Hooked on Nordic Noir? Try a Stieg Larsson Read-Alike

Interest in Swedish writer Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy has reignited with the release of the American film adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. But what is there for the reader who has read Larsson’s books and wants more Scandinavian crime fiction?

The hallmarks of Nordic Noir are a clear, precise writing style; a bleak setting, often taking the reader into the remote countryside with its majestic mountains, lakes, and fjords; crimes of extreme and sadistic violence; a concern with social issues like immigration, sex crimes, and the abuses of power; and a flawed hero.

It’s the hero who hooks us. He or she is usually an emotional mess: morose and melancholy, bad at personal relationships, and with an anti-authoritarian streak.

The has an excellent selection of recent Scandinavian crime fiction. Try Jussi Adler-Olsen’s The Keeper of Lost Causes (2011).

This first book in a series called the Department Q novels rewards the reader with a compelling plot about loss and revenge, a damaged hero who’s so hard to get along with that he’s assigned to head a one-man department in the police headquarters’ basement, and a charming character, the detective’s Muslim assistant, who is a witty foil to the investigator. The cold case they solve is a gruesome and unnerving crime.

Another recommendation is Box 21 (2010) by Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom, a dark novel about drug addiction and sex trafficking in contemporary Stockholm. The genre is so popular that some writers have become pseudo-Scandinavians. The British author Michael Ridpath’s 2011 novel Where the Shadows Lie has as its protagonist Magnus Jonson, a former Boston detective who was born in Iceland and is on loan to the Icelandic Police Force. There the local chief grudgingly accepts Magnus’ expertise in solving a murder, a rare crime in that nation.

Probably best known is Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallender novels. Of the ten in the series, the library has seven. It’s not necessary to read them in order. You might start with The Fifth Woman. The book opens with the killing of four nuns and a Swedish tourist in Algeria. The rest of the novel is set in Sweden where Wallender tracks a serial killer whose successive crimes become more bold and brutal. It’s probably too slow- paced for some, but rewarding for those who enjoy police procedurals. The library also has the excellent BBC production Wallender starring Kenneth Branaugh in the title role.

Norway’s star crime writer Jo Nesbo is the author of the Harry Hole series (The Library has five of the seven books in the series including The Redbreast, The Devil’s Star,and The Leopard.) Martin Scorsese has signed on to adapt the current best-seller The Snowman.

Let’s not forget the women writers. Perhaps the best-known is Karin Fossum. The Library has six of her eight Inspector Sejer novels. Try The Indian Bride. It begins with the murder of longtime bachelor Gunder Jomann’s new wife on the day she arrives from India. Your heart will break for Gunder even as Sejer goes about solving the crime. We also have 1222: a Hanne Wilhelmsen novel by Anne Holt, Norway’s best-selling female crime writer. 1222 is the first of the eight books in the series to be published in the US.

And then there are Hakan Nesser (the Reykjavik Murder Mysteries series), Camilla Lackberg (The Ice Princess), Liza Marklund (The Red Wolf), Lars Kepler (The Hypnotist), Arnaldur Indridason (Hypothermia) . . . too many to review here, but waiting for readers to take them out of the Library.