Five books to read if you love Nordic/Scandinavian noir

Posted on 17 February 2025 • Arts, Arts and social sciences

You know the drill: In a cold and dark place, perhaps at the frontier of human civilisation, a murder has taken place. With fading light and a small community of suspects, our hero must find the killer before the community is driven apart by suspicion in these so-called Nordic-noir films. Samuel Sargeant, Lecturer in Creative Writing at The Open University, and himself a published author in the genre, has curated five books for you to devour.

1. Winterkill by Ragnar Jónasson (published by Orenda Books, 2021)

This is the last book in Ragnar Jónasson’s international bestselling Dark Iceland series. When the body of a 19-year-old girl is found on the main street of Siglufjörður, Police Inspector Ari Thór battles a violent Icelandic storm in an increasingly dangerous hunt for her killer.

Claustrophobic, chilling and filled with a complex array of characters, Jónasson takes us on a journey into the rural heart of Iceland in which the landscape is as much a character as the engaging but exhausted police inspector.

Ragnar has an excellent sense of pace, and readers seeking a tense page turner should look no further.

2. Fatal Isles by Maria Adolfsson (published by Zaffre, 2021)
Maria Adolfsson has been given a rare accolade, to be credited with the invention of a new genre: Anglo-Nordic noir with her novel set in the fictional islands of Doggerland.

It follows Detective Inspector Karen Eiken Hornby, who has returned home. She’s a dedicated, if flawed, protagonist who has become all too reliant upon alcohol and smoking. Someone who fits the mould of the Nordic noir.

If the pressures of her duties were not enough, the challenges she faces by being a woman detective in a small, isolated and traditional community further serve to drive a wedge between her and the people she is trying to help.

When she and her boss, Jounas Smeed, spend the night together she knows this will only invite trouble. Trouble that is compounded when Jounas’ ex-wife is found brutally murdered.

This is Maria Adolfsson’s debut novel, and there is much to appreciate here in her ability to create a convincingly believable island state in the middle of the North Sea.

3. Pine by Francine Toon (Black Swan Ireland, 2020)
Less a straight Nordic noir, and more a neo-gothic thriller set in the Scottish Highlands, Toon still effectively captures the anxieties and claustrophobia of isolated communities.

Among the pages, Lauren and her father Niall live alone in the Highlands. Once again, the landscape is as much a character as the protagonist, in which it seems to reach out to take the lost unto itself and drive its inhabitants to extremes.

Women disappear, men drink to forget and anger and fear slowly begin to take over as Lauren attempts to learn what happened when a local teenager, Anne-Maire, vanishes.

But Lauren is no detective, and this adds an extra layer of tension as she attempts to unearth the secrets of her small community.

4. Dead Sweet by Katrín Júlíusdóttir (Orenda Books, 2023)
One of a new wave of Icelandic authors writing Nordic noir, Katrin has all the hallmarks to be recognised as a titan of the genre. She was a member of the Icelandic parliament from 2003 until 2016 and her knowledge of political machinations shines through her text.

In this novel her protagonist is Sigurdís, a young police officer, attempting to solve the murder of a prominent wealthy and respected government official and businessman Óttar Karlsson, so why was he killed? And was he as innocent as he looked?

While initially set in Iceland, and providing a wonderful insight into the people and culture, the novel is globe spanning: taking Sigurdís to Minnesota and back to face her own childhood trauma.

This is an atmospheric and unsettling thriller, full of well-timed reveals and twists, and was long listed for the Waterstone Debut Fiction Prize in 2023 when translated into English.

5. The Dancer by Óskar Guðmundsson (published by Corylus Books 2024)

Óskar Guðmundsson made quite the impact with his debut novel, Hilma. In 2015, he was awarded the Icelandic Crime Syndicate’s Drop of Blood award for the best crime novel. Now he is back with a new series beginning with The Dancer.

When Ylfa, a rookie officer, and her boss Valdimar, are given the case of a long-forgotten body found in the middle of a Reykjavik park the duo must unravel a complex series of murders where nothing is as it seems.

Óskar has a talent for creating compelling and complex villains, and he is at his best here. For a noir thriller novelist, Óskar writes with both compassion and empathy, but that makes the horrors all the more visceral.

If you like your villains complex and your morality questioned then The Dancer by Óskar Guðmundsson, translated by Quentin Bates, is for you.

Picture: Yaroslav Shuraev for Pexels