"Excellent storyteller with knack for atypical protagonists" - review of BLACK AS DEATH

BLACK AS DEATH by Lilja Sigurðardóttir, translated by Lorenza Garcia (Orenda Books, 2025)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

When the chief suspect in the disappearance of Áróra's sister is found dead, and Áróra's new financial investigation leads to the street where her sister was last seen, she is drawn into a shocking case that threatens everything. A three-year-old claims she is the reincarnation of Áróra's sister, Ísafold, and knows details of her death that have never been made public. Is it a hoax, or could there be a more sinister explanation?

As Áróra delves deeper, she uncovers a web of secrets and lies, forcing her to confront her own guilt and the possibility that she never really knew her sister at all. With the help of her boyfriend, Daniel, and her eccentric friend, Lady Gúgúlú, Áróra must unravel the truth before it's too late. But as the lines between the past and present blur, Áróra finds herself in a race against time to save not only herself but also the memory of her sister. 

While Icelandic screenwriter, playwright and crime novelist Lilja Sigurdardottir brings the curtain down (for now, at least) on her award-winning Áróra Investigates series with this gripping fifth instalment. 

A few years after returning to Iceland to search for her estranged sister, financial investigator Áróra is forced to confront some hard truths after Bjorn, the abusive boyfriend and chief suspect in her sister’s disappearance, is found dead, folded into a suitcase in a volcanic fissure. What now?

When Áróra’s investigation into a strangely profitable coffee chain leads to the very street her sister Ísafold was last seen, her search for answers see hers tumbling into a dangerous Europol case.

As Áróra and her police detective boyfriend Daniel probe into the darker sides of the Icelandic community, readers also experience Ísafold’s life in the months leading up to her disappearance.

An excellent storyteller with a knack for atypical female protagonists, Sigurdardottir doesn’t shy away from the trauma and complexities of domestic violence, as Ísafold struggles with her love for, and fear of, Bjorn. While the climax to Isafold’s narrative seems inevitable, Sigurdardottir masterfully keeps the tension high, playing with what we and Áróra know, or think we do.

A fine slice of Nordic Noir that will likely have even more impact if you’ve read some or all of the preceding four books in what is an excellent series. 

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

Longhand manuscripts & elderly dialogue: an interview with Óskar Guðmundsson

Kia ora and haere mai, welcome to the latest instalment of our 9mm interview series, which returned in 2021 after a hiatus last year. 

This author interview series has now been running for over a decade, on and off, and today marks the 232nd edition. Thanks for reading over the years. I've had tonnes of fun chatting to some amazing writers and bringing their thoughts and stories to you. 

You can check out the full list of of past interviewees here. Some amazing writers.

If you've got a favourite crime writer who hasn't yet been featured, let me know in the comments or by sending me a message, and I'll look to make that happen for you. Even as things with this blog may evolve moving forward, I'll continue to interview crime writers and review crime novels.

Today I'm very pleased to welcome Icelandic author Óskar Guðmundsson to Crime Watch. 

Many keen readers will be aware of the fountain of crime writing talent flowing from Iceland, with Yrsa Sigurðardóttir and Arnaldur Indriðason garnering international acclaim and attention for this small (in population) island, then the likes of Ragnar Jonasson and Lilja Sigurðardóttir joining them in translation and cementing Iceland's reputation as a hotbed of cold climate crime writing in recent years.

Óskar burst onto the Icelandic crime writing scene a few years ago. His debut novel Hilma received the Icelandic crime fiction award, Blóðdropann (The Blood Drop), in 2016, and was optioned to be made into a screen story. Both it and his second novel, Blóðengill (Blood Angel) became #1 local bestsellers. 

So it's wonderful to see Óskar and his storytelling now becoming more available for English-speaking readers, thanks to translator Quentin Bates and the crew at Corylus Books, who've recently published his third novel, The Commandments (originally Bodordin). I've had the pleasure of meeting Oskar at crime writing festivals prior to the pandemic, and look forward to catching up with him again in future now his writing is out in English. 

But for now,  Óskar Guðmundsson becomes the latest author to stare down the barrel of 9mm. 

9MM INTERVIEW WITH OSKAR GUDMONDSSON

1. Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?

Harry Hole by Jo Nesbø – A fantastic boozy cop with a chaotic life.

2. What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?

Run Baby Run (1968) by Nicky Cruz with Jamie Buckingham. I was twelve when I first read it when, first in English and again when it appeared in Icelandic. I must have read it at least ten times before I was fifteen. I don’t know exactly what it was, but there was something about this young boy’s attitude and circumstances that refused to let me go.

3. Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) - unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?

There’s not much to tell, except that in my twenties I wrote some crime stories that are longhand manuscripts in the bottom of a drawer. I picked them up not long ago and have to say that the imagination was all there, but the style had a long way to go. But style can always do with improvement...

4. Outside of writing and writing-related activities (book events, publicity), what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?

I love spending time in good company, but my interests are golf, fishing and shooting. I paint a lot and I’m aiming for an exhibition in April 2022.

5. What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider,?

Come with me to the local pub, and we could take a walk to Bessastaðir. There’s always a chance the President will be sitting on the steps.

6. If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?

I wish I could say Anthony Hopkins, but to be realistic, let’s go with John Travolta ... or even Benedict Cumberbatch.

7. Of your writings, which is your favourite or a bit special to you for some particular reason, and why?

I love to write dialogue that brings older people into the story. So I always make sure to have older people somewhere in every story. This may be because I was brought up partly around the older generation, including my grandparents. I also spent a lot of time in the countryside as a youngster, in a very old-fashioned environment and surrounded by older people.

8. What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?

There’s no word for the mixture of feelings – pride, it felt partly like a dream, a touch of self-satisfaction, but apart from all that, it was terrifying.

9. What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?

My very first panel. I was so nervous speaking English that I could hardly remember a word. What made it worse was that I seemed to have forgotten my own language as well. 

Thank you Oskar. We appreciate you chatting to Crime Watch. 

You can discover more about Oskar at his website, and follow him on Twitter. 

Hidden people and toe-dipping artwork: an interview with Sólveig Pálsdóttir

Kia ora and haere mai, welcome to the latest weekly instalment of our 9mm interview series for 2021. This author interview series has now been running for over a decade, and today marks the 228th overall edition. 

Thanks for reading over the years. I've had tonnes of fun chatting to some amazing writers and bringing their thoughts and stories to you. 

My plan is to to publish 40-50 new author interviews in the 9mm series this year. You can check out the full list of of past interviewees here. Some amazing writers.

