The Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group discussion

My book group is wanting to read a good Scandinavian crime novel - noir or not.

What are your best recommendations?

Hi. Some of these will probably be obvious choices but here goes: the Intercrime series by Arne Dahl, William Wisting series by Jorn Lier Horst, the MemoRandom series by Anders de la Motte, Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbo, the Dept. Q series by Jussi Adler-Olsen & "Jar City" by Arnaldur Indridason. Hope that helps & happy reading!

Sandy's recs are very good. Also, try Hakan Nesser-Sweden
Gunnar Staalesen Norway
Harri Nykänen Finland
Ragnar Jónasson Iceland

Thomas wrote: "Sandy's recs are very good. Also, try Hakan Nesser-Sweden
Gunnar Staalesen Norway
Harri Nykänen Finland
Ragnar Jónasson Iceland"

Thanks Thomas and Sandy.
I will check these out. I read Ragnar Jonasson's Snowblind and was unimpressed. Not sure if it was the translation, but was average enough not to want to line up for another. Is there another title by him that you would suggest was a better sample?

All of these comments are great, but the Wallender novels by Henning Mankell are beyond excellent. Or you may want to to try the Martin Beck novels by Sjowall and Wahloo. Another good book is Helene Tursten's The Torso, which is in my opinion the best of the series.

Nancy wrote: "All of these comments are great, but the Wallender novels by Henning Mankell are beyond excellent. Or you may want to to try the Martin Beck novels by Sjowall and Wahloo. Another good book is Helen..."

Thanks Nancy. The Torso looks good - I'll check it out. I love the Wallender novels and agree with you there. Which one would you recommend for a book club though?

Monique wrote: "Thomas wrote: "Sandy's recs are very good. Also, try Hakan Nesser-Sweden
Gunnar Staalesen Norway
Harri Nykänen Finland
Ragnar Jónasson Iceland"

Tha..."
I reacted differently than you to this book, possibly because I visited Siglufordur. See my review. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Wallender and Beck books are also very good.

Monique wrote: "Nancy wrote: "All of these comments are great, but the Wallender novels by Henning Mankell are beyond excellent. Or you may want to to try the Martin Beck novels by Sjowall and Wahloo. Another good..."

The only problem with selecting a particular Wallender novel is that they build on each other from book to book, so you pretty much have to start at the beginning to watch the character development, and things happen to Wallender and the other characters that if you haven't read the previous books you have no clue. So if it was my book group, I'd start with Faceless Killers.

The same is sort of true with Helene Tursten's Irene Huss novels, but I think The Torso is like #2 so you don't really miss much. Plus she's got a family with two kids and a dog, so you get a lot of her home life while the mystery stays intriguing.

I also love, love, love Arnaldur Indridason's books, but there again, it's a series thing that builds from one to the next, so I can recommend Jar City. His thing in his novels is how the past connects to the present, so while the crime solving happens, he also takes you back into the past.

One of my favourite crime authors’ is Karin Alvtegen from Sweden. Her books are all standalones which would work for a book club. My favourites are include Missing & Betrayal, but Shame is good also.

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir is excellent. I also like Mari Jungstedt and Leena Lehtolainen - these last two are not as dark as some of the other Scandi authors.

You've got many good recommendations already, but I'd like to add Quicksand by Malin Persson Giolito, which I think would be suitable for a book club read. It's a very well written stand-alone about a (fictional) school shooting in an affluent area of Stockholm, Sweden.

And don't forget Lars Kepler!