Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Genre Guide – Scandinavian Crime

Tessa Tessa

Travel to the dark north where a cluster of countries – Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Norway, Iceland, Sweden, and surrounding islands – has been producing a steady output of grim crime fiction to the delight of the world. While the subgenre “Nordic Noir” really exploded globally with books like The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Scandinavian crime fiction has been around since the 60s when Swedish writing partners Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö came out with the first novel in the Martin Beck series, police procedurals that had a great influence on writers like Henning Mankell, who went on to write the popular Wallander series. Scandinavian mysteries and thrillers are often written by pairs, involve social issues of the day, and set in dreary cities or claustrophobic small towns. The investigators tend to be to-the-point, disillusioned with the world, but not above dry humor. See the expanded list on our Bibliocommons account, CarnegieLibraryPGH_Adult.

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In the Catalog

Roseanna

Roseanna

A Martin Beck Mystery

Maj Sjöwall

A seminal work of the genre and the first book in the Martin Beck Mysteries, procedurals set in Sweden.

From the Catalog
From Libby
The Bat

The Bat

Jo Nesbø

Published in Norway in 1997, this is the first of the Detective Harry Hole novels, featuring an alcoholic, obsessive detective solving violent murders on the Oslo Crime Squad.

From the Catalog
From Libby
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Stieg Larsson

The blockbuster Millennium novels began with this title, featuring traumatized goth-y hacker Lisbeth Salander and intrepid journalist Mikael Blomkvist and their investigations into Swedish society.

From the Catalog
From Libby
Last Rituals

Last Rituals

An Icelandic Novel of Secret Symbols, Medieval Witchcraft, and Modern Murder

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

The first of the Thora Gudmundsdottir novels, about an attorney investigating crimes all over Icleand.

From the Catalog
From Libby
From Hoopla
The Keeper of Lost Causes

The Keeper of Lost Causes

Jussi Adler-Olsen

A Special Investigations Unit consisting of one flawed detective, set in Denmark, is the setting for the Department Q novels.

From the Catalog
From Libby
The Boy in the Suitcase

The Boy in the Suitcase

Lene Kaaberbøl and and Agnete Friis

Danish nurse keeps getting involved in grisly murders in the Nina Borg mysteries.

From the Catalog
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Blind Goddess

Blind Goddess

Anne Holt

This series features Hanne Wilhelmsen, a no-nonsense lesbian detective within the Oslo police force.

From the Catalog
From Libby
Walpurgis Tide

Walpurgis Tide

Jógvan Isaksen

Leaving his job as a detective, Hannis Martinsson returns to his hometown in the Faroe Islands, only to be lured into investigating the murders of two young environmental activists.

From the Catalog
The Man Who Died

The Man Who Died

Antti Tuomainen

Jaakko, a businessman in the field of mushrooms, has only a finite time to find his murderer… because he has been poisoned. Tuomainen demonstrates his talent for writing bizarre and funny crime fiction in this standalone.

From the Catalog
The Chestnut Man

The Chestnut Man

A Novel

Søren Sveistrup

A twisted serial killer with a distinctive calling card is linked to a high-profile unsolved kidnapping in this violent thriller

From the Catalog
From Libby
From Hoopla
The Creak on the Stairs

The Creak on the Stairs

Eva Björg Aegisdottir

The Forbidden Iceland books focus on the sinister mysteries assigned to Chief Investigating Officer Elma.

From the Catalog
From Hoopla
Geiger

Geiger

Gustaf Skördeman

One word spoken on a phone call makes an elderly woman shoot her husband. A police officer is tasked with the case, which may have its roots in the Cold War.

From the Catalog
From Libby