If you've got a favourite crime writer who hasn't yet been featured, let me know in the comments or by sending me a message, and I'll look to make that happen for you. Even as things with this blog may evolve moving forward, I'll continue to interview crime writers and review crime novels.

Today I'm very pleased to welcome Icelandic author Sólveig Pálsdóttir to Crime Watch. Sólveig is a trained actor who has performed in theatre, television and radio, and also taught Icelandic literature and linguistics, drama and public speaking, as well as producing radio programmes and public events. 

I first met Sólveig at the Newcastle Noir festival in 2019, where she appeared on a panel about Icelandic crime writing, although her work wasn't yet translated into English, although she had been a bestseller in her home country for several years and her books had been translated into German. Her 2012 debut, Leikarinn ('The Actress') is being developed for a film. 

Last year, Corylus Books started bringing Sólveig crime tales to English-speaking readers, with the publication of THE FOX. I was thrilled to see this, especially after meeting Sólveig the year before. THE FOX was Sólveig's fourth crime novel, but first to be translated into English. It continues her series following "the detective team of the family man Guðgeir and the ambitious Særós", and is told from the perspective of Guðgeir and also Sajee, a Sri Lankan immigrant to Iceland.

Michael Ridpath, a British author who set several novels in Iceland, called THE FOX "a sinister story of fear and isolation told with imaginative flair. Mesmerising". This year, Corylus Books has brought another Sólveig Pálsdóttir tale to our shores and our shelves, SILENCED. 

But for now, Sólveig Pálsdóttir becomes the latest crime writer to stare down the barrel of 9mm. 

9MM INTERVIEW WITH SOLVEIG PALSDOTTIR 

1. Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?

Lisbeth Salander from the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson and Kurt Wallander from the Henning Mankell novels, both from Sweden. And Erlendur from Arnaldur Indriðason’s books.

2. What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?

I read a lot of poetry as a child, especially those of Páll Ólafsson, an Icelandic poet who died long before I was born. He wrote a great deal of verse, some very beautiful and others that are satirical and funny. I also read a lot of Icelandic folk tales, and some of those are very disturbing. They are about ghosts and hauntings, the hidden people, elves and terrible weather.

3. Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) - unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?

I never wrote pure fiction until starting on my first novel at the end of 2010, and it was published in May 2012. Before that I had written articles, teaching materials and radio scripts, plus as an actor I had done a lot of improvisation. Of course I had written a great many essays while I was studying literature at university.

4. Outside of writing and writing-related activities (book events, publicity), what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?

I walk a lot, preferably in natural surroundings, and travel a lot in Iceland. I’m a member of a book club and also a walking group, and I swim practically every day. At the pool I spend a long time in the hot tub, and get changed in the outdoor (ie, unheated) changing room, even when the temperature is below zero and there is snow on the ground. There are outside swimming pools in virtually every town and community in Iceland and these are important places, not just in terms of health, but thes ealso serve as social centres. There can be quiet in the hot tub, or the world can be put to rights – but there’s never an argument. I go to theatres, concerts and exhibitions, as well as meeting freinds and relatives – except that Covid has out an end to much of that for the moment. As a writer I feel it’s important to be in touch with people of all ages and to follow what’s going on.

5. What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?

I go for a swim and then a meal at a good restaurant, preferably local fish or lamb. Then a walk to the beach where I pull of my socks and shoes and dip my toes in Ólöf Nordal’s Bollasteinn artwork, which has a constant flow of cooled thermal water running through it that has unique properties and even healing powers. It’s wonderful to sit and look out over the sea and the mountains with your feet in the hot water.

6. If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?

I don’t know ... Emma Thompson or Laura Linney maybe...

7. Of your writings, which is your favourite or a bit special to you for some particular reason, and why?

My latest book, Klettaborgin (2020) is very dear to me as it contains my memories from the age of five up to around 20.

8. What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?

I went straight home after signing my first book contract, and my family were waiting in the garden with chilled white wine and grilled prawns...When the book was published, my publisher threw a fantastic party.

9. What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?

I don’t recall anything in particular, except that when one of my books was published there was a young man in the queue who wanted the book signed ‘to Mum, from Sólveig Pálsdóttir.’

I though it was very odd and asked twice if he was sure he wanted those words, and he was absolutely sure that was exactly how he wanted it!

Thank you Solveig, we appreciate you chatting to Crime Watch.

You can find out more about Sólveig Pálsdóttir and her writing here, or by checking out some of the blogs below who will be featuring her and her new book SILENCED this month. You can also follow Solveig on Twitter. 

Review: SMOKE SCREEN

SMOKE SCREEN by Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger, translated by Megan Turney (Orenda Books, 2021)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Oslo, New Year’s Eve. The annual firework celebration is rocked by an explosion, and the city is put on terrorist alert.

Police officer Alexander Blix and blogger Emma Ramm are on the scene, and when a severely injured survivor is pulled from the icy harbour, she is identified as the mother of two-year-old Patricia Semplass, who was kidnapped on her way home from kindergarten ten years earlier … and never found.

Blix and Ramm join forces to investigate the unsolved case, as public interest heightens, the terror threat is raised, and it becomes clear that Patricia’s disappearance is not all that it seems…

I'm a fan of both Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger, as storytellers and just great blokes too (oh for the days when we all perhaps took for granted the many opportunities to hang out at crime writing festivals). So I was intrigued by their teaming up for a series starring Oslo cop Alexander Blix and online journalist Emma Ramm (interestingly the two protagonists reflect Horst and Enger's prior careers - though I don't know if this means they each write that particular character's viewpoint). 

SMOKE SCREEN opens with New Year's Eve celebrations at the harbour in Oslo, an icy borderline between one year ending and another beginning. But the year isn't the only thing to end as midnight approaches; a bomb goes off, and lives are lost. An investigation begins. Is it a terrorist attack - or something more targeted? The fact that among the victims is a woman some believe was involved with the disappearance of her own daughter ten years before, has Blix wondering if there was something more to the bombing than a random attack on the public at a busy time and place. 

After the explosive beginning, this novel settles into an absorbing tale that draws you in slowly and surely as Blix and Ramm both look to get to the bottom of both what happened at the harbour, and why, and what happened to little Patricia Semplass all those years ago (a case that still troubles Blix). 

Both are motivated by something more than just their professional roles. 

Horst and Enger almost lull readers with their smooth style as events unfold, setting us up for the revelations to come. Blix and Ramm are intriguing main characters, linked by tragedies and operating in ways similar and contrasting. It's a fascinating relationship. The characterisation and character interplay is good throughout, from our heroes to Blix's police partner Kovic to various individuals that crop up in the story: incarcerated father, grieving parent, immigrant hotel maid, and more.

