DP54Cover - Deadly Pleasures

4
Deadly Pleasures
Scandinavian
Crime Fiction
The Frigid North is
Now Sizzling Hot!
by George Easter
Al Gore should use the popularity of Scandinavian
writing as further evidence of global warming. I’ve
never been to any of the countries covered in this
survey, so I have included a little bit of information about
each one for those of you who are likewise somewhat
ignorant of things Scandinavian. The statistics I use will
help one to compare the countries to each other and to
places here in the United States. In my definition of
Scandinavia, I’ve included five countries: Norway, Sweden,
Finland, Denmark and Iceland. Some consider the
first three to be Scandinavia and the other two to be Nordic
countries, but I think that is quibbling, so I stick to my
definition.
As relates to crime fiction, I think all would agree
that Sweden is the Scandinavian King in terms of quality
and volume produced, with Norway the clear Queen. But
what is interesting is that every country has at least one or
two writers (that we’ve been exposed to in English) who are
top-tier, even the very small Iceland has Arnaldur Indridason,
who may be the best of the whole lot.
Years ago I remember reading a number of the
Per Wahloo/Maj Sjowall – Martin Beck novels and being
quite impressed with their quality. And these have been
reprinted several times over the years and remain in print
to this day. And every once in awhile a Scandinavian crime
writer would show up on our shores, Peter Hoeg (SMILA’S
SENSE OF SNOW) being one that was memorable. But
it wasn’t until translations of Henning Mankell’s works
started to be published here and in the U.K in the late
1990s and early 2000s that readers started sitting up and
taking notice of the excellence of Scandinavian crime
writing. He went on to be the first Scandinavian crime
writer to win the prestigious CWA Gold Dagger.
English readers wanted more and when that
became evident, publishers stepped up to fill that demand.
And outside of having to get the books translated into
English, the job of publishing houses was pretty easy
because there already existed a rich reservoir of
untranslated gems just waiting to be tapped. What we
have been getting over the last five years or so has been,
in effect, Scandinavia’s Greatest Hits as far as crime fiction
is concerned. Many of the major publishers here in the
U.S. now have a Nordic crime writer on their lists:
Delacorte, Doubleday, St. Martin’s, Pantheon, Morrow,
Viking, Harper, Grand Central (formerly Warner), Soho
Press, and the little one that started it all with Henning
Mankell – The New Press. And in the U.K. kudos go to
Harvill for publishing so many of these writers early on and
bringing them to our attention.
Series books are not always published here in
order (the Kurt Wallander books by Henning Mankell are
an example). And often some books in the series are
skipped over and only what are considered the best are
translated into English.
Some random thoughts regarding Scandinavian
Crime Fiction:
♦ Dark, moody, brooding, melancholic, intense.
These are all adjectives used to describe Scandinavian
Crime Fiction in general. And the descriptions are
accurate. I haven’t discovered a Swedish Carl Hiaasen or
a Norwegian Donald E. Westlake as of yet. Perhaps they
exist, but I’m unaware of much, if any, humor in Scandinavian
mystery. Some readers may shy away from these
newcomers because of that reputation for dourness. What
a shame that would be, because they would be missing
some terrific writing.
♦ Predominant Police Detection. Another characteristic
is that most of these novels involve police detectives
and detection although the styles of the detectives
vary quite a bit. Also most are not straight procedurals, but
a combination of psychological suspense and police detection.
There are some notable exceptions, such as the work
of Grieg Larsson, whose first book THE GIRL WITH THE
DRAGON TATTOO was a “wow” book for me. The
main characters are a computer hacker and an editor for
an economic news magazine. Other popular exceptions
are Liza Marklund’s series featuring an investigative reporter
and Asa Larson’s series and Yrsa Sigurdardottir’s
one novel about attorney/amateur detectives. But the
series by Henning Mankell, Arnaldur Indridason, Anne
Holt, Jo Nesbo, K.O. Dahl, Hakan Nesser, Kjell Ericksson,
Helene Tursten, Matti Joensuu, Mari Jungstedt and Ake
Edwardson all involve police protagonists.
♦ Balance Between Female and Male Writers
of Note. There seems to be about the same number of
excellent Scandinavian female writers being published in
English as there are male writers. That should cheer the
Sisters in Crime members – or maybe not – there may be
no need to have SinC chapters in Scandinavia.
♦ Differences Between Crime Fiction Country
to Country. My unskilled eye sees very little difference in
the writing from country to country, with the exception of
Denmark, which seems to focus on stand-alone thrillers,
rather than police procedurals and series work. I’m sure
there are differences to the citizens of each country, but an
outsider’s view is that they are very similar.
♦ Håkan Nesser. He’s very tall. If you ever meet
him, you'll know what I mean.
What follows is a simple reader’s guide to the most
prominent Scandinavian writers and works being translated
into English today. I’ve omitted plot descriptions of
the works of Henning Mankell and Sjowall/Wahloo for
space considerations. At the end of the piece I will
recommend the five Scandinavian crime novels you should