English Translations of Scandinavian/Nordic Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

The read-along for the month of June 2014 has many novels. It starts out with Åsa Larsson and The Second Deadly Sin' Next is The Human Flies by Hans Olav Lahlum, then Two Soldiers by Anders Roslund, then Sun on Fire by Viktor Arnar Ingólfsson, and finally we finish up with Arne Dahl and "To the Top of the Mountain". They are published on the following dates June 3, 5, 10, 17, and the 26th. Good reading.

Published in the UK perhaps but not in the US. The Second Deadly Sin won't be available here until August.

The Second Deadly Sin will be out here in US in August.
But it was in Netgalley last week. So I couldn't resist...

Brilliant. Even better than the earlier books of the series I'd tried before.
I love the characters and the location. Kiruna, the Lappish Sweden is so different from the rest of Sweden (and everywhere else too of course), and has so much influences from Finland it's just weird. The same small city feel that (would drive me absolutely nuts if I had to live somewhere like it) you get also in rural Finland... and many of the characters in Kiruna I could totally imagine in a rural Finnish village too. The characters and the feel of the locale were fantastic.
And add a good amount of dark stuff and violence (to fit a reader whether his usual comfort crime is in Jungstedt's Visby or some Cozyville somewhere, or whether they like me crave for Harry's Oslo with serial-killing snowmen).
I want the next book of the series now :)

I was fortunate to receive a review copy and I enjoyed The Human Flies very much. If you're looking for a break from fast-paced, ultra-violent Nordic noir, this is a slower-paced, well-crafted whodunit. I wrote a non-spoiler review at Crime Fiction Lover if you are interested.

Well I read Two Soldiers and almost threw up. Not my kind of book. Would a woman go through all that, Maybe, but I don't even like to think about it.

I have been playing catch-up with Asa Larsson. I have read the first 3 - just have to do things in order! And I echo all that Anna said about the location and characters. Have to decide whether to read on or go to Spring Tide! I have really enjoyed most of the 'series' books, but can't join in the discussions (which I read with 1 eye shut, just in case).

Arne Dahl has just been collected from the library! No-one read it?

Kenneth wrote: "Well I read Two Soldiers and almost threw up. Not my kind of book. Would a woman go through all that, Maybe, but I don't even like to think about it."
I was bored and stopped reading. A real shock since I liked the three previous books so much and was so eager to get this one from the library. Too much jumping around and being clever with point-of-view, so I lost patience.
On the other hand, I discovered Nele Neuhaus and read her second book first (so what else is new?). Enjoyed Bad Wolf very much, especially the character Pia, who for some reason made me think of Laure in "Spiral", even though they were very different. I guess I just like both characters. Looking forward to her first book, Snow White Must Die. And just checked out Arne Dahl's "Bad Blood" today, so I'm looking forward to finishing "Cold Comfort" and then starting Dahl's book. Such riches await me!

Snow White Must Die is very good!

Finished Arne Dahl's, To the Top of the Mountain and absolutely loved it!

Well our library just got Åsa Larsson's book The Second Deadly Sin and I read it in two days. It's the best book that she's written so far. Can't wait for her next book. Things have changed for Rebecca.

Kenneth wrote: "Well I read Two Soldiers and almost threw up. Not my kind of book. Would a woman go through all that, Maybe, but I don't even like to think about it."

Just finished it and I also found it very shocking. Unfortunately, many, many women let themselves be used like this. The life that these people live is only too real, but unlike the author, I do not think that there is no way out of this horrible way of life and the continuation from one generation to the next, whilst it might happen a lot, does not have to happen and people can and do make other choices. Even in the book, it was only a sub-section who lived like this on this horrible estate (which yes, are in all our major cities and also in smaller towns)all over the world. I do agree that I found the fate of the women and girls most horrific.

Can't stay I liked the writing style much and I really disliked the main detective. I know it was not the first in a series and clearly a lot has happened to him but I thought he was just another bully and truly not that very different from the criminals. I felt that one one hand the book gave you lots of information which was not really useful and therefore confusing, especially on the relationship between the young men and their mothers, which is very important, when they were children, we did not get enough to understand either mothers or sons. And the bit about blowing up half of the estate with a very seasoned fireman was unbelievable. I know I'm late reading this, but what did others think?