There's a sense of humanity, and sorrow, throughout the book. Of the weight of actions taken and tragedies old and new. It's a clever tale that mesmerises more than hitting you over the head with obvious action or style. While at the same time it does pack some emotional oomph. 

A good read from two very good authors. 

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned features writer from New Zealand, now living in London. He writes about crime fiction for newspapers, magazines and websites in several countries, and has appeared onstage at festivals on three continents. He's been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and the McIlvanney Prize, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and co-founder of Rotorua Noir. His first non-fiction book, SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, was published in 2020. 

Review: RED SNOW

RED SNOW by Will Dean (Point Blank Books, 2019)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

TWO BODIES. One suicide. One cold-blooded murder. Are they connected? And who’s really pulling the strings in the small Swedish town of Gavrik?

TWO COINS. Black Grimberg liquorice coins cover the murdered man's eyes. The hashtag #Ferryman starts to trend as local people stock up on ammunition.

TWO WEEKS. Tuva Moodyson, deaf reporter at the local paper, has a fortnight to investigate the deaths before she starts her new job in the south. A blizzard moves in. Residents, already terrified, feel increasingly cut-off. Tuva must go deep inside the Grimberg factory to stop the killer before she leaves town for good. But who’s to say the Ferryman will let her go?

Will Dean created a really fascinating main character in Tuva Moodyson, an ambitious deaf reporter who works for a small-town community newspaper in rural Sweden. So it was great to see Tuva return for more adventures in RED SNOW, a year after Dean's really fine debut DARK PINES.

From early on in his crime writing career Dean, also known as 'the forest author' due to his real life in the Swedish woods, showed a particularly adroit touch for character and setting, infusing his mysteries with lots of texture beyond the tense storylines and plot twists. (Most recently he's published an intense, claustrophobic standalone thriller, THE LAST THING TO BURN, which is a deep character study.)

In RED SNOW we get to learn more about Tuva as the action unfolds, and through her interactions with her fellow townsfolk. One of the things I enjoy most about Dean's writing - and there are many - is the world he has created. Gavrik is an intriguing small town in rural Sweden, with the looming Utgard Forest that gives off Grimm Brothers vibes. There's a creepiness and a quirkiness here. 

Sort of Twin Peaks-ish. 

There's darkness - both literally and figuratively - and bleak weather but these are not bleak tales. There's a wee zing, a crackle, and some freshness and light thanks to some memorable characters and they way they go through life. Tuva and her Tammy, great friends but sometimes at odds. Anna-Britta, Karin and Cici; the three generations of Grimberg women. Frustrated author David Holmqvist. 

Dean writes with personality, building a mystery that's absorbing and tense rather than helter-skelter. It's a tad slower burn than some crime readers may be used to, and RED SNOW like DARK PINES before it shines brightest with its heroine, supporting cast, and the overall sense of place. Character-centric crime from an author who's brought a great main character to crime fiction. 

RED SNOW not only showed that Will Dean wasn't a one-hit wonder, it cemented his status as a rising star of the crime scene. A very good read.  

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned features writer from New Zealand, now living in London. In recent years he’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at books festivals on three continents. He has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and the McIlvanney Prize, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards. You can heckle him on Twitter. 

Review: BETRAYAL

BETRAYAL by Lilja Sigurðardóttir, translated by Quentin Bates (Orenda Books, 2020)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Burned out and traumatised by her horrifying experiences around the world, aid worker Úrsula has returned to Iceland. Unable to settle, she accepts a high-profile government role in which she hopes to make a difference again.

But on her first day in the post, Úrsula promises to help a mother seeking justice for her daughter, who had been raped by a policeman, and life in high office soon becomes much more harrowing than Úrsula could ever have imagined. A homeless man is stalking her – but is he hounding her, or warning her of some danger? And why has the death of her father in police custody so many years earlier reared its head again?

As Úrsula is drawn into dirty politics, facing increasingly deadly threats, the lives of her stalker, her bodyguard and even a witch-like cleaning lady intertwine. Small betrayals become large ones, and the stakes are raised ever higher…

If you pick up one of Lilja Sigurðardóttir’s novels expecting the cliched Nordic Noir tropes of dour, alcohol-soaked detectives chipping away at a wintry investigation into a disturbing murder, you’re in for a shock. The award-winning Icelandic storyteller is a sparkling example of the variety of Scandi crime: she crafts slick thrillers with plenty of pace; diverse characters thrust into unexpected situations.

Her ‘Reykjavik Noir’ trilogy centred on a desperate young mother who turns to cocaine smuggling and gets entwined with international drug lords and bankers caught up in white collar crimes and the banking crash. BETRAYAL is something different - a standalone - while still providing plenty of the facets that Anglophone readers have enjoyed in Sigurðardóttir's past tales (ably translated by Bates).

Ursula is a burnt-out aid worker who returns home to Iceland and is arm-twisted to temporarily become a government minister. It’s a desk job where she won’t face the daily horrors of disease, war, and famine that she’s experienced for many years while working in aid camps - experiences that still give her nightmares. But when Ursula makes a promise to help a mother accusing a policeman of raping her daughter – a case others are trying to sweep under the rug – and a homeless man with ties to her past starts stalking her, it seems Iceland can be just as dangerous as war zones and famine-struck nations.

Sigurðardóttir’s latest tale, adroitly translated by Quentin Bates, is about much more than dirty politics and deadly threats. She expertly takes us into the lives of her characters and the traumas they battle. From Ursula to her ambitious bodyguard to the families of the accused policeman and his alleged victim (both of whom are feeling unfairly victimized) to the homeless man who knew Ursula’s murdered father. And perhaps killed him. BETRAYAL is a fine piece of storytelling that touches on several important issues, from the personal to the social and global, while never getting bogged down. 

Very good.

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned features writer from New Zealand, now living in London. In recent years he’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at books festivals on three continents. He has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and the McIlvanney Prize, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and co-founder of Rotorua Noir. His first non-fiction book, SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, was published in 2020. You can heckle him on Twitter. 

Review: HEADHUNTERS

HEADHUNTERS by Jo Nesbø, translated by Don Bartlett (Harvill Secker, 2011)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Lie. Roger Brown has it all. Clever and wealthy, he is the top man in his business, with a beautiful wife and a magnificent house. He also leads a criminal double life.

Steal. Enter Clas Greve. Not only is he the perfect candidate for a position with Roger's biggest client, he also owns one of the most sought-after paintings in the world.

Murder? Roger sees his chance to become rich beyond his wildest dreams and starts preparing his boldest heist yet. But his plans unravel in ways not even he could have predicted. Now the hunter has become the hunted.

