The Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year

The 2017 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year was announced at CrimeFest last weekend.

The award, established to celebrate the work of the late Maxine Clarke, one of the first online crime fiction reviewers and bloggers, is open to crime fiction in translation, either written by a Scandinavian author or set in Scandinavia and published in the UK in the previous calendar year.

Winner

Where Roses Never Die by Gunnar Staalesen, translated by Don Bartlett (Orenda Books, Norway)

Also Nominated:

The Exiled by Kati Hiekkapelto, translated by David Hackston (Orenda Books, Finland)

The Dying Detective by Leif G.W. Persson, translated by Neil Smith (Doubleday; Sweden)

The Bird Tribunal by Agnes Ravatn, translated by Rosie Hedger (Orenda Books, Norway)

Why Did You Lie? by Yrsa Sigurđardóttir, translated by Victoria Cribb (Hodder & Stoughton, Iceland)

The Wednesday Club by Kjell Westö, translated by Neil Smith (MacLehose Press; Finland)

The judges commented:
“It was difficult to choose just six crime novels for the Petrona Award shortlist this year, given the number of truly excellent submissions from around the Scandinavian world. Our 2017 Petrona Award shortlist testifies to the extremely high quality of translated Scandi crime, with authors from Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden making expert use of police investigations, psychological thrillers, private eye novels and historical crime fiction both to entertain and to explore pertinent social, political and historical issues. We are extremely grateful to the translators for their skill and expertise in bringing us these outstanding examples of Scandinavian crime fiction.”