English Translations of Scandinavian/Nordic Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

Elizabeth wrote: "I have not had a chance to start Silence of the Sea so cannot comment on that.

I have found that Indriasson's books have become rather
dull for me after reading so many. I hope that feeling goes a..."
Gerhardsen ? well that is one of the good things about this site. I shall immediately get on the trail. Never given this writer much notice. New to the genre?

Cannot believe it My library had "Where the Doves Disappeared" by Sofi Oksanen. Hurray!

Thanks Fizzycola!

Maggie wrote: "I'm reading Echoes from the Dead by Johan Theorin. The film version is on BBC4 (UK) on Saturday so I thought I'd read the book first."

Thanks for the tip. I loved that book and had no idea it was going to be on BBC4.

Elizabeth wrote: "Has Peter Hoeg written any thing really great after "Smilla's Sense of Snow"? Loved that book!

"
No. Unfortunately he believes that each book has to be different, or a different genre.

Susan wrote: "I'm back to Nordic with: Where Monsters Dwell."

This one is a bloodfest, let me know what you think of it.

Got "When the Doves Disappeared" and ordered "Lullabye".

I keep changing the order of the books to read. I have to live to be 150 years old the pile is so huge.

Any more ideas?

Have you read "When the Doves Disappeared" I am interested.
I think I will become ruthless. If a book does not grab me in the first 20 pages I will discard it. Life is too short. but then I think 'this person wrote this book it is their labor, please respect it' so I plod on till the finish. But as I said I shall become ruthless. Maybe next year.

Loved your comments! I loved "Purge" by Sofi Oksanen so I am hoping this one will be as good or close.

I never tire of Mankell, Fossum, Lackberg, Yrsa,and most of the time Larrson.

Helen wrote: "Have you read "When the Doves Disappeared" I am interested.
I think I will become ruthless. If a book does not grab me in the first 20 pages I will discard it. Life is too short. but then I think..."

Hi Helen,
Here at "Translation Central of the West" we usually give a book 50 pages to hook us before tossing it across the room.
--Steve & Tiina in New Mexico

Steven T. wrote: "Helen wrote: "Have you read "When the Doves Disappeared" I am interested.
I think I will become ruthless. If a book does not grab me in the first 20 pages I will discard it. Life is too short. but..."
Yeah a difficult one. As a teacher, I had to read and rate a lot of drivel. However, I had to commend it for the simple fact that the writer put in the work. Even if it was terrible and short. A effort is better than no effort at all. Sometimes I think authors live off their laurels. That also goes for Scandi writers. The first brilliant, then next also good and then it is often downhill from there. Very rarely is a writer constantly uniform.

SAD NEWS: posted by Scanoir.co.uk.
We are sorry to share the sad news of the passing of translator and academic Laurie Thompson.He was best known for translating the works of Henning Mankell,Håkan Nesser and Åke Edwardson from Swedish to English and I am sure many of us have truly enjoyed his contribution to literature.Our thoughts are with his family and friends.RIP Laurie Thompson 1938-2015
I really preferred books translated by him. R.I.P.

rip Laurie Thompson loved your work

This truly is sad news. RIP

What a loss! Thank you for all you did for us readers.

RIP Laurie uppe i svenska himlen

Just finished Echoes from the Dead by Johan Theorin and thoroughly enjoyed it. I want to read the rest of the Oland quartet now. I have also read The Asylum and enjoyed that too.

After much anticipation, just finished 'The Sandman' by Lars Kepler. Absolutely unreal! Every time I read a Kepler book, I am totally transported into the story. From the first page, I am breathless and turning pages so fast they are smoking!

This story, like all the others, grabs you right from the start, with the creepiest killer since Hannibal Lecter. Thinking about Jurek Walter will keep you up at night and give you nightmares. The inventiveness of the husband and wife team of Kepler is one of the best in the business.

The first Scandinavian book I ever read was Kepler's 'The Hypnotist' and every time I read one of their books, I am reminded why this is my favorite genre.

My only complaint (and believe me, it is nothing to do with the writing) is that they are not translated into English and published in the US quickly enough for me!

Deb, this sounds really good. I haven't yet read any of this author's work. Is it a series or stand alones?

DianeAlice wrote: "Deb, this sounds really good. I haven't yet read any of this author's work. Is it a series or stand alones?" It is a series about a Swedish policeman named Joona Linna. The villain, Jurek Walter features prominently in Joona's life, but is not featured in all the books. You can find the series on Goodreads; the first one is 'The Hypnotist.' I highly recommend them, but if you are squeamish, they are pretty graphic and scary! 'The Sandman' is number 4 in the series, and I believe there is now a 5th 'Stalker' but I don't think it is in English yet. You have plenty of time to catch up!