In the midst of his star rising stratospherically at home and abroad thanks to his excellent crime series starring Oslo detective Harry Hole, Norwegian author Jo Nesbø took something of a swerve with this fast-paced 'beach read' style thriller set in the moneyed worlds of big business and art. It's a slick, fun tale that may not have the depth or social commentary of Nesbø's long-running series, but is quite entertaining in its own way. 

While Roger Brown earns plenty of money as a high-level corporate headhunter, finding top talent for big-paying businesses, that success isn't enough to fund his desired lifestyle. Art theft fills the gap, with Roger parlaying his inside knowledge of his candidate's personal and financial circumstances into forgery-for-original switcheroos. When Clas Greve, a man who owns a particularly prized painting, comes into the frame for the CEO slot at one of Roger's clients, Roger thinks all his Christmases have come at once. But Greve isn't quite what he seems, and a dangerous cat-and-mouse game ensues.

Filled with characters who carry the sheen of success but are rather despicable or dysfunctional in many ways, HEADHUNTERS is an intriguing thriller that blends heist tale and Nordic Noir. It has a few twists thrown in to separate it from the kinds of expectations you may carry from Oceans 11 or Drive-style heist films (incidentally, HEADHUNTERS was adapted into an enjoyable, BAFTA-nominated 2012 film itself, starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau of later Game of Thrones fame). 

Brown isn't the most likable of protagonists, in fact he's an arrogant, cut-throat SOB with plenty to dislike, but Nesbø does a decent enough job hooking readers early so we're compelled to turn the pages even if we're not big fans of the main character. It's definitely worth continuing, as while things unfold you may find yourself strangely warming to anti-hero Roger, or at least caring what happens to him. It's a neat piece of storytelling by Nesbø, luring us in and making us care as the action intensifies.

A bit of a palate cleanser from the Harry Hole tales, but worth a read. 

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned features writer from New Zealand, now living in London. In recent years he’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at books festivals on three continents. He has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and the McIlvanney Prize, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and co-founder of Rotorua Noir. His first non-fiction book, SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, was published in 2020. You can heckle him on Twitter. 

Review: BLACK RIVER

BLACK RIVER by Will Dean (Point Blank Books, 2020)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Black River is an electrifying return for relentless reporter Tuva Moodyson, from the author of Dark Pines and Red Snow.

FEAR: Tuva’s been living clean in southern Sweden for four months when she receives horrifying news. Her best friend Tammy Yamnim has gone missing.

SECRETS: Racing back to Gavrik at the height of Midsommar, Tuva fears for Tammy’s life. Who has taken her, and why? And who is sabotaging the small-town search efforts?

LIES: Surrounded by dark pine forest, the sinister residents of Snake River are suspicious of outsiders. Unfortunately, they also hold all the answers. On the shortest night of the year, Tuva must fight to save her friend. The only question is who will be there to save Tuva?

From the early pages of his first novel starring deaf Swedish journalist Tuva Moodyson, Will Dean showed an assured hand with a great touch for atmospheric, absorbing storytelling.

Known in Europe as ‘the Forest Author’ as he swapped London city life for a wooden cabin in a boggy Swedish forest, Dean’s tales are filled with a host of unusual and kooky characters befitting small-town Nordic rural life.

Tuva Moodyson is a fascinating heroine – relentless yet prone to stumbles. In Black River she has escaped small-town Gavrik for clean living and a lonely life among the bright lights of Malmo, only to be drawn back home when her best friend Tammy, proprietor of the local Thai cuisine food truck, vanishes. It’s the height of Midsommar, and as locals and visitors sweat under the heat and sun few seem too concerned about Tammy’s absence, at first, until another woman goes missing. Someone who looks far more ‘Swedish’ than Tammy. Searches head into the Utgard Forest. Determined to find her friend, Tuva begins to investigate the creepy residents of Snake River, but where does the real danger lie?

Dean has crafted another tense, atmospheric tale that in a way blends the intrigue and social commentary of crime fiction with the deliciously scary soul of folk tales: vast and menacing forests offering both danger and adventure; stories full of memorable characters, heroic and grotesque. Tuva is an intriguing heroine and Dean does a fine job bringing her deafness into the story in an authentic way rather than creating a caricature. Tuva’s deafness is an intrinsic part of her character, but not all she is.

A very good read in a very good series.

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned features writer from New Zealand, now living in London. In recent years he’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at books festivals on three continents. He has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and the McIlvanney Prize, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and co-founder of Rotorua Noir. You can heckle him on Twitter. 

Outstanding crime fiction shortlisted for 2019 Petrona Award

Six outstanding crime novels from Denmark, Iceland and Norway have been shortlisted for the 2019 Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year, announced today.

• THE ICE SWIMMER by Kjell Ola Dahl, tr. Don Bartlett (Orenda Books; Norway)
• THE WHISPERER by Karin Fossum, tr. Kari Dickson (Harvill Secker; Norway)
• THE KATHARINA CODE by Jørn Lier Horst, tr. Anne Bruce (Michael Joseph; Norway)
• THE DARKNESS by Ragnar Jónasson, tr. Victoria Cribb (Penguin Random House; Iceland)
• RESIN by Ane Riel, tr. Charlotte Barslund (Doubleday; Denmark)
• BIG SISTER by Gunnar Staalesen, tr. Don Bartlett (Orenda Books; Norway)

"We faced a challenging but enjoyable decision-making process when drawing up the shortlist," said the Petrona judges. "The six novels selected by the judges stand out for their writing, characterisation, plotting, and overall quality. They are original and inventive, often pushing the boundaries of genre conventions, and tackle highly complex subjects such as mental health issues, the effects of social and emotional alienation, and failures of policing and justice."

The winning title will be announced at the Gala Dinner on 11 May during CrimeFest, held in Bristol on 9-12 May 2019. The winning author and the translator of the winning title will both receive a cash prize, and the winning author will receive a full pass to and a guaranteed panel at CrimeFest 2020.

"We are extremely grateful to the translators whose expertise and skill allows readers to access these gems of Scandinavian crime fiction, and to the publishers who continue to champion and support translated fiction," said the judges.

The Petrona Award is open to crime fiction in translation, either written by a Scandinavian author or set in Scandinavia, and published in the UK in the previous calendar year. The Petrona team would like to thank sponsor David Hicks for his continued generous support of the Petrona Award.

Here are the judges comments on the shortlisted titles.

