Nordic crime novels.

So, what is it about Scandinavian crime thrillers? They are becoming as big an export as Saab, Nokia, Volvo, ABBA or, God forbid, IKEA. It may in part be their famous 'gloomy' weather and long dark days in winter and it may be that the writers collectively write about a society that is liberal and democratic with strong undertones of neo Nazis and people traffickers. Nice place to live but plenty of unpleasant stuff under the surface.

A lot of the crimes have religious motives and many seem to have a focus on sexually disturbed men torturing women. Perhaps it is all about small tight knit communities harbouring deviants in their midst and ignoring the signs. Whatever the storyline the recent spate of movies and TV series do show that Nordic crime is now big business and there seems to be a queue of authors waiting to cash in. 


The following is an extract from an excellent article from The Economist magazine.

"Three factors underpin the success of Nordic crime fiction: language, heroes and setting. Niclas Salomonsson, a literary agent who represents almost all the up and coming Scandinavian crime writers, reckons it is the style of the books, “realistic, simple and precise…and stripped of unnecessary words”, that has a lot to do with it. The plain, direct writing, devoid of metaphor, suits the genre well.

The Nordic detective is often careworn and rumpled. Mr Mankell’s Wallander is gloomy, troubled and ambivalent about his father. Mr Indridason’s Inspector Erlendur lives alone after a failed marriage, haunted by the death of his younger brother many years before in a blizzard that he survived. Mr Nesbo’s leading man, Inspector Harry Hole—often horribly drunk—is defiant of his superiors yet loyal to his favoured colleagues.

Most important is the setting. The countries that the Nordic writers call home are prosperous and organised, a “soft society” according to Mr Nesbo. But the protection offered by a cradle-to-grave welfare system hides a dark underside. As Mary Evans points out in her recent study, “The Imagination of Evil”, the best Scandinavian fiction mines the seam that connects the insiders—the rich and powerful—and the outsiders, represented by the poor, the exploited and the vulnerable. Larsson is a master at depicting the relationship between business, social hypocrisy and criminal behaviour, and his heroes do not want to be rescued through any form of conventional state intervention.

Analysing Scandinavia and its psyche is nothing new; Henrik Ibsen did it over a century ago. But the greatest influence on these rising writers has been Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall, a Swedish couple. Journalists and committed Marxists, they coauthored the ten-volume Martin Beck series between 1965 and 1975 with the aim of criticising the country’s welfare state. The central character is a likeable and dedicated policeman with a dry sense of humour. But the books, which closely study police procedure, feature an ensemble of his colleagues, all believable characters drawn with the lightest of touches. By turn entertaining and funny examinations of the day-to-day work of policemen, they are also gripping and complex thrillers.

The quality and popularity of crime fiction has given Nordic novelists a prestige that authors from other countries do not enjoy. This, in turn, has drawn in new writers. The next potential blockbuster could well be Leif G.W. Persson’s “Fall of the Welfare State”—though a more enticing title is planned for its English-language debut. First published in Sweden in 2002, it is written by a professor of criminology who has been involved in many of Sweden’s high-profile crime cases and is an epic and ambitious tale spanning several decades of Swedish history.

The cold, dark climate, where doors are bolted and curtains drawn, provides a perfect setting for crime writing. The nights are long, the liquor hard, the people, according to Mr Nesbo, “brought up to hide their feelings” and hold on to their secrets. If you are driving through Norway at dusk and see a farmhouse with its lights on and its doors open, do not stop, he warns, only half jokingly. You are as likely to be greeted by a crime scene as a warm welcome."

The full article in The Economist can be read here

http://www.economist.com/culture/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15660846