Maggie wrote: "Just finished Echoes from the Dead by Johan Theorin and thoroughly enjoyed it. I want to read the rest of the Oland quartet now. I have also read [book:The Asylum|..."Love Johan Theorin Maggie. However, The Asylum is my least favourite. I loved The Quarry. He won lots of awards for The Darkest Room. When is another one of his books going to be released? It has been a while.

DianeAlice wrote: "Deb, this sounds really good. I haven't yet read any of this author's work. Is it a series or stand alones?"

I totally agree with everything Deb has written about "The Sandman". I was blown away by this book. I was tired of waiting for my library to get it (they still don't have it!
) that I bought it through Amazon. So glad I did!! Also, all their other books are outstanding...you won't go wrong with any of them.

Thanks! I will get them on my kindle. Nice to discover a new author : )
I read Echoes from the Dead by Johan Theorin recently and plan on reading the rest of that quartet. I watched the film on Saturday. It was quite good, a few bits were altered and cut out so I didn't find it as good as the book.

ok. Been looking at "The sandman" sitting on my shelf. Will start to read it base on that great review.

Well I finished Linda, As in the Linda Murder and it was pure noir. I finally like Persson as a writer. He should have written like this with his first two books.

Glad to hear that review about Linda, As in the Linda Murder. Very difficult to get a copy locally so I ordered one on Amazon. Should be here soon. Can't wait to read it. I agree about his first two books. Backstrom was the book that changed my mind and made me place the order for Linda, as in..... Thanks.

Kenneth wrote: "Well I finished Linda, As in the Linda Murder and it was pure noir. I finally like Persson as a writer. He should have written like this with his first two books."Kenneth. I am so glad you did. Happens to be my favourite writer. (Alongside Theorin ) Isn't Backstrom an interesting character?. You will love "Falling Freely as If in a Dream About Olaf Palme. I can hardly wait for The Dying Detective to be released. "Death of a Pilgrim" a 6 part series was shown recently based on this book.

If you want an interesting character, try Dark Secrets by Michael Hjorth and Hans Rosenfeldt. His name is Sebastian Bergman, a criminal profiler. I've been "impatiently" waiting for more from these two authors and so far, no luck.

I just checked Amazon to see if anything new was coming up for the above authors and, lo and behold, there is a Sebastian Bergman book to be released September 2015!! Can't wait! It's entitled, "The Man Who Watched Women".

Yes, Yes, Yes I read both books. It was called "The Disciple" over here in Australia. Wasn't the nicest person Sebastian. In fact shocked by his behaviour. But goodness that made him all the more interesting. A well written book. I shall get on the trail. Thanks Mary.

It certainly wasn't planned, but I'm reading HOUR OF THE WOLF written by Hakan Nesser and translated by Laurie Thompson. I will miss his beautiful translations. I also bought two more translated by Thompson: THE WEEPING GIRL and THE STRANGLER'S HONEYMOON. I got behind in reading Nesser and ordered all three from Murder by the Book in Houston. My last Asa Larsson book, THE SECOND DEADLY SIN, was translated by Laurie Thompson, which was a change from earlier books for Larsson. Those were translated by Marlaine Delargy.

Not a Nordic but I'm also reading The Boys in the Boat, a non-fiction by Daniel James Brown, at the insistence of a good friend. She was astounded that I could live in Washington State and not have read it. So I'm reading both.

The Hour of the Wolf has one of my favorite premises for a mystery novel ever. Nesser definitely deserved his Glass Key Award for that one.

Linda, As in the Linda Murder, is also great. Backstrom became a much more interesting character than previous books. Though my favorite from Persson is "Another time, Another Life."

I've just read Sebastian Bergman (as it's called in the UK). He is quite a shocking character I agree! Excellent book and it actually makes a change to have the main character with some very unpleasant traits. Offhand I can't think of anything similar. I got The Man Who Watched Women from NetGalley so I bought Sebastian Bergman to read first. I will be reading the NetGalley book soon.
I've read the first four Hakan Nesser books so I have the next one lined up. Also have the latest Karin Fossum, The Drowned Boy to read. I will be busy!

Brad wrote: "The Hour of the Wolf has one of my favorite premises for a mystery novel ever. Nesser definitely deserved his Glass Key Award for that one.

Linda, As in the Linda Murder, is also great. Backstrom ..."
Hi Brad Never read Nesser. I might give him a twirl. I didn't like "Another time, Another life" when I first read it. But then after all the rave comments I re-read it. And I enjoyed it. It was very dense and solid. Lots of information. I like how everyone thinks what they don't say.

Just finished reading "Snowblind Translation was a bit clumsy. And the main character a bit too earnest. Some of the supporting characters were very sterotyped. Lots of descriptions about mountains, ice, fog, snow and rain. As well as houses, fish shops and theatres. All set in town of Siglufjordur in northern Iceland. After I finished I then googled this area. Studying the images the houses, mountains and streets were exactly the same as portrayed in the book. I could see where the herring factory was, the police station and the cottages. Almost as if the book was written after looking at the pictures. Canny

DianeAlice wrote: "I've just read Sebastian Bergman (as it's called in the UK). He is quite a shocking character I agree! Excellent book and it actually makes a change to have the main character with some very unpl..."