THE ICE SWIMMER by Kjell Ola Dahl, tr. Don Bartlett (Orenda Books; Norway)
Kjell Ola Dahl has achieved international acclaim for his ‘Oslo Detectives’ police procedural series, of which The Ice Swimmer is the latest instalment. When a dead man is found in the freezing waters of Oslo Harbour, Detective Lena Stigersand takes on the investigation while having to deal with some difficult personal issues. With the help of her trusted colleagues Gunnarstranda and Frølich, she digs deep into the case and uncovers possible links to the Norwegian establish-ment. Once again, Dahl has produced a tense and complex thriller, with his trademark close attention to social issues. 

THE WHISPERER by Karin Fossum, tr. Kari Dickson (Harvill Secker; Norway)
Winner of the prestigious Riverton Award and Glass Key Award for Nordic crime, Karin Fossum is a prolific talent. The Whisperer focuses on the case of Ragna Riegel, an unassuming woman with a complicated emotional history, who has recently been arrested. As Inspector Konrad Sejer delves into her psyche in the course of a claustrophobic interrogation, Fossum slowly reveals the events leading up to Ragna’s crime. This is a highly assured mix of police procedural and psychological thriller, which really gets to the heart of one woman’s mental turmoil, and how easy it is for an individual to become unmoored from society.

THE KATHARINA CODE by Jørn Lier Horst, tr. Anne Bruce (Michael Joseph; Norway)
Jørn Lier Horst’s ‘William Wisting’ novels are distinguished by their excellent characterisation and strong plots. In The Katharina Code, a dormant investigation is reopened when police focus on a missing woman’s husband and his possible involvement in an earlier, apparently unconnected case. Wisting, who has long harboured doubts about the man’s innocence, becomes a somewhat unwilling participant in the surveillance operation. This finely plotted thriller with a strong sense of unresolved justice shows how Lier Horst is as comfortable writing about rural landscapes as urban settings.

THE DARKNESS by Ragnar Jónasson, tr. Victoria Cribb (Penguin Random House; Iceland)
In Ragnar Jónasson’s The Darkness, the first in the ‘Hidden Iceland’ trilogy, a Reykjavík policewoman on the brink of retirement looks into a final case – the death of Elena, a young Russian woman, which may mistakenly have been labelled a suicide. As much a portrait of its flawed investigator, Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir, as of the investigation itself, the novel explores themes ranging from parental estrangement and the costs of emotional withdrawal to the precarious status of immigrants trying to make their way in a new land. The novel’s ending is bold and thought-provoking.

RESIN by Ane Riel, tr. Charlotte Barslund (Doubleday; Denmark)
Ane Riel’s Resin is an ambitious literary crime novel with a remote Danish setting. Narrated mainly from the perspective of Liv, a young girl, it tells the story of three generations of one family, while exploring the complicated factors that can lead individuals to justify and commit murder. Other narrative voices – such as those of Liv’s mother and a neighbour – provide further nuance and depth. A moving meditation on the consequences of social isolation and misguided love, Resin is an innovative novel that offers its readers a keenly observed psychological portrait of a close-knit but dysfunctional family.

BIG SISTER by Gunnar Staalesen, tr. Don Bartlett (Orenda Books; Norway)
In this highly acclaimed, long-running series, former social worker turned private investigator Varg Veum solves complex crimes which often have a strong historic dimension. In Big Sister, Veum is surprised by the revelation that he has a half-sister, who asks him to look into the whereabouts of her missing goddaughter, a nineteen-year-old trainee nurse. Expertly plotted, with an unsettling, dark undertone, this novel digs deep into Veum’s family past to reveal old secrets and hurts, and is by turns an absorbing and exciting read.

The Petrona Award judges are:

• Jackie Farrant – crime fiction expert and creator of RAVEN CRIME READS; bookseller for eighteen years and a Regional Commercial Manager for a major book chain in the UK.
• Dr. Kat Hall – Editor of CRIME FICTION IN GERMAN; translator and editor; Honorary Research Associate at Swansea University; international crime fiction reviewer at MRS. PEABODY INVESTIGATES.
• Sarah Ward – Author of the DC Connie Childs crime novels set in the Derbyshire Peak District (Faber and Faber). New Gothic thriller THE QUICKENING (Trapeze) under the name Rhiannon Ward coming February 2020. Crime fiction reviewer at CRIMEPIECES.

Further information can be found on the Petrona Award website.

Review: THE KATHARINA CODE

THE KATHARINA CODE by Jørn Lier Horst, tr Anne Bruce (Penguin, 2018)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Twenty-four years ago Katharina Haugen went missing. All she left behind was her husband Martin and a mysterious string of numbers scribbled on a piece of paper.

Every year on 9 October  Chief Inspector William Wisting takes out the files to the case he was never able to solve. Stares at the code he was never able to crack. And visits the husband he was never able to help. But now Martin Haugen is missing too.

As Wisting prepares to investigate another missing person's case he's visited by a detective from Oslo. Adrian Stiller is convinced Martin's involved in another disappearance of a young woman and asks Wisting to close the net around Martin. But is Wisting playing cat and mouse with a dangerous killer or a grief-stricken husband who cannot lay the past to rest? 

The hard-drinking, pensive, lone wolf Nordic detective tiptoes the line between trope and cliche, but Norwegian policeman turned award-winning crime writer Jørn Lier Horst steers clear with his family man William Wisting, who refreshingly has a rather more content and positive outlook on life despite the dark deeds he investigates. A widower who is now a grandfather, Wisting has for many years been hauling out old files every October. A case unclosed, unsolved: the bizarre disappearance of Katharina Haugen, who vanished many years ago, leaving behind only a cryptic note.

Predictably, Katharina's husband Martin was a suspect, but he had been working far away, and over the years the bereaved husband had become friendly acquaintances with Wisting. When Martin disappears on the anniversary, and an ambitious younger colleague is parachuted into Wisting's patch with new evidence about another long-missing woman, the Wisting is plunged into a testing case.

And a tricky personal position, where he has to keep secrets from those closest to him.

The twelfth in Horst's award-winning series (the seventh to be translated into English) adroitly blends personal and police procedural, with a really strong sense of authenticity flowing through its pages.

Horst takes us inside the kind of case that can niggle at a long-time detective, the burr under the saddle of their career that they can't let go even as the years pass. For Wisting, that case is the Katharina Haugen disappearance. Why can't he work out what the series of numbers and letters mean on the note left behind. Why can't he make sense of Katharina's actions leading up to her disappearance? What is he missing, what remains hidden or overlooked that could solve the case?

There's a wintry chill rising from the pages in what is an absorbing, fascinating tale from a talented storyteller. THE KATHARINA CODE would be a very good read for long-time fans as well as those new to the world of Chief Inspector William Wisting.


Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned features writer from New Zealand, now living in London. In recent years he’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at books festivals on three continents. He has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and the McIlvanney Prize, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards. You can heckle him on Twitter. 

Review: TRAP

TRAP by Lilja Sigurdardottir, tr: Quentin Bates (Orenda Books, 2018)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Happily settled in Florida, Sonja believes she’s finally escaped the trap set by unscrupulous drug lords. But when her son Tomas is taken, she’s back to square one … and Iceland.

Her lover, Agla, is awaiting sentencing for financial misconduct after the banking crash, and Sonja refuses to see her. And that’s not all … Agla owes money to some extremely powerful men, and they’ll stop at nothing to get it back.

With her former nemesis, customs officer Bragi, on her side, Sonja puts her own plan into motion, to bring down the drug barons and her scheming ex-husband, and get Tomas back safely. But things aren’t as straightforward as they seem, and Sonja finds herself caught in the centre of a trap that will put all of their lives at risk…

There's plenty of talk about the 'Scandi Crime Wave' and 'Nordic Noir' as if it's some kind of homogeneous offering from the crime writers of that multinational region, when in truth there are plenty of differences in settings, styles, and stories told.

Icelandic author Lilja Sigurdardottir certainly underlines that: TRAP is the second in her Reykjavik Noir series and is an edgy tale of international drug running and financial shenanigans centred on a host of rather unlikable but fascinating characters with nary a pensive alcoholic copper in sight.

In a way, it's noir in its truer sense (rather than the mere synonym for crime & mystery storytelling which it's become in recent years) - many of the characters are a bit cynical or fatalistic, and there's plenty of moral ambiguity on offer all across the board. This draws the reader in with a sense of freshness and fascination, while at the same time creating a little buffer: at times I found myself admiring the storytelling more than being totally enveloped by it. Perhaps because I wasn't really rooting for any of the characters, rather just witnessing the traps set and all the carnage unfold.

But it is delicious carnage.

This is a pretty fast, slim read, but has lots going on. Slick, but with substance. It's really interesting to see a crime writer take on the high-level financial mismanagement and white collar crime that can infest nations and have huge effects but isn't paid as much heed as violent crime. Sigurdardottir delivers an interesting tale with great pace and plenty of tension, and some really memorable moments and characters. I closed the book thinking it would make for a great screen tale too.

While none of the characters are particularly heroic, there is a sense of understanding and some empathy with some of them: we can see how they got themselves into bad situations, and even if things began for selfish or less-than-honourable reasons, and much of the harm is self-inflicted, there's also a strong sense of humanity and the messiness of life, both professionally and personally.

A really interesting read from a talented storyteller. One that sticks with you.

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned features writer from New Zealand, now living in London. In recent years he’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at books festivals on three continents. He has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and the McIlvanney Prize, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards. You can heckle him on Twitter. 

Review: DARK PINES

DARK PINES by Will Dean (Point Blank, 2018)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

An isolated Swedish town. A deaf reporter terrified of nature. A dense spruce forest overdue for harvest. A pair of eyeless hunters found murdered in the woods.

It’s week one of the Swedish elk hunt and the sound of gunfire is everywhere. When Tuva Moodyson investigates the story that could make her career she stumbles on a web of secrets that knit Gavrik town together. Are the latest murders connected to the Medusa killings twenty years ago? Is someone following her? Why take the eyes? Tuva must face her demons and venture deep into the woods to stop the killer and write the story. And then get the hell out of Gavrik. 

This is an assured debut from a strong new voice in crime writing. Dean, who escaped London city life for forested rural Sweden in recent years, has written an atmospheric, absorbing tale that is more akin to Nordic Noir than British crime in many ways - beyond its geographic location - while blending elements of both traditions.

We first meet deaf journalist Tuva Moodyson driving on a forest road in rural Sweden, trying to evade a rampaging elk. She's saved by the sound of a gunshot off in the woods (she has hearing aids, which aren't always reliable, so can often 'hear' to some extent), and when she later learns of a body discovered nearby, she wonders if she might have actually been a witness, of sorts, to the killing.

When it turns out the death is not a hunting accident, but the man has been murdered and mutilated in a manner reminiscent of killings from two decades earlier, Tuva sniffs a make-your-career story. But if there really is a serial killer out there in the countryside around Garvrik, back in action after years away, is digging into the case for the sake a byline the smartest idea? Tuva had returned from a burgeoning career in London, marooned to a life writing features for a small-town newspaper in rural Sweden so that she can be closer to her ailing mother. She's overcome a lot, her ambition smolders.

DARK PINES has an atmospheric sense of place, populated with a host of unusual and kooky characters befitting small-town rural life. There's a nice sense of isolation, of lurking menace, as well as a lovely tone to the tale, brooding and thoughtful. But the real heart of DARK PINES is Tuva.

She's a fascinating character, and Dean does well to bring her 'disability' to the fore in an authentic way, without turning her into a caricature or token 'lets-be-more-inclusive' protagonist. Tuva's deafness is an intrinsic part of her character but not all she is. I thought Dean struck a nice balance with Tuva, similarly to what Australian author Emma Viskic has done with Caleb Zelic in her series.

In each case the hero's deafness is more than a character quirk, and has positive and negative effects.

The mystery itself is solidly constructed, with suspects, clues, and red herrings. Overall, DARK PINES is a good read seasoned by quality writing, atmospheric setting, and a great main character. The result is something that just has that little bit of extra magic to it. I look forward to the next one.

Craig Sisterson is a lapsed lawyer who writes features for newspapers and magazines in several countries. In recent years he has interviewed 200 crime writers, discussed the genre onstage at books festivals on three continents, on national radio and popular podcasts, and has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards, the McIlvanney Prize, and is the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards. You can heckle him on Twitter: @craigsisterson

Review: KEEPER

KEEPER by Johana Gustawsson, tr: Maxim Jakubowski (Orenda Books, 2018)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Whitechapel, 1888: London is bowed under Jack the Ripper's reign of terror. 

London 2015: actress Julianne Bell is abducted in a case similar to the terrible Tower Hamlets murders of some ten years earlier, and harking back to the Ripper killings of a century before. 

Falkenberg, Sweden, 2015: a woman's body is found mutilated in a forest, her wounds identical to those of the Tower Hamlets victims. 

Profiler Emily Roy and true-crime writer Alexis Castells again find themselves drawn into an intriguing case, with personal links that turn their world upside down.

