When I am in need of things like meatballs, a massage or an idea for how to arrange an unwieldy string of consonants I, like much of the world, turn to the Swedes, but for me, they’re only a recent source for mystery imports.
You might think that Sweden would be content to rest on its collective laurels after generously donating to us the most obscenely catchy pop band of the last half century, the best Muppet and the coolest tennis player ever, but they have got to be taken seriously with the crime fiction these days.
Leading the pack of Scandinavian crime writers that includes the late Stieg Larsson and Arnaldur Indridason is Henning Mankell. A prolific author for thirty years in Sweden, his novels, specifically the Kurt Wallander series have found a wide audience in the U.S. only recently.
The sixty-two year old godfather of Scandinavian noir is also an activist and has spent much of the second half of his life in Mozambique and been deeply influenced by the struggle of the poor and forgotten in that corner of the world. His Sofia trilogy for children which begins with Secrets in the Fire follow the titular heroine and land mine victim through her life and struggles in Africa. And while he claims to have “one foot in the snow, one foot in the sand”, it is the snow for which he is best known.
His new book, The Man from Beijing, is a stand alone, global thriller about a judge in Sweden whose grandparents are among the victims of a mass murder that rocks the nation. Her quest to find out the how the why and the who of the killings takes her to unexpected places, including a trip through the past and the American/Chinese slave trade as well as into the highest social strata of modern day Beijing, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
Vikings I understand. Mead, mutton and malevolence I’m up for any time. But I am slowly learning an appreciation for the current civilized status of Scandinavia. Good writing helps. And Abba.
Click here to check out our Mankell Collection.
Who's your favorite Scandinavian scribbler?