Please let me (us) know if you enjoy Fossum's THE DROWNED BOY. I read her last one, The Murder of Harriet Krohn, and the remorse of the killer goes on and on for the entire story until I didn't want to finish reading it. Fossum has been one of my favorite authors, but this makes her last two that were disappointing for me.

On Stephen T.'s recommendation, I bought Vidar Sundstol's first two in the Minnesota trilogy translated by Tina Nunnally. I've read THE LAND OF DREAMS. I was hoping the Norwegian detective, Eirik Nyland, would remain a part of the on-going story, but I will have to wait to find out if he returns ... in the next two.

Hi Harriet,
I think Nyland does return in book 3, can't really remember since I read them a year apart from each other.

Mary wrote: "I just checked Amazon to see if anything new was coming up for the above authors and, lo and behold, there is a Sebastian Bergman book to be released September 2015!! Can't wait! It's entitled, "Th..."
Sounds like an extremely large focus group...

Well I just ordered it. Loved Dark Secretsand The Disciple. Great reading. But as I said Sebastian is no Donald Trump. Reading The Dinner Herman Koch. Good character study.

Loved The Dinner. "Summer House with Swimming Pool" is another one of his books. Good, too.

I'm currently deep into WOLF WINTER by Eback. What a wonderful, spooky book. It evokes a time and place that many of use will never be able to visit. The writing is spare and the mystery is being unveiled like layers of snow. As a first novel it's wonderful.

You hit the nail on the head, Jan! Great book.

I loved this book.

Jan wrote: "I'm currently deep into WOLF WINTER by Eback. What a wonderful, spooky book. It evokes a time and place that many of use will never be able to visit. The writing is spare and the mystery is bein..."

A very good read in my opinion and stays with you unlike a lot of reads....very accomplished writing for a first book and living in Canada.

Sharon wrote: "Jan wrote: "I'm currently deep into WOLF WINTER by Eback. What a wonderful, spooky book. It evokes a time and place that many of use will never be able to visit. The writing is spare and the mys..."

Your comment about Wolf Winter being "very accomplished writing for a first book." is right on. I read the author interview at the end of the book and Eback is writing in her second language, English, as her first language is Swedish. I think, perhaps, that might account for some of the lovely language usage that is evident in the book. I can hardly wait for her next offering. Although like her, I'm intrigued about what happens to Frederika and Olaus the priest.

Jan wrote: "Sharon wrote: "Jan wrote: "I'm currently deep into WOLF WINTER by Eback. What a wonderful, spooky book. It evokes a time and place that many of use will never be able to visit. The writing is sp..."

At the time I posted some good interviews, articles about / with her. I too will be interested in her next book. Have you read Hannah Kent's first and IMHO very excellent book, Burial Rites? Researched facts and incredibly well structured telling of old ways in Iceland.

Sharon wrote: "Jan wrote: "Sharon wrote: "Jan wrote: "I'm currently deep into WOLF WINTER by Eback. What a wonderful, spooky book. It evokes a time and place that many of use will never be able to visit. The w..."

I've been looking at "Burial Rites" for ages, I just wasn't sure about it, but your recommendation has tipped the scales; I'm going to take the plunge. I've been obsessed with Iceland since I found Arnuldur Irridasson.

Jan wrote: "Sharon wrote: "Jan wrote: "Sharon wrote: "Jan wrote: "I'm currently deep into WOLF WINTER by Eback. What a wonderful, spooky book. It evokes a time and place that many of use will never be able t..."

She won a few awards with BR when it came out and I really found it quite a read. There are some articles / interviews about it. It is based on true events so even more of a read IMHO. Enjoy. Look fwd to your comments.

Wolf Winter is on the way. Now to look for Burial Rites!

I too started with Indridason's Jar City(Nordic Crime) and have never looked back.

Interesting note; My good friend just got back from Iceland. She said she has never met such friendly people.

Elizabeth wrote: "Wolf Winter is on the way. Now to look for Burial Rites!

I too started with Indridason's Jar City(Nordic Crime) and have never looked back.

Interesting note; My good friend just got back from Ice..."

But not all books written about or in Iceland are great anymore than any place else! IMO lots of mediocre books are riding a current Scandinavian craze that perhaps normally would not make the international translation grade...research first is my motto!

I started with Secrets of the Grave then went to Jar City. Just finished reading Gorsky. Great book. A modern day Great Gatsby. Which the writer Vesma Goldsworthy acknowledges. Not Nordic. Set in London. Great international influence