English Translations of Scandinavian/Nordic Mysteries & Thrillers discussion
About Nordic cop characters
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Which of the two series are you referring to?
... except the ones that aren't available in English, Ken? ;)
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I might have had a pint or a few with my hubby and Inspector Vaara at Hilpeä Hauki. :) (While I discovered most of the stores next to my high school two minute walk from there were still the same than they were when I went to high school...)
I gotta go with Harry Hole on this. Harry seems to have everything going against him; he's an alcoholic and he has issues with authority in a job where politics are very profound. His personality doesn't help his cause either. He's stubborn and very anti social. He's even described by many different characters as being ugly. Despite all of this he finds ways to succeed. He manages to stay sober most of the time, he is very successful in his line of work, and he even finds himself as the love interest of some very beautiful women. You also seldom find him moping around feeling sorry for himself. He usually just rolls with the punches. I think his charm, persistence and dedication along with his many flaws make him an extremely likable yet human character.
Just started my first Wallander, but read all the Harry Hole series and the Carl Morck book by Adler-Olson and the detective in Jar city. All seem to be of the same ilk, loners, poor interpersonal relationships , flawed. Either that is a Nordic type or it just works in this genre. Anyone know a friendly outgoing detective from the Northern countries?
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Yes, the Helene Tursten books of Inspector Irene Huss...read in order they are a refreshing treat!
Helene Tursten
Detective inspector Huss
The Torso
The Glass Devil
Night Rounds *****late 2012
Liza Marklund books are good, Red Wolf for example.
Arjun wrote: "I gotta go with Harry Hole on this. Harry seems to have everything going against him; he's an alcoholic and he has issues with authority in a job where politics are very profound. His personality..."Seems to me that Harry Hole is a Nordic take on an American type (stereotype?). Chandler's Marlowe and in particular James Lee Burke's Robicheaux or Michael Connelley's Bosch are similar characters, with the Vietnam vet experience thrown in. It's been tried and it works. Harry is original because he is Norwegian, not American, and the Nordics can bring a whole new enthusiasm to heavy drinking.
Nesbø's take on Harry: "I was sort of considering the idea when I invented the character, the idea of the, you know, traditional, hard-drinking American hard-boiled detective," he says. "But I decided that I didn't want that. So I made him a full-blown alcoholic."http://www.npr.org/2012/07/23/1569100...
Anna wrote: "Nesbø's take on Harry: "I was sort of considering the idea when I invented the character, the idea of the, you know, traditional, hard-drinking American hard-boiled detective," he says. "But I deci..."Interesting. Harry's drinking is of a different order to the romanticized whisky swigging of Marlowe.
Harry isn't an alcoholic as he's able to switch his drinking on and off seemingly at will. It makes for interesting fiction, but that's what it is.
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IMO similar to how Rebus used his whisky to numb out the events .....
Ian wrote: "Harry isn't an alcoholic as he's able to switch his drinking on and off seemingly at will. It makes for interesting fiction, but that's what it is."I agree with you on some level. I think he is an alcoholic, but he does seem to have a better handle on his drinking than the typical alcoholic. I imagine this would be very hard to pull of in real life if someone was an alcoholic, but as you said, its fiction. The only time we hear of alcohol causing harm to his life is at the beginning of devil's star.
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I agree with you on some level. I ..."
I think HH is an addict and serious drinker that just escapes both ruining his life and career but certainly does mange to destroy his relationships. How he pulls himself up and out with huge focus time after time has always disturbed the credibility for me of the stories and most certainly his end. Look fwd to the first finally being translated to see a glimpse of who HH was in the very beginning....and when available, the second. How flawed was he .....
The flaws in the detectives' characters are interesting I think. No flaws = boring. Drinking but smart = interesting. Other flaws - please find me some that make them still interesting...Of the other flaws... hmm, Montalbano is sort of a loner and against them all; that works. Adamsberg (reading Have Mercy on Us All by Fred Vargas now - fabulous characters) just seems cutely flawed in so many ways... now would we have anyone like Adamsberg in the Nordic cop characters?
Yet I have not found a female detective/cop with flaws that I'd like. Either it's a Stephanie Plum or then it's some bridgetjonesy thing like in Yrsa Sigurdardottir's series, or in so many Swedish ones of which I forget the names (Åsa Larsson? Kjell something-or-other etc).
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English Translations of Scandinavian/Nordic...
Books mentioned in this topic
Some Kind of Peace (other topics)Have Mercy on Us All (other topics)
Where the Shadows Lie (other topics)
Where the Shadows Lie (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Camilla Grebe (other topics)Michael Ridpath (other topics)
I've already ordered the next book in the series.