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Reading lists

10 must-read Scandinavian novels

Hellfire

The brand new psychological crime novel in the award-winning Inspector Sejer series, books beloved for their deep insight into the human mind

Fossum writes humane thrillers which perturb and chill

Fossum's intelligence compassion...is not often found in the pages of crime fiction

A superb writer of psychological suspense

There’s always something dark hovering on the edge of the page, something about getting what you wish for and the crushing irony when that gift proves your undoing

Superb... less a police procedural than a portrait of a society in crisis... the slow, deliberate revelation of the story behind the crime is dramatic and heartbreaking

Fossum traces the parallels between the mothers and sons so patiently, precisely, and compassionately that even fans who know all too well what's bound to happen when their paths converge will be shocked into fresh grief themselves

One of Karin Fossum’s best crime stories... Fossum expertly captures the nuances of everyday life and the way in which people struggle to make sense of life... Karin Fossum is in a class of her own as a crime writer

The opening scene showcases Fossum at her best – the dank camper van, the heat and the brutal murders. The detailed, subdued tone; the grotesque in the middle of the everyday

High-quality crime of the best, international standard. She has now focused her attention on a novel which, in my opinion, has to be one of her very best... So disturbing, riveting and painful that you can’t help but be drawn in

Karin Fossum’s critically acclaimed novels have won numerous prizes. She is two-time winner of the prestigious Riverton Award and has also won the Glass Key Award for the best Nordic crime novel, an honour shared with Henning Mankell and Jo Nesbo, as well as the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her highly acclaimed Inspector Sejer series has been published in more than forty countries.

A mother and child are found dead in an old caravan on a remote piece of land. There is a bloody footprint at the scene. 
 
Meanwhile, another mother confesses to her son that he is adopted. The man who abandoned them, now the focus of the boy's obsession, is not his real father. 
 
Chief Inspector Sejer is tasked with investigating the murder – and soon receives important information about the two families...

The Drowned Boy

Fossum’s Inspector Sejer novels are invariably morally and psychologically complex affairs, but The Drowned Boy might well be her crowning achievement to date

A simple but gripping story, balanced, believable and compassionate, about a sensitive subject

A tightly woven tale in spare but piercing prose

Karin Fossum's minimalist police procedurals... have a stealthy way of mutating into richer, if also darker, psychological studies of criminals and their victims... In the end, the novel isn't about willful murder or even accidental death, but the psychological aftershocks for the living

Reading a Karin Fossum novel is always a wonderful, almost meditative, experience. Even though she writes about horrible crimes, her compassion and intelligence shine through, and by the time you reach the final page you’re left feeling irrevocably changed - for the better. Her latest, The Drowned Boy, is right up there among her best

Fossum shows us how the crime novel can be more than sheer entertainment… Well-written and gripping

Karin Fossum is among our foremost authors, regardless of genre. This because of her unique ability to create real people and her deep understanding of the human soul. She has always mastered this, but never better than in The Drowned Boy

Among Fossum’s finest novels…a strong literary quality and quivering suspense

‘He'd just learnt to walk,’ she said. ‘He was sitting playing on his blanket, then all of a sudden he was gone.’ 
 
 A 16-month-old boy is found drowned in a pond right by his home. Chief Inspector Sejer is called to the scene as there is something troubling about the mother’s story. As even her own family turns against her, Sejer is determined to get to the truth.

The Murder of Harriet Krohn

A brilliant why-dunit from Norway's 'Queen of Crime'

A thoughtful dissection of crime and its consequences

Fossum’s descriptive prose is a reminder, for criminals and readers alike, that the details that damn us are likely to be the ones that escaped us

Charlo Torp has problems. 
 
He’s grieving for his late wife, he’s lost his job, and gambling debts have alienated him from his teenage daughter. Desperate, his solution is to rob an elderly woman of her money and silverware. But Harriet Krohn fights back, and Charlo loses control. 
 
Wracked with guilt, Charlo attempts to rebuild his life. But the police are catching up with him, and Inspector Konrad Sejer has never lost a case yet. 
 
Told through the eyes of a killer, The Murder of Harriet Krohn poses the question: how far would you go to turn your life around, and could you live with yourself afterwards?

