same falconer and falcon? Who put the paintings up for sale at a German auction house? Why is the purple-shoelaced "artist" Günther Böhm so determined to get his hands on every painting? And what secrets lie within the letters Freya's father inherited from her grandfather, who fought in the Norwegian Resistance during WWII?

As the answers to these questions slowly materialize, The Three Investigators put into place an ingenious plan to save from destruction a painting by one of the 20th century's great artists. But will the plan work?

Join The Three Investigators as they solve a case involving war-time secrets, priceless paintings, and an art thief with a taste for deception. Whether you're a long-time fan or new to the series, you'll be intrigued by the sweep of this thoroughly twenty-first century mystery.

8) False Note by David Lagercrantz , Elizabeth DeNoma translator to be published on the 2nd of June 2025. Sweden. 41 pages.

A toxic father-son relationship unleashes dark impulses and unthinkable betrayals in a riveting short story by the New York Times bestselling author of The Girl in the Spider’s Web.

William’s father is a beloved opera singer in Stockholm, charismatic and unpredictable. Raised in the shadow of his father’s addictions—women, drink, and cruelty—he knows the man’s dark side. William believes he’s found the light when he falls in love with a fellow university student, a young woman named Ebba. But his father’s hold on his life is not so easily broken. Even in death.

David Lagercrantz’s False Note is part of Alibis, a collection of stories about lies, truth, and deception. It’s just a matter of what you can get away with. They can be read or listened to in one sitting.

9) North Scent by Lars Andersen to be published on the 6th of June 2025. Sweden. 41 pages.

A mystery thriller set in the remote north of Sweden where a man follows his true calling to travel up there and find his soul mate. But is it real or delusion? Wolf visions and a hidden tragedy play out the adventure. Can he find the truth and give her the peace she seeks.

The Island. (Kørner & Werner #6) Katrine Engberg 2023
I cannot seem to get this listed as a new book as someone has entered it as The Island Katrine Engberg, author unknown!!!

If you can help, please do. Thanks as I seem to not be able to edit this anymore.

10) End of the Line: Disaster Management on the eve of the Apocalypse byChristoffer Petersen to be published on the 7th of June 2025. Alaska. 173 pages.

It’s the end of the line for FEMA Agent Jaylen Lewis

Celebrating her last day as a firefighter with the Anchorage Fire Department, Jaylen Lewis was looking forward to a whole weekend free – no shifts and no studies – before starting her new job as assistant area manager for Alaska, at the FEMA office in Anchorage.

Two days and three nights of fun and relaxation.

But as a virus threatens to wipe out the east coast of America, Jaylen is promoted to area manager, and finds herself responsible for the future of the Last Frontier.

To save Alaska, Jaylen is going to need help. She finds it in the shape of City Engineer, Nathaniel Canizales.

With the weight of Alaska on her shoulders, and as North America crumbles, Jaylen realizes that no amount of training and study will prepare her for what she must do to save the State, or at least some of it.

End of the Line follows Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Agent Jaylen Lewis as she is tasked with closing that last border, and getting the survivors out of pandemic-stricken Alaska and into safety.

It’s Alaska.

It’s the Last Frontier.

It’s The End of the Line.

11) The Adventure of the Gallows Growler (Standard Edition): A new Sherlock Holmes novella set in Greenland by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 14th of June 2025. Greenland. 151 pages.

Sherlock Holmes in a new adventure set in Greenland!

A visit from an emissary of the king of Denmark sets Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson on a dangerous journey to the north to solve the murder of a Danish man in the tiny town of Godthaab in Greenland.

The Adventure of the Gallows Growler is a new Sherlock Holmes pastiche story from the author of the popular Greenland Crime series starting with Seven Graves, One Winter. The story uses characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle, written in a similar style, and narrated by Watson.

This is the standard edition.