Scandinavian Crime Fiction

European Crime Fictions

by Andrew Nestingen (Editor), Andrew Nestingen (Editor), Michael Tapper (Contributor)

Stieg Larsson’s darkly violent but irresistibly absorbing and wildly popular crime novels have brought new attention to the work of Nordic crime writers, and Scandinavian Crime Fiction is the first English-language study of the genre as practiced in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Attending to the work of such popular authors as Henning Mankell, Karin Fossum, and Anne Holt—as well as Larsson— Scandinavian Crime Fiction explores every aspect of crime writing in the region, from history to recurrent themes to the ways these books have been adapted for television. Many readers will be familiar with Mankell’s “Wallander” series and movies based on Staalesen novels, which are both popular on PBS. 

Genres: Nonfiction

194 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a collection of essays, which could equally well be articles in journals - there is no overall cohesion to the book, as the authors pick various themes/countries/writers to discuss (lots of academic presses bring out works like this, and this is one of a series on the crime fiction of different countries). It's a long time since I studied English at university, and on my course we didn't ever do anything very recent (partly on the grounds that it is too soon to have the required perspective). As it is a collection of very varying parts, it is maybe one to dip into with the help of the index. There are some surprising omissions (but then it is not actually aiming to be a comprehensive review of the field, only a collection of different things). Some interesting insights.