I Can See in the Dark

A brilliant psychological crime novel for readers looking for something dark and disturbing: a man has done something awful, but now he's been accused of a crime he knows he didn't commit

An absolute must for any fan of thrillers who wants something a bit dark and disturbing... Fans of both Kathy Reichs and Sophie Hannah should enjoy this book immensely.

The storytelling is outstanding... Dark, brilliant, and guaranteed to leave you a little queasy

A dark and disturbing thriller - a story of madness which is controlled and kept hidden until anger and rage break that control and the dark depths spring out

Riktor doesn’t like the way the policeman comes straight into the house without knocking. He doesn’t like the arrogant way he observes his home.The policeman doesn’t tell him why he’s there, and Riktor doesn’t ask. Because he knows he’s guilty of a terrible crime. 
 
But it turns out that the policeman isn’t looking for a missing person. He is accusing Riktor of something totally unexpected. Riktor doesn’t have a clear conscience, but this is a crime he certainly didn’t commit.

Don't Look Back

A brilliantly engaging atmospheric thriller from Norway's Queen of Crime

'Don't Look Back, shows just how well [Fossum] deserves her continental fame... all of her characters [are] marked by an intelligent compassion that is not often found in the pages of crime fiction and her prose comes through translation with grace and style

Ends with such a blow to the stomach that most readers will wish they had failed to understand the appalling outcome to this apparently routine investigation

[From] Norway's Queen of crime...an engaging, atmospheric thriller

Karin Fossum’s critically acclaimed novels have won numerous prizes. She is two-time winner of the prestigious Riverton Award and has also won the Glass Key Award for the best Nordic crime novel, an honour shared with Henning Mankell and Jo Nesbo, as well as the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her highly acclaimed Inspector Sejer series has been published in more than forty countries.

Beneath the imposing Kollen Mountain lies a small village where the children run in and out of one another's houses and play unafraid in the streets. But when a naked body is found by the lake at the top of the mountain, its seeming tranquillity is disturbed forever. 
 
Inspector Sejer, a tough, no-nonsense policeman whose own life is tinged by sadness, is called in to investigate. As the suspense builds, and the list of suspects grows, Sejer's determination to discover the truth leads him to peel away layer upon layer of distrust and lies in this tiny community where apparently normal family ties hide dark secrets. 
 
Critically acclaimed across Europe and loved by fellow crime writers including Jo Nesbo, Ruth Rendell and Colin Dexter, Karin Fossum's novels evoke a world that is terrifyingly familiar.

He Who Fears the Wolf

The second Inspector Sejer mystery from 'Norway's Queen of Crime', featuring all of Fossum's superb plotting, fresh style and brilliant characterisation. Perfect for fans of Ruth Rendell, Val McDermid and Minette Walters

Terribly clever and enjoyably sly. Great stuff

Fossum's presentation of her characters is marked by an intelligence and compassion that is not often found in the pages of crime fiction

A twelve-year-old boy runs into his local police station claiming to have seen a brutally dismembered corpse. Errki Johrma, an escaped psychiatric patient and known town misfit, was spotted at the scene before he disappeared into the woods. The next morning the local bank is robbed at gunpoint. Making his escape, the robber takes a hostage and also flees into the woods. 
 
As the search for Halldis Horn's killer continues all fingers of suspicion point to Errki - except one. Errki's doctor refuses to believe that he could have committed such an horrific act and, for the first time since his wife's death, Inspector Sejer finds himself intrigued by another woman. 
 
The second novel in the Inspector Sejer series displays all of Karin Fossum's acclaimed plotting and characterisation.

When the Devil Holds the Candle

A brilliantly taut, atmospheric thriller starring Inspector Sejer from Norway's 'Queen of Crime'

Like the best Rendell...she tackles the reasons people commit crimes and the devastating effect it has on the protagonists' lives

Explores the process of scapegoating, and the awful human cost of false accusations ... may well bring the half-Swedish Ruth Rendell irresistibly to mind

Fossum's elucidation of the criminally degenerate mind is first-rate

Andreas's disappearance is a mystery to all, including his inseparable friend Zipp. But as much as the police question him, its not easy for Zipp to come forward with details of the last time he saw his friend: following an old woman into her home, brandishing his knife. Zipp waited anxiously outside but Andreas failed to reappear. 
 
