Translation Thursday – Swedish Noir

Translation Thursday – A book not yet translated…but when it is….put it on your TBR list

Now, when I started learning Swedish, I was inspired to do so by Camilla Lackberg’s books. She writes about crimes and macabre findings so you imagine my early vocabulary. However, I can only imagine what it would have been like had I read The Butcher first.

Translation Thursday

Take the plot for example:

Early October and the moose hunt is underway in Hudiksvall, a small town north of Stockholm

It’s early morning and slaughter house worker Hans Larsson makes a macabre discovery when he finds a human body suspended by hooks from the ceiling. Johan Rokka and his colleagues at Hudiksvall Police look into the case and it’s clear that the victim has been tortured.

Who is this man and what is going on? This murder will not be the last. The hunt, in every sense of the words has just begun…

Great start…

A man is attacked in the woods  during a moose hunt. Now, guns and shouting during a moose hunt are not uncommon and so who’s going to hear cries for help in the middle of the dark Swedish forest?

Moose hunts are popular and a major part of Swedish rural life so that something so mudane and normal should turn into a hunt for a killer is a pretