Nordic Noir & More: A Reading List

Reading Lists

The Noir

Headhunters Nesbo, Jo
Roger Brown is a corporate headhunter, and he’s a master of his profession. But one career simply can’t support his luxurious lifestyle and his wife’s fledgling art gallery. At an art opening one night he meets Clas Greve, who is not only the perfect candidate for a major CEO job, but also, perhaps, the answer to his financial woes: Greve just so happens to mention that he owns a priceless Peter Paul Rubens painting that’s been lost since World War II—and Roger Brown just so happens to dabble in art theft. But when he breaks into Greve’s apartment, he finds more than just the painting. And Clas Greve may turn out to be the worst thing that’s ever happened to Roger Brown.

Phantom Nesbo, Jo
Determined to prove the innocence of a young man he helped raise, disgraced former cop Harry Hole embarks on an increasingly dangerous investigation linked to Oslo’s most virulent street drug.

Police Nesbo, Jo
A killer is stalking Oslo’s streets. Police officers are being slain at the scenes of crimes they once investigated but failed to solve. The murders are brutal, the media reaction hysterical. But this time, Harry can’t help. For years, detective Harry Hole has been at the center of every major criminal investigation in Oslo. His dedication to his job and his brilliant insights have saved the lives of countless people. But now, with those he loves most facing terrible danger, Harry is not in a position to protect anyone–least of all himself.

The Leopard Nesbo, Jo
After two young women are found dead, both drowned in their own blood, Inspector Harry Hole is compelled to return to Norway to see his dying father and to investigate the brutal crime, which may be the work of a serial killer.

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A Conspiracy Of Faith Adler Olsen, Jussi
Detective Carl Morck has received a bottle that holds an old and decayed message written in blood. It’s a cry for help from two young brothers bound in a boathouse by the sea. After floating for years, the bottle sat forgotten, unopened, on a police department windowsill, before the seal was cracked and the gruesome message, written in Danish, was analyzed. Could it be real? Who are these boys, and why weren’t they reported missing? Could they still be alive? Detective Morck follows leads to a desperate woman trapped in a brutal marriage to a man who keeps her in isolation and hides deadly secrets.

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest Larsson, Stieg
“In the concluding volume of Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy, Lisbeth Salander lies in critical condition in a Swedish hospital, a bullet in her head. But she’s fighting for her life in more ways than one: if and when she recovers, she’ll stand trial for three murders. With the help of Mikael Blomkvist, she’ll need to identify those in authority who have allowed the vulnerable, like herself, to suffer abuse and violence. And, on her own, she’ll seek revenge- against the man who tried to kill her and against the corrupt government institutions that nearly destroyed her life.”–Cover, p. [4].

The Girl Who Played With Fire Larsson, Stieg
On the eve of publisher Mikael Blomkvist’s story about sex trafficking between Eastern Europe and Sweden, two investigating reporters are murdered. And even more shocking for Mikael Blomkvist: the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to Lisbeth Salander, the troubled, wise-beyond-her-years genius hacker who came to his aid years before. Lisbeth Salander is a wanted woman. Her history of unpredictable and vengeful behaviour makes her an official danger to society; but no-one can find her anywhere. Meanwhile, Mikael will not believe what he hears on the news. Knowing Salander to be fierce when fearful, he is desperate to get to her before she is cornered and alone. He vows to clear the girl’s name and find the true killer.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Larsson, Stieg
The disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden, gnaws at her octogenarian uncle, Henrik Vanger. He is determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder. He hires crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist, recently at the wrong end of a libel case, to get to the bottom of Harriet’s disappearance. Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old, pierced, tattooed genius hacker, possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age–and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness–assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, an astonishing corruption at the highest echelon of Swedish industrialism–and a surprising connection between themselves.–From publisher description.

Until Thy Wrath Be Past Larsson, Asa
It is the first thaw of spring and the body of a young woman surfaces in the River Thorne in the far north of Sweden. Rebecka Martinsson is working as a prosecutor in nearby Karuna. Her sleep has been disturbed by haunting visions of a shadowy, accusing figure. Could the body belong to the ghost in her dreams? And where is the dead girl’s boyfriend? Joining forces once again with Police Inspectors Anna-Maria Mella, Rebecka is drawn into an investigation that centres on old rumours of a German supply plane that mysteriously disappeared in 1943.

The Absent One Adler Olsen, Jussi
Detective Carl Morck investigates the twenty-year-old murders of a brother and sister whose confessed killer may actually be innocent, a case with ties to a homeless woman and powerful adversaries.

The Keeper Of Lost Causes Adler Olsen, Jussi
Chief detective Carl Morck, recovering from what he thought was a career-destroying gunshot wound, is relegated to cold cases and becomes immersed in the five-year disappearance of a politician.

