Book Review: Encyclopedia of Nordic Crime Fiction: Works and Authors of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden Since 1967

Abstract

Thanks to the Kurt Wallander novels of Henning Mankell, the Lisbeth Salander novels of Stieg Larsson, and their motion picture and television adaptations, crime fiction by Finnish and Scandinavian writers has soared in popularity with American readers over the past few years. In her Encyclopedia of Nordic Crime Fiction, Mitzi M. Brunsdale sets out to survey the growing field while offering a historical analysis of its development and importance. She argues that the region’s crime fiction “largely deals with the serious societal problems resulting from originally well-intentioned Nordic welfare state policies now proving problematic,” and believes that it “has enormous relevance to today’s dangerous world” (1).