Swedish mysteries.

[pr]

That's been my big thing for the last month. I've been reading Håkan Nesser, Helene Tursten and Kjell Eriksson, I'll read Inger Frimansson when my copy of her "Goodnight, My Darling" arrives, I attended a reading with all four this week, and I've been blogging about them at http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/search/label/Sweden.

I've enjoyed the pacing and restraint of these writers, and I've learned at least interesting things: that Swedes can write with humor, and what the little circle on top of the a is for.

Have you read these authors?

Peter
========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

[Laura Root]

Only Hakan Nesser (waiting for the local library to supply me with "The Return" and "Princess of Burundi") and no real excuse for not reading Helene Tursten. I enjoyed Borkmann's Point very much, though there was some cheating with the ending! Nice to see that Swedish writers aren't all quite so melancholic as Henning Mankell.

[Dianne Day]

I recently read Inger Frimansson's Goodnight My Darling and enjoyed it enormously.

[pr]

I'm glad to hear that, Dianne. My copy is on the way. Copies of all four authors' books were to have been available for sale at the reading I attended, but Frimansson's were held up at customs and never arrived.

Peter

===================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

[pr]

Laura, I wonder if you caught the same whiff of a cheat toward the end of "Borkmann's Point" that I mentioned on my blog. Obviously I cannot go into detail here! In any case, the book is very much worth reading; the "cheat" is quite small.

I am reading "The Princess of Burundi" now and very much enjoying its beautifully slow buildup. And I had the same thought as you did about this group of writers -- Nesser especially -- being less melancholic than Mankell.

Peter

===================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

[Kerrie]

I have just read THE TORSO by Helene Tursten. That was my first introduction to Irene Huss. The descriptions in THE TORSO were pretty graphic Peter. Are they all like that? (Tursten's books I mean)
But I enjoy Henning Mankell too and have been reading him for a number of years (in translation of course), despite the out-of-order nature of the English publications.
I do get my Scandinavians a bit muddled up though and I find the names confusing - particularly in Mankell where there seem to be so many on the team with similar names
Good to see what you look like :-)

[pr]

Kerrie, it's interesting that you should mention graphic descriptions and Henning Mankell in the same sentence. I was once at a reading where someone asked Mankell about graphic descriptions of the aftermath of killings in his books, and he said that he writes that way because people kill each other that way. His low-key answer seemed in keeping with the way a number of Swedish crime writers handle such matters. That will be one of the subjects of an article I'm preparing about the group of four whom I've just heard read.

Helene Tursten's "The Glass Devil" contains some pretty harrowing descriptions, and mutilations of various kinds figure in novels by Håkan Nesser and Kjell Eriksson as well. But the reader never sees the killings happen, at least not in the books I've read. There's nothing in them like, say, the torture/killing scene in "The Night Bus" by Giampiero Rigosi -- and that's a thriller with a decidedly comic side.

Peter

===================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

[Laura Root]

cheat as to ID of the perpetrator presumably (think that's not quite giving the game away :)). Have you read "Unseen" by Mari Jungstedt, another reasonably translated Swedish work? I was a little disappointed, found the ending rather predictable, and some implausible oversights in the police investigation.

[pr]

Laura:

Nope, I don't know Mari Jungstedt. I wonder how she compares in subject matter and approach to some of the writers I've been reading. It has been fun to compare and contrast the four writers who sparked this discussion. That's one of the questions I asked them: Is there really such thing as a Swedish new wave in crime fiction? Are you four part of it? If so, what do you have in common?

Though there are similarities, not all Swedes are alike, of course. For instance, among Inger Frimansson, Kjell Eriksson, Håkan Nesser and Helene Tursten, only one has blond hair.

Peter

===================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

[pr]

Laura: The "cheat" I had in mind in "Borkmann's Point" was the scene close to the end of the novel where Van Veeteren sees a report and immediately knows who the killer must be, but Nesser does not let the reader in on the information. One of the classical rules of mystery writing is not to give the detective information that the reader does not have or cannot reasonably figure out.

Before I filed a bill of indictment against Nesser for cheating, I'd have to go back and see if the reader could reasonably have come to the same conclusion that Van Veeteren did. But really, this was so small a matter and so little hindered my enjoyment of the book that I won't bother, at least not until I have way more time on my hands than I do now!

Peter
===================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

[Karen from AustCrime]

Peter as you know you're singing my song - I'll wade through cut glass to get my hands on Scandinavian authors any day :)

I'm trying to track down a copy of Frimansson's book at the moment - looks like amazon it will be :)

I have Mari Jungstedt's books Unseen but haven't read it yet, but it's fighting a losing battle against Princess of Burundi based on your comments.

Recently I've been reading Harper's re-release of the Sjowall / Wahloo series - it's a joy to go through all of these again, even though I've read them all many times.

[pr]

I wouldn't mind looking for the book in the new Harper edition for which Mankell wrote the introduction just to see what he has to say.

Peter
===================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/