The Danish crime fiction writer Sara Blaedel says that when we have a normal, quiet, and pleasant life, we get an instant urge to read something dangerous. We are, according to the Scandinavian author, thrilled to read stories that we know are not going to happen to us.
Maybe that’s the reason why crime fiction is so popular during the summer. It’s the perfect time of the year to read the most disturbing stories with certainty that we’ll be fine.
We know that the darkest, most complex crime fiction novels lay in the northern lands of Europe—in those deserted, cold, faraway countries referred to as Scandinavia. And we know this because we’ve read books written by the grand masters of Scandinavian crime fiction, such as the Swedish authors Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson, and of course the Norwegian writer Jo Nesbø. But if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find a wide range of other Scandinavian crime fiction novels you may not have heard of.
Here’s a selection of our favorite Scandinavian crime fiction ebooks to accompany you on these sunny August days. Grab a towel, put on your sandals, and charge your ereader. Despite the heat, these novels will give you goose bumps.
{buybutton id=6992/}Jealousy, obsession, and family honor have fatal consequences for an immigrant community on the fringes of seemingly idyllic Copenhagen society.
Farewell to Freedom by Sara Blaedel
A shocking murder and a foundling baby reveal a perverse criminal underworld stretching across Europe—from the international bestselling author of Call Me Princess and Only One Life.
Silence: A Novel by Jan C. Wagner
A prize-winning psychological crime thriller featuring melancholy Finnish detective Kimmo Joentaa.
{buybutton id=10145/}Camilla Läckberg
A string of suspicious deaths points to a potential serial killer who has turned his eye toward Fjällbacka and her dark forests, where two children vanished decades before.
Never Coming Back by Hans Koppel
A harrowing thriller that has taken Sweden and Britain by storm—a twisted plot of revenge and tragedy by a writer whose style evokes Henning Mankell and Hakan Nesser.