Don’t Look Back by Karin Fossum

July 10, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – print. Translated from the Norwegian by Felicity David. Mariner Books, 2005. Originally published 2004. 320 pgs. Purchased. Near the base of Kollen Mountain, a little girl leaves her friend’s home after a sleepover and sets out with her toys, including a baby buggy, for the short walk home. Along the way, the little girl encounters neighbors who hastily say hello as they head to work until one man stops to offer her a ride home. A few hours […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, 20BooksofSummer, Awards and Prizes, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Glass Key Award, Norwegian, Scandinavia, Translated • Tags: Karin Fossum

Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell

June 17, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – print. Translated from the Swedish by Steven T. Murray. Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 2003. Originally published 1991. 280 pgs. Purchased. On a cold January night, an elderly Swedish farmer awakens in the middle of the night to an eerie feeling. As his eyes and ears adjust to the faint light cast across the remote landscape, the farmer realizes the back window of his neighbor’s home has been broken into. Hurrying next door, the farmer finds his neighbor bludgeoned to […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, 20BooksofSummer, Awards and Prizes, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Glass Key Award, Scandinavia, Swedish, Translated • Tags: Henning Mankell

Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indriðason

December 26, 2014 by Christina

Fiction — print. Translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder. Picador, 2005. Originally published 2002. 293 pgs. Library copy. On the outskirts of Reykjavík, a human skeleton is discovered half-buried — the victim’s hand outstretched towards red current bushes — in a shallow grave near the former barracks of American and British military personnel during World War II after an infant is spotted chewing on a human rib bone. An archeologist is called to exhume the body; the soil at the […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Glass Key Award, Iceland, Icelandic, Translated • Tags: Arnaldur Indriðason

Jar City by Arnaldur Indriðason

October 23, 2014 by Christina

Fiction — print. Translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder. Thomas Dunne, 2004. Originally published 2000. 275 pgs. Library copy. Inspector Erlendur is called to Reykjavík to follow-up on the only clues in the murder investigation of an single, elderly man named Holberg — a cryptic note left by the killer saying “I am HIM” and a photograph of a young girl’s grave from the 1960s. In the course of his investigation, Erlendur learns the man was accused — yet not convicted — […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Glass Key Award, Iceland, Icelandic, Translated • Tags: Arnaldur Indriðason

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson

November 27, 2010 by Christina

Fiction — print. Translated from the Swedish. Alfred A. Knopf, 2010. 565 pgs. Library copy. My enjoyment of the third and final book in Larsson’s series was definitely hampered by the fact that it has been two months since I read the second book, The Girl Who Played with Fire. The books are just so connected (this book immediately begins with the end of the second novel), and they really need to be read back to back for maximum enjoyment. […]

Categories: 2010 Reads, Chunkster, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Glass Key Award, Scandinavia, Swedish, Translated • Tags: Stieg Larsson

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

August 12, 2010 by Christina

Fiction — print. Translated from the Swedish by Reg Keeland. Alfred A. Knopf, 2008. 465 pgs. Library copy. The original title in Sweden is Men Who Hate Women, which gives much more of the novel’s basis away than the international title but probably would not have encouraged people like my grandparents to pick the novel up. And this book, as well as the two subsequent books in the series, have become all the rage within my extended family. Grandparents, aunt, […]

Categories: 2010 Reads, Chunkster, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Glass Key Award, Scandinavia, Swedish, Translated • Tags: Stieg Larsson