Inspector Sejer and his colleague Skarre are baffled but while the confusion in the outside world continues, a chilling and heart-stopping drama is unfolding inside the old woman's home. In a plot in the tradition of Stephen King, Fossum deploys her trademark skill of looking realistically, terrifyingly, into the minds of criminal and victim. Appearances aren't always to be believed, and people are not always what they seem.

Calling out for You

Inspector Sejer is on the trail of a violent killer in small-town Norway in this gripping thriller from acclaimed crime writer Karin Fossum

Inspector Konrad Sejer is the Morse of the fjords

Karin Fossum (Author) Karin Fossum’s critically acclaimed novels have won numerous prizes. She is two-time winner of the prestigious Riverton Award and has also won the Glass Key Award for the best Nordic crime novel, an honour shared with Henning Mankell and Jo Nesbo, as well as the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her highly acclaimed Inspector Sejer series has been published in more than forty countries. Charlotte Barslund (Translator) Charlotte Barslund translates Scandinavian novels and plays. Her recent work includes Calling Out For You by Karin Fossum, Machine by Peter Adolphsen and The Pelican by August Strindberg.

Gunder Jomann, a quiet, middle-aged man from a peaceful Norwegian community, thinks his life has been made complete when he returns from a trip to India a married man. But on the day his Indian bride is due to join him, he is called to the hospital to his sister's bedside. The local taxi driver sent instead to meet the bride at the airport returns without her. Then the town is shocked by the news of an Indian woman found bludgeoned to death in a nearby meadow. 
 
Inspector Sejer and his colleague Skarre head the murder inquiry, cross-examining the townsfolk and planting seeds of suspicion in a community which has always believed itself to be simple, safe and trusting. For what can only have been an unpremeditated and motiveless act of violence, everyone is guilty until proven innocent.

Black Seconds

A little girl seems to have vanished without trace. Inspector Sejer must find her before it's too late in this gripping thriller from pyschological crime writer Karin Fossum

There is no room for debate: the most important female writer of foreign crime fiction at work today is the Norwegian Karin Fossum

Possibly the most popular foreign crime writer in translation, the Norgwegian Karin Fossum is an intelligent author who delivers more than a smart plot by way of psychological insight and clear-eyed characterisation

Fossum is frequently compared to Ruth Rendell, but Black Seconds is much more reminiscent of the psychological thrillers of Patricia Highsmith. Fossum is a clever writer; this is her most cunning tale yet

Nine-year-old Ida Joner gets on her brand-new bike and sets off to buy sweets. Thirty-five minutes after Ida should have come home, her mother, Helga, starts to worry. She phones the shop and various friends, but no one has seen her daughter. As the family being to search for Ida, Helga's worst nightmare becomes reality. 
 
As the police are called in, hundreds of volunteers comb the neighbourhood, but there are no traces of the little girl, or her bike. As the relatives reach breaking point and the media frenzy begins, Inspector Sejer struggles to remains calm and reassuring. But usually missing children are found within forty-eight hours. Ida seems to have vanished without a trace.

An Inspector Sejer Novel

In the Darkness

The first ever Inspector Sejer novel by Karin Fossum, the Norwegian 'Queen of Crime'

This is a tightly-written, carefully plotted story with amazing depths which is likely to remain with you long after you close the book

It is Karin Fossum’s wry observations of human frailty and the warmth with which she portrays even her flawed characters - that make this book such a pleasure to read. It’s rare for me to find a book that I love so much I can’t put it down, but this was one of them

The latest offering from the “Norwegian queen of crime” is a novel of mighty power. In The Darkness, the first Inspector Sejer novel, is intricately crafted with undeniable pedigree

In the Darkness had me hooked from the start. Fossum’s writing is insightful and descriptive without being showy. There are no tricks or cliff hangers, just confident storytelling, refreshingly free from sudden bursts of implausibility. Her characters feel like real people, living in a real world, where money is tight and motivations are murky

This is the perfect way in to Fossum’s dark minatory world, in which the levels of psychological acuity are set against a stunningly executed narrative

Eva is walking by the river with her seven-year-old daughter when they catch sight of a man’s body in the water. Eva tells her daughter to wait while she calls the police, but when she reaches the phone box she doesn’t call them. Instead she phones her father, and makes no mention of her discovery. 
 