French crime writer Johana Gustawsson is a bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing. She takes readers into some terribly dark places, based upon real-life horrors from the past and contemporary nightmares, but she does it so elegantly with her flowing prose seasoned with humour you don't fully comprehend until later just how black (noir, in French) some of the content is in her crime novels.

Following on from her excellent, award-winning debut, BLOCK 46, which blended contemporary crimes in Sweden and the UK with historic horrors from Buchenwald concentration camp, KEEPER sees the return of Canadian profiler Emily Roy and French true crime writer Alexis Castells in another disturbing case spanning borders and decades. This time Gustawsson takes readers back even further, to the late nineteenth century and one of the world's most notorious true crime sprees.

Gustawsson adroitly weaves several threads together. It can be easy for a book that leaps about in time, place, and point of view as much as this one to feel disjointed, but KEEPER flows effortlessly, building tension as we learn more about both the past and present. Gustawsson does a particularly good job bringing late nineteenth century London to life, in all of its sour and infested 'glory'. For the majority of Londoners, life wasn't the genteel fantasy portrayed in some nostalgic period pieces, but instead a Dickensian life of sordid, grimy horrors and a hard-scrabble, cut-throat fight to survive.

I liked this book a lot. It's a great read. Interestingly, I felt a little at a distance from Emily Roy and Alexis Castells, admiring and enjoying them as characters rather than feeling I was completely alongside them (yet), but this didn't take away from me thoroughly enjoying what is a terrific read.

The connections between the UK and Sweden, which mirror Gustawsson's own life (she's a French writer married to a Swede, living in London), never feel forced or 'author hand', instead very smooth and authentic. It may surprise some to learn that one of Jack the Ripper's real-life victims was from Sweden (we forget, in our modern world of easy international travel, that many working-class people immigrated to new countries more than a century ago; it wasn't just famous explorers who roamed the world, even if the journeys back then were much harsher and took much longer than nowadays).

Gustawsson does a great job bringing us into the lives of everyone involved, from the victims and families and investigators of the modern cases in London and Sweden, to the realities of living in Whitechapel at a time a brutal maniac was hunting women among the fluid-stained alleyways.

A very good read. I look forward to more from Gustawsson, Roy, and Castells.

Craig Sisterson is a lapsed lawyer who writes features for newspapers and magazines in several countries. In recent years he has interviewed 200 crime writers, discussed the genre onstage at books festivals on three continents, on national radio and popular podcasts, and has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards, the McIlvanney Prize, and is the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards. You can heckle him on Twitter: @craigsisterson

Moose neighbours and the menace of Roald Dahl: an interview with Will Dean

Kia ora and haere mai, welcome to the seventh instalment of 9mm for 2018, and the 179th overall edition of our long-running author interview series!

Thanks for reading over the years. I've had a lot of fun talking to some amazing crime writers and bringing their thoughts and stories to you. You can check out the full list of of past interviewees here. What a line-up. Thanks everyone.

If you've got a favourite crime writer who hasn't yet been part of the 9mm series, please do let me know in the comments or by message, and I'll look to make that happen for you. We've got a few more interviews with cool writers 'already in the can' that will be published soon, so lots to look forward to over the coming weeks and months.

Today I'm very pleased to welcome the author of one of my favourite 2018 reads to Crime Watch, Will Dean. A native of the East Midlands in the UK, Will grew up in a variety of English villages, before studying law and working in London for several years. But he must have missed the countryside, because he started building a wooden house in a "boggy forest clearing" in rural Sweden, eventually moving there with his wife in 2012. Their mailbox is a mile away from the house, they have no municipal water, and the closest neighbours are the moose that roam the forest.

Will has called it a great place to compulsively read and write, and in January this year his debut, DARK PINES, was released to great acclaim. It's a terrific book, introducing deaf reporter Tuva Moodyson, who works for a smalltown newspaper in rural Sweden while dreaming of bigger things. In DARK PINES, Tuva investigates after a body is found shot in the woods, its face mutilated in a manner that echoes the horrific 'Medusa' crimes of many years before. It's an atmospheric, chilling tale (not just because of the weather), and Tuva is a truly fascinating character. I'm very glad to see that Will is bringing her back in RED SNOW, out next winter.

But in the meantime, Will Dean becomes the latest crime writer to stare down the barrel of 9mm.

9MM: AN INTERVIEW WITH WILL DEAN

1. Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?
Sherlock Holmes, Lisbeth Salander, Jack Reacher, Karen Pirie. My favourite authors write unnerving, unsettling stories. I’m a big fan of Cormac McCarthy, Muriel Spark, Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, Stephen King, Thomas Harris, Sarah Waters.

2. What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
FANTASTIC MR FOX by Roald Dahl. I remember it vividly because I re-read it so many times (along with Dahl’s other stories). I love how dark his books are, and how they don’t speak down to children. They have danger and menace and dark humour. And with FANTASTIC MR FOX, I love the contained setting. There’s a wonderful (three-dimensional) sense of place. As a teenager my favourite books were TRAINSPOTTING, FRANKENSTEIN, and ALL of Stephen King’s novels.

3. Before your debut crime novel. What else had you written, unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
I wrote a godawful first novel which is now locked securely in a drawer. Rewriting that bad book over and over again, battling with it for years on my own, was a free-of-charge creative writing course.

4. Outside of writing, touring, and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity wise?
I like to get out into the Swedish nature. Mostly the forest (trekking, building bonfires, chopping wood, ditch clearing, foraging) but also sea kayaking. We take our son - my wife and I paddle and he sits in the middle eating meatball sandwiches.

5. What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn’t in the tourist brochures, or perhaps wouldn’t initially consider?
There’s no town. There’s not really even a village. I’d say visit in the autumn and go mushroom picking with a local. Make sure you wear a bright hat so nobody mistakes you for a moose. Discovering a secret patch of chanterelles (and then cooking and eating them) is a real pleasure.

6. If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
Either Hugh Jackman or Brian Blessed.

7. Of your writings, which is your favourite and why?
DARK PINES will always be special as it was my debut, but book two of the Tuva Moodyson series (RED SNOW) is my current favourite. It’s set in February, the coldest, snowiest time of the year. The body of a local man is discovered inside Gavrik’s salt liquorice factory. And then the hunt for the killer, the so-called Ferryman, begins.

8. What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?
When I heard Oneworld were buying DARK PINES and RED SNOW I was elated (my agent had discovered me in her towering slushpile just a month or so before). All the years of work and rejection and rewriting and self-doubt were worth it.  My wife and I celebrated with beers out in the forest. The next day I went back to work on book two.

The first time I saw my book in a bookshop was the week prior to my launch. I visited dozens of bookshops that week to meet booksellers and sign copies, but before all that started I stepped inside Waterstones Trafalgar Square. I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t sign anything. I just took a moment, standing, looking, taking it all in.

