Death in a Cold Climate: A Guide to Scandinavian Crime Fiction by Barry Forshaw – review

From the Danish TV series The Killing to Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, Scandinavian crime fiction has become hugely popular. Forbidding landscapes, bleak weather, depressive detectives and gruesome violence: it doesn't sound like a recipe for publishing success. But, as one Swedish agent tells Forshaw, it is "a goldmine". This survey contains chapters on each of the Nordic nations and places the texts into illuminating social, political and geographical contexts. He identifies a preoccupation among the region's writers with "bloody death" that reaches back to ancient myth, although ironically these countries are among the safest in Europe. As well as interviews with many authors, one of the book's most interesting features are the lengthy discussions with translators. For Charlotte Barslund, the recent popularity of Scandinavian fiction is due to the "reserve and self-sufficiency" of the characters and the portrayal of societies struggling with a "loss of innocence". Essential reading for anyone seeking clues to the next Jo Nesbø.