When the body is eventually found, it soon becomes clear to Inspector Sejer and his team that this was no accidental drowning – the man was the victim of a very violent killer. But the trail has gone cold. Until, one night, Eva receives a phone call...

The Caller

The outstanding new Inspector Sejer novel from the award-winning Norwegian Queen of Crime

Fossum is admired by Ruth Rendell and you can see why'

A contemporary Patricia Highsmith, her offbeat obsession with the psychology of the criminal mind, and the human cost of criminal activity, pays off handsomely yet again

It is a sign of Fossum's sophistication that the reader comes to empathise with the teenaged tormentor - a deliberate ploy which makes the double-twist ending all the more shocking

Fossum's Norway is an apposite setting for a long dark night of the soul

With a focus on characters and the impacts of crime, Fossum’s psychological thrillers will appeal, in particular, to fans of Anne Holt and Henning Mankell

I always eagerly await a new novel from Karin Fossum

Suspenseful, penetrating, clever and thoroughly enjoyable

One summer evening Lily and her husband are enjoying a meal while their baby daughter sleeps peacefully in her pram in the garden. But then Lily steps outside to find her baby soaked in blood. 
 
The distraught parents rush to the hospital where they discover that she is unharmed - the blood isn't hers. Inspector Sejer is called in and spends the evening trying to comprehend why anyone would carry out such a sinister prank. Then, just before midnight, somebody rings his doorbell. 
 
The corridor is empty, but the caller has left a small grey envelope on the mat. Inside it, Sejer finds a postcard bearing a short message: Hell begins now...

The Water's Edge

Inspector Sejer must track down a sinister figure who fled from the scene of a terrible crime in this brilliant psychological thriller from the Norwegian 'Queen of Crime'

If you're in search of an antidote to the in-your-face energy of American crime fiction, this quiet, slender, bracingly bleak tale could well be it

As a portrait of a community possessed by suspicion, The Water's Edge can scarcely be bettered

It's heart-rending, sometimes cold, forensic writing; she pushes you into tight, uncomfortable corners. She's good

An exceptionally fine story, Fossum's real narrative appeal rests on her ability to see the humanity in even the most wretched soul

A chilling story of small-town obsession and death

A couple out walking in the woods discover the dead body of a half-naked boy. 
 
To Kristine's horror her husband begins to take photographs of the corpse on his mobile phone, but this proves only the beginning of his obsession with the case. 
 
Inspector Sejer is called to the scene but he can find no immediate cause of death. And who was the agitated man the couple saw moments before their discovery? Then, a second boy goes missing, and the once peaceful community is left deeply shaken. 
 
Is there a killer within their midst?

Broken

A chilling tale about the danger of good intentions from the acclaimed author of the Inspector Sejer series.

There is no room for debate: the most important writer of foreign crime fiction at work today is Karin Fossum

Among the most popular Norwegian crime writers... the best, in my view, [is] Karin Fossum

A writer wakes one night to find a strange man in her bedroom. He is a character she has invented, but not yet used, and so desperate is he to have his story told that he has resorted to breaking into her house. 
 
She creates him for Alvar Eide, a quiet, middle-aged man whose life is carefully designed to avoid surprise, but when a young heroine addict comes into the gallery where he works, Alvar's life is changed forever and his inventor realises that she cannot control the character she has created. The result is a superb novel that plays with the boundaries of fact and fiction.

Bad Intentions

An outstanding psychological crime novel from Karin Fossum: when a body surfaces in a lake Inspector Sejer must uncover a dark secret of betrayal and paranoia

A terrific crime novel that explores culpability, peer group pressure, betrayal and paranoia. Fossum’s prose style, translated by Charlotte Barslund, is crisp and clear, with not a word wasted.