Burial Rites: A Novel Kent, Hannah
Set against Iceland’s stark landscape, this story evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and place. Here the author brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution. Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Toti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes’s death looms, the farmer’s wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they’ve heard. But will their new knowledge be enough to save Agnes? — Provided by publisher.

Faceless Killers Mankell, Henning
One frozen January morning at 5am, Inspector Wallander responds to what he believes is a routine call-out. When he reaches the isolated farmhouse he discovers a bloodbath. An old man has been tortured and beaten to death, his wife lies barely alive beside his shattered body, both victims of a violence beyond reason. The woman supplies Wallander with his only clue: the perpetrators may have been foreign. When this is leaked to the press, it unleashes racial hatred.

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Red Wolf: A Novel Marklund, Liza
Stockholm journalist Annika Bengtzon turns independent reporter, mostly pursuing terrorism stories. While she’s investigating in the northern town of Lulea;, a fellow journalist and source dies in a hit-and-run accident, which turns out to be the first in a series of murders. Annika traces these murders to a deadly act of sabotage on a Swedish military base in 1969, and begins to suspect that the man behind the present-day slayings and the army attack–known only by his code name of “Ragnwald”–has returned to kill again.

Black Skies: An Inspector Erlendur Novel Arnaldur Indridason
A man is making a crude leather mask with an iron spike fixed in the middle of the forehead. It is a “death mask,” once used by Icelandic farmers to slaughter calves, and he has revenge in mind. Meanwhile, a school reunion has left Inspector Erlendur’s colleague Sigurdur Oli unhappy with life in the police force. When a favor to a friend goes wrong and a woman dies before his eyes, Oli has a murder investigation on his hands.

Outrage Arnaldur Indridason
When Detective Erlender places her in charge during his leave of absence, Elinborg tackles a disturbing serial rapist case that has the local police racing against time to prevent another attack.

Silence Of The Grave Arnaldur Indridason
Inspector Erlendur returns in this gripping Icelandic thriller When a skeleton is discovered half-buried in a construction site outside of Reykjavík, Inspector Erlendur finds himself knee-deep in both a crime scene and an archeological dig. Bone by bone, the body is unearthed, and the brutalizing history of a family who lived near the building site comes to light along with it. Was the skeleton a man or a woman, a victim or a killer, and is this a simple case of murder or a long-concealed act of justice? As Erlendur tries to crack this cold case, he must also save his drug-addicted daughter from self destruction and somehow glue his hopelessly fractured family back together.

Strange Shores: An Inspector Erlendur Novel Arnaldur Indridason
This story begins when a young woman disappears from the frozen fjords of Iceland. In her wake, this woman has left a tempest of lies, betrayal and revenge. Decades later, somewhere in the same wilderness, Detective Erlendur is on the hunt. He is looking for the missing woman but also for his long-lost brother, whose disappearance in a snowstorm when they were children has coloured his entire life. Slowly, the past begins to surrender its secrets. But as Erlendur uncovers a story about the limits of human endurance, he realizes that many people would prefer their crimes to stay buried. — From publisher’s web site.

The Hanging: A Thriller Hammer, Lotte
“One morning before school, two children find the naked bodies of five men hanging from the gym ceiling. The case leads detective Konrad Simonsen and his murder squad to the school janitor, who may know more about the killings than he is telling. Soon, Simonsen realizes that each of the five murdered men had a dark and terrible secret in common. And when Simonsen’s own daughter is targeted, he must race to find the culprit before his whole world is destroyed.”–Provided by publisher

The House By The Fjord Laker, Rosalind
When Anna Harvik travels to Norway in 1946 in order to visit the family of her late husband, the country is only just recovering from five cruel years of Nazi occupation. So it is with surprise that she finds in this cold and bitter country the capacity for new love and perhaps even a new home.

Smillas Sense Of Snow Hoeg, Peter
In this bestselling novel, which was the basis for a 1997 movie of the same name, Smilla Qaavigaaq Jasperson, an expert on snow and ice, investigates the mystery behind her six-year-old neighbor’s deadly fall from the top of their Copenhagen apartment building. The boy was terribly afraid of heights yet his snowy footprints indicate he was running when he fell–so who or what was he running from? Smilla’s Sense of Snow, translated from a 1992 Danish work, is “a wonderfully original, elegantly crafted, ominously savage story” (Booklist), and is sure to please readers who enjoy well-written, suspenseful tales.

