If you like your thrillers set in bleak locations with complex, angst-ridden detectives and great plots, you'll enjoy Scandinavian crime. An increasingly popular genre, we take a look at some of the best available from the National Library Service.
By Norwegian author Jo Nesbo
Second in the Harry Hole detective series. Grainy CCTV footage shows a man walking into a bank and putting a gun to a cashier's head. He tells her to count to twenty-five. When he doesn't get his money in time, she is executed. Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case. While Harry's girlfriend is away, an old flame gets in touch. He goes to dinner at her house and wakes up at home with no memory of the past twelve hours. The same morning the girl is found shot dead in her bed. Is someone trying to frame him for this unexplained death? Contains strong language (braille 8v, TB 18343).
Hypothermia
By Icelandic author Arnaldur Indridason
One cold autumn night, a woman is found hanging from a beam in her summer cottage. At first sight it appears to be a straightforward case of suicide; the woman, María, had never recovered from the loss of her mother and had a history of depression. But when Karen, the friend who found her body, approaches detective Erlendur Sveinsson and gives him the tape of a séance that María had attended, his curiosity is aroused (giant print 3v, braille 5v, TB in production).
Faceless killers
By Swedish author Henning Mankell
One frozen January morning, Inspector Kurt Wallander responds to a seemingly routine call out. But 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. 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 (braille 5v, TB 14519).
Don't look back
By Norwegian author Karin Fossum
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 the sleepy village is like a pond through which not enough water runs - beneath the surface it is beginning to stagnate. When a naked body is found by the lake at the top of the mountain, its seeming tranquillity is disturbed forever. Enter Inspector Sejer, a tough, no-nonsense policeman whose own life is tinged by sadness (TB 17475).
The girl with the dragon tattoo
By Swedish author Stieg Larsson
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, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder - and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, truculent computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. The pair begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history (braille 8v, giant print 5v, TB 16729).
The ice princess
By Swedish author Camilla Lackberg
Returning to her hometown after the funeral of her parents, writer Erica Falck finds a community on the brink of tragedy. Erica conceives a memoir about the apparent suicide of her childhood friend, Alex. While her interest grows to an obsession, local detective Patrik Hedstrom is following his own suspicions about the case. When they start working together, the truth begins to emerge about this small town with a deeply disturbing past (braille 7v, giant print 4v, TB 17019).