I not only enjoyed it but admired it, too. I also found it playing in my head for a long time afterwards, the effect on the reader every writer surely longs for

The seventh Inspector Sejer novel from Norway's leading female crime writer is, like its predecessors, a gem

This is a battle of wits, conducted with chilly intensity and an unsettling sense of menace

Few match her ability to conjure an atmosphere of emotional as well as geographical desolation

Tautly told in a crisp translation of the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund, the story is a riveting exploration of the consequences of crime, a whydunnit rather than the traditional whodunnit

A brooding study of how one thoughtless action can have catastrophic consequences

Fossum never forgets that her primary duty is to entertain, and she keeps her cut-to-the-bone mystery moving briskly

Norwegian writer Karin Fossum has been turning out a steady and impressive body of work since long before Steig Larsson first put pen to paper...This is a first-rate psychological thriller, one of Fossum's best books to date.

Early one September three friends spend the weekend at a remote cabin by Dead Water Lake. With only a pale moon to light their way, they row across the water in the middle of the night. But only two of them return. 
 
When the body of the third friend is discovered, Inspector Sejer is put in charge of the investigation. He is troubled by the apparent suicide and has an overwhelming sense that the surviving pair has something to hide. Weeks pass without further clues and then, in a nearby lake, the body of another teenage boy floats to the surface...

Karin Fossum

Kari Dickson

It is her ability to make average, often wounded human psyches crackle and glow…that is Fossum’s forte...She has an exceptional eye for fragility and vulnerability, and the complexity and dark humour of these states of mind.

The Whisperer contains deep psychological insight ... Creepy, unnerving discomfort and plausible madness in everyday life… Builds towards the shocking reveal.

Exemplary… the suspense is maintained with a sure touch

The new twists are all wonderful and the old creepy atmosphere is brilliantly recreated with Long Island’s swirling mists

The final page will make your jaw drop and your heart stop

The Whisperer is not just one of the best works of crime fiction I have ever read but one of the best novels I have ever read… a fascinating exploration of the mentality of a paranoid schizophrenic… It is SO brilliant! Fossum… really seems to know human nature

Fossum has used her talent for drawing us into the minds of the misunderstood to powerful effect… [The Whisperer] can be enjoyed on its own merits as a work of fiction; yet it also communicates an experience of psychosis in a way no textbook can

Read the stunning, psychologically acute new thriller from the Queen of Norwegian crime fiction. 
 
 **SHORTLISTED FOR THE PETRONA AWARD 2019** 
 
Ragna Riegel works in a supermarket and still lives in her childhood home. She's alone in the world since her only son moved to Berlin. She longs for a Christmas or birthday card from him. 
 
Ragna lives her life within strict self-imposed limits: she sits in the same seat on the bus every day, on her way to her predictable job. On her way home she always visits the same local shop. She feels safe in her routine, until one day she receives a letter with a threatening message scrawled in capital letters. An unknown enemy has entered her world and she must use all her means to defend herself. 
 
When the worst happens, Inspector Konrad Sejer is called in to interrogate Ragna. Is this unassuming woman out of her depth, or is she hiding a dark secret? 
 
 ‘The final page will make your jaw drop and your heart stop’ Evening Standard 
 
 ‘Exemplary… the suspense is maintained with a sure touch’ Guardian

The Whisperer

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Karin Fossum

Praise for The Whisperer

It is her ability to make average, often wounded human psyches crackle and glow…that is Fossum’s forte...She has an exceptional eye for fragility and vulnerability, and the complexity and dark humour of these ...

The Whisperer contains deep psychological insight ... Creepy, unnerving discomfort and plausible madness in everyday life… Builds towards the shocking reveal.

Exemplary… the suspense is maintained with a sure touch

It is her ability to make average, often wounded human psyches crackle and glow…that is Fossum’s forte...She has an exceptional eye for fragility and vulnerability, and the complexity and dark humour of these ...

The Whisperer contains deep psychological insight ... Creepy, unnerving discomfort and plausible madness in everyday life… Builds towards the shocking reveal.

Exemplary… the suspense is maintained with a sure touch

It is her ability to make average, often wounded human psyches crackle and glow…that is Fossum’s forte...She has an exceptional eye for fragility and vulnerability, and the complexity and dark humour of these ...

The Whisperer contains deep psychological insight ... Creepy, unnerving discomfort and plausible madness in everyday life… Builds towards the shocking reveal.

Exemplary… the suspense is maintained with a sure touch

Books by Karin Fossum

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10 must-read Scandinavian novels

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