9. What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had as a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
I love meeting and chatting with readers and so far they’ve all been lovely! The most unusual experience was probably meeting my heroes at Harrogate last year (before I was published). I chatted at the bar with Lee Child and Fiona Cummins and Mark Billingham and Abir Mukherjee. I listened to Val McDermid and Jane Harper and Kristen Lepionka. I’ll never forget that first Harrogate.


Thank you Will, we appreciate you chatting to Crime Watch. 

You can read more about Will Dean and the building of his cabin in the woods in this fascinating feature in The Times, and you can keep up to date with his writing by following him on Twitter. 

Review: A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS

A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS by Grant Nicol (Fahrenheit Press, 2016)

Reviewed by Alyson Baker

A cryptic message left next to a charred corpse in the middle of Reykjavík leaves police worried they have a gang war on their hands. Across town Detective Grímur Karlsson investigates a missing girl from a nice suburban family and gets far too close to the truth for his own good. 

It becomes clear the two cases are connected and Karlsson doggedly pursues the trail that leads from junkies on the seedy streets of Reykjavík all the way to the very top of Icelandic society. 

In my last review of a Grant Nicol book – The Mistake, also set in Iceland – I suggested a longer novel might allow us more time to get to know his characters, saving them from the “all women are victims, prostitutes or evil; all men are well-meaning, just following orders or psychologically damaged” array.

A Place to Bury Strangers is a full-length novel – but we haven’t really moved on in terms of characterisation. I had hopes for Eygló (no surname provided) – a woman copper who seemed to have a bit of nous, but she disappears from the narrative very early on – after having been called to the murder scene where a low-down-in-the-chain drug dealer has been incinerated, and a message in Norwegian written in black paint on the wall behind him. She is called off (from the crime scene and the novel) when she and her partner get word that a policeman has been shot.

That policeman is Detective Grímur Karlsson, who we know from earlier novels. And Karlsson is even more depressed now – he is aging, and unpopular at work from having a habit of not solving crimes (or rather letting perpetrators go due to a confused moral compass). Karlsson has been shot whilst following a young woman he fears is in danger and things not going well.

Karlsson’s boss Ævar – worried about his job – focusses on a Norwegian for both crimes.This Norwegian’s frequent visits to Iceland are always accompanied by crimes that, until now, don’t really worry the Police, as they all involve damaging drug dealers. The novel jumps about all over the place time-wise (in part, I suppose, because of Karlsson being out of action for most of the ‘current’ timeline) – and the only way I could keep track was to memorise the date of the incineration and shooting and therefore knowing what events were ‘before’ and which ‘after’.

Laid out in a line the novel is about illegal migrant workers and their vulnerability, women and their vulnerability, the evil of drugs, and the corruption of the elite – oddly enough in this case circling around Icelandic fishing quota. And all of these topics are relevant and worthy of a crime novel, and Iceland is a great setting, but with all combined A Place to Bury Strangers doesn’t really get to the heart of any of them.

We get the stories of many women, and their end is implied, but their journey ignored. We almost get to know Knut Vigeland, ‘The Norwegian’, we almost get to know Svandís the young drug addict, we almost get to know many characters who I would have liked to know. And despite the long paragraphs on Karlsson’s world weariness I still didn’t get to understand him – some of his ethical calls sounding decidedly dodgy. And do they really talk of ‘lollies’ in Iceland?

Despite this review there is much to enjoy in this novel – the atmosphere is good and the situations inventive – it was just too busy for my taste.

Alyson Baker is a crime-loving librarian in Nelson. This review first appeared on her blog, which you can check out here. 

Staalesen is Scandinavia's Top Gun(nar)!

Staalesen (second from left) with his publisher Karen Sullivan, translator
Don Bartlett, and Petrona judges Barry Forshaw, Sarah Ward & Kat Hall

An author described as "the finest Nordic novelist in the private-eye tradition of the American masters" scooped the prestigious Petrona Award at the Gala Dinner at Crimefest in Bristol on Friday evening. 

Norwegian author Gunnar Staalesen, along with his translator Don Bartlett, won the 2017 Petrona Award for WHERE ROSES NEVER DIE (Orenda Books). Staalesen was presented with the trophy by last year's winner, Jorn Lier Horst.

In WHERE ROSES NEVER DIE, grieving private detective Varg Veum is pushed to his limits when he takes on a cold case involving the disappearance of a small girl in 1977. As the legal expiry date for the crime draws near, Veum’s investigation uncovers intriguing suburban secrets.

The Petrona judging panel called the book "both a coruscating and ambitious novel from the veteran writer, and a radical re-working of his customary materials - perhaps the most  accomplished entry in the long-running sequence of books about Bergen detective Varg Veum".

Staalesen and Bartlett were chosen from an outstanding shortlist that also included:

• THE EXILED by Kati Hiekkapelto tr. David Hackston (Orenda Books; Finland)
• THE DYING DETECTIVE by Leif G.W. Persson tr. Neil Smith (Doubleday; Sweden)
• THE BIRD TRIBUNAL by Agnes Ravatn tr. Rosie Hedger (Orenda Books, Norway)
• WHY DID YOU LIE? by Yrsa Sigurđardóttir tr. Victoria Cribb (Hodder & Stoughton, Iceland)
• THE WEDNESDAY CLUB by Kjell Westö tr. Neil Smith (MacLehose Press, Finland)

Now in its fifth year, the Petrona Award was established to celebrate the work of Maxine Clarke, one of the first online crime fiction reviewers and bloggers, who died in December 2012. Clarke, whose online persona and blog was called Petrona, was passionate about translated crime fiction, but in particular that from the Scandinavian countries.

The Petrona Award celebrates the Best Scandinavian crime fiction translated into English, and is awarded to both the author and translator. Previous winners were Liza Marklund for LAST WILL (2013), Leif G W Persson for LINDA, AS IN THE LINDA MURDER (2014), both translated by Neil Smith, Yrsa Sigurdardottir for THE SILENCE OF THE SEA (2015) translated by Victoria Cribb and Jørn Lier Horst 's THE CAVEMAN translated by Anne Bruce.

The judges of the Petrona Award are Barry Forshaw (EURO CRIME, BRIT NOIR, etc), Dr Kat Hall (CRIME FICTION IN GERMAN: DER KRIMI), and Sarah Ward (IN BITTER CHILL, A DEADLY THAW), with British librarian Karen Meek (Eurocrime) acting as administrator.

You can find out more about the Petrona Award and past winners and finalists here.