PETRONA AWARD LONGLIST: Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year

2024 PETRONA AWARD Longlist for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year 

Tove Alsterdal - You Will Never Be Found tr. Alice Menzies (Sweden, Faber & Faber)

Anne Mette Hancock - The Collector tr. Tara F Chace (Denmark, Swift Press)

Jørn Lier Horst - Snow Fall tr. Anne Bruce (Norway, Michael Joseph)

Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger - Stigma tr. Megan E Turney (Norway, Orenda Books) 

Arnaldur Indriðason - The Girl by the Bridge tr. Philip Roughton (Iceland, Harvill Secker) 

Jógvan Isaksen - Dead Men Dancing tr. Marita Thomsen (Faroe Islands (Denmark), Norvik Press)

Åsa Larsson - The Sins of our Fathers tr. Frank Perry (Sweden, MacLehose Press) 

Lilja Sigurðardottir - White as Snow tr. Quentin Bates (Iceland, Orenda Books)

Yrsa Sigurðardottir - The Prey tr. Victoria Cribb (Iceland, Hodder & Stoughton) 

Karin Smirnoff - The Girl in the Eagle's Talons tr. Sarah Death (Sweden, MacLehose Press)

Both large and small publishers are represented on the longlist, with Orenda Books and MacLehose Press both having two entries, and the breakdown by country is Iceland (3), Sweden (3), Denmark (2) and Norway (2). 

The Petrona Award 2024 judging panel comprises Jackie Farrant, the creator of RAVEN CRIME READS and a bookseller/Area Commercial Support for a major book chain in the UK and Ewa Sherman, translator and writer, and blogger at NORDIC LIGHTHOUSE, with additional help from Sarah Ward, author, former Petrona Award judge and current CWA Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger judge.

The Award administrator is Karen Meek, owner of the EURO CRIME blog and website. 

The award 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. More information on the history of the Award and previous winners can be found at the Petrona Award website.

Jar City on DVD

Thanks to Karen Meek of Euro Crime, I learned that Jar City, the film made from Arnaldur Indridason's fantastic crime novel, is now out on DVD. But can you find it? And will it play on your DVD player? Euro Crime mentions that it's out of stock at amazon.co.uk. I didn't find it in the U.S..

Interested in Scandinavian Crime Fiction? The Guardian had a great article last week. Scandinavian Crime is hot! Now that's an oxymoron at this time of the year. The article says that we should expect more authors to be translated in the near future. No big surprise to those of us who enjoy well written, well plotted crime novels.

For an excellent list of Scandinavian authors who have been translated into English, go here.

More Christmas Mysteries

Karen Meek of Euro Crime fame--what a great blog!- does a series on Christmas Reads every year. Be sure to check out Euro Crime for her comments. I'll be updating my Mistletoe Mystery list, but to save you time, here are a few more titles:
Holidays are Murder by Charlotte Douglas, The Dead of Winter by Lisa Appignanesi, Voices by Arnaldur Indridason. I loved this novel. I forgot to list it on the Christmas list, probably because I forgot it takes place during the holidays. It's dark, like all of his novels, but an excellent read. Not sure how many more days and books (12 days of Christmas) she'll be doing, but be sure to subscribe to Euro Crime.

Please send me--or post--any other titles for the list!