This is the first English-language study of crime fiction written in Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. It will delight and challenge readers, as it helps them understand more deeply the work of such prominent writers as Henning Mankell, Stieg Larsson, Anne Holt, Arnaldur Indrioason and Leena Lehtolainen, among others.

Introduction Andrew Nestingen and Paula Arvas I. Genre revision 1. Swedish cops in the new millennium: The transformation of the police procedural Kerstin Bergman, Lund University, Sweden. 2. High crime in contemporary Scandinavian literature: Peter Hoeg's Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow Magnus Persson, Malmo University, Sweden 3. Nordic crime fiction and the opacity of social life Andrew Nestingen II. Crime and affect 4. The place of pessimism in Henning Mankell's 'Kurt Wallander' novels Shane McCorristine, University College Dublin 5. Not the usual suspects: Hakan Nesser and collateral guilt in the north Sylvia Soderlind, Queen's University in Kingston, Canada III. Contested identities 6. Contesting the past: Rewriting history in modern Scandinavian crime fiction Karsten Wind Meyhoff, University of Copenhagen, Denmark 7. National identity in contemporary Icelandic crime fiction Katrin Jakobsdottir 8. The final frontier: Finland and Russia in Nordic crime fiction since the 2000s Paula Arvas IV. Intermediality 9. Dirty Harry in the Swedish welfare state Michael Tapper, Lund University, Sweden 10. Making Swedish crime queens: Maria Lang, Liza Marklund and Camilla Lackberg Sara Karrholm 11. Gender at the margins in contemporary Nordic crime fiction on TV and in print Karen Klitgaard Povlsen, University of Aarhus