What matters to me is how persuasively these mystery writers manage to create a world that one can imaginatively inhabit -- for the duration of a first reading, initially, but also long after.
--- Wendy Lesser, Scandinavian Noir (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2020)
If one is at all interested in Scandinavian crime novels and found the recent report by Tina Jordan and Marilyn Stasio in the New York Times Book review (July 26, 2020) somewhat useful but superficial I recommend Lesser's intelligent, authoritative and very personal account of her reading. If I have one slight quibble it's about limiting her account to Sweden, Denmark and Norway; she doesn't include Iceland and Finland because they too often take place in "the frozen countryside" (she doesn't care for American mysteries set in the backwoods either). She also has recommendations for films and television shows from these countries.
Lesser, the editor of the excellent Threepenny Review, was initially drawn to the excellent series of ten novels with policeman Martin Beck that was written by Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall, which ended in 1975 with Wahloo's death. These novels were brilliant mysteries that are filled with observations and criticisms of Swedish society. This tradition continued with the Kurt Wallender series written by Henning Mankell, which I have also read and enjoyed. She also analyzes numerous other series from these countries, evaluating the good and the bad in each series. The last half of the book chronicles her visits to the three countries, investigating the towns where some of the books took place and talking to the law officers in each country, most of whom have read the books and are willing to discuss the realities of crime solving.
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