The History Of Danish Dreams Hoeg, Peter
Peter Høeg’s first novel is an interweaving of the lives and loves of four families, within which histories time expands, clocks stop or race forward at will. The dreams and disappointments of the children of the author’s magnificent imagination foreshadow the themes of Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow and Borderliners

The Quiet Girl Hoeg, Peter
Kaspar Krone is a world-renowned circus clown, and a man in some deep trouble. Drowning in gambling debt and wanted for tax evasion, Krone is drafted into the service of a mysterious order of nuns who promise him reprieve in return for his help safeguarding a group of children with mystical abilities that Krone also shares. When one of the children goes missing, Krone sets off to find the young girl and bring her back, making a shocking series of discoveries along the way.

Movies

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Flickan Som Lekte Med Elden: Girl Who Played With Fire [videorecording]
Lisbeth Salander is a wanted woman. A researcher and a Millennium journalist about to expose the truth about the sex trade in Sweden are brutally murdered, and Salander’s prints are on the weapon. Her history of unpredictable and violent behavior makes her an official danger to society. Digging deeper, Blomkvist unearths evidence implicating highly placed members of Swedish society, as well as shocking details about Salander’s past.

Man Som Hatar Kvinnor: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo [videorecording]
Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found and her beloved uncle is convinced she was murdered and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced investigative journalist Mickael Blomkvist and the tattooed and troubled yet resourceful computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate.

Headhunters [videorecording]
Roger, an accomplished headhunter by day and art thief when opportunity knocks, decides to risk it all to get his hands on an extremely valuable painting, and in doing so discovers something which makes him a hunted man.

Travel

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Denmark: A Quick Guide To Customs And Etiquette Salmon, Mark

Finland: A Quick Guide To Customs & Etiquette Leney, Terttu

Norway: A Quick Guide To Customs And Etiquette March, Linda Davis

Sweden: A Quick Guide To Culture And Etiquette Dewitt, Charlotte J

Fodors Essential Scandinavia: The Best Cities Sights And Cruises

…and More

Nordic, Central & Southeastern Europe Thompson, Wayne C
This is an annually updated presentation of each sovereign country in Nordic, Central and Southeastern Europe, past and present. It is organized by individual chapters for each country, dealing with its geography, people, history, political system, constitution, parliament, decentralization and states if a federation, parties, political leaders and elections. There are also sections on foreign and defense policy, economy, culture, future and a lengthy bibliography.

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How To Be Danish: A Journey To The Cultural Heart Of Denmark Kingsley, Patrick
What links Sarah Lund and Lars von Trier? Or Carlsberg and Kierkegaard? Or even Shakespeare and Metallica? The answer lies in Denmark, the country that has gripped the British imagination more than any other in recent memory. But though we watch their TV series, wear their jumpers, and play with their toys, how much do we really know about the Danes themselves?

Letters Written During A Short Residence In Sweden, Norway And Denmark Wollstonecraft, Mary
Originally published in 1796, Mary Wollstonecraft’s account of her trip to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, is compelling both in its picture of countries rarely visited in Regency times and insights into Mary’s personal life. Her scenic descriptions and political comments about Norway and her encounters with an impoverished peasantry and Danish townsfolk greedily obsessed by commerce are no less vivid than the outbursts of melancholy in these letters written to Gilbert Imlay, her unfaithful lover and father of her baby. This book attracted William Godwin to its author, who was soon to become his wife and the mother of Mary Shelley, creator of Frankenstein, making this a key work for the understanding of the Godwin-Shelley circle. This new edition is enriched by a new introduction by Sylva Norman, which puts Wollstonecraft’s letters into their political and social context and provides enlightening information about Mary’s life, loves, and deeply held convictions.

Scandinavian Country Barwick, Joann
A noted interior design editor joins House Beautiful in showcasing the purest, most appealing expressions of this classic yet understated style. ;iiScandinavian Country marries the most exciting elements of contemporary style with an appreciation of the pristine, inviting land that gave them birth.

The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission To Sabotage Hitlers Atomic Bomb Bascomb, Neal
“Documents the Allied raid against occupied Norway’s Vemork hydroelectric plant, the world’s only supplier of an essential ingredient needed by the Nazis to build an atomic bomb, citing the teamwork of British Special Ops, a brilliant scientist and refugee Norwegian commandos that foiled Hitler’s nuclear ambitions,”–NoveList.

The Vikings Oliver, Neil
The Vikings famously took no prisoners, relished cruel retribution, and prided themselves on their bloody-thirsty skills as warriors. But their prowess in battle is only a small part of their story, which stretches from their Scandinavian origins to America in the west and as far as Baghdad in the east. As the Vikings did not write their history, we have to discover it for ourselves, and that discovery, as Neil Oliver reveals, tells an extraordinary story of a people who, from the brink of destruction, reached a quarter of the way around the globe and built an empire that lasted nearly two hundred years. Drawing on the latest discoveries that have only recently come to light, Neil Oliver goes on the trail of the real Vikings. Where did they emerge from? How did they really live? And just what drove them to embark on such extraordinary voyages of discovery over 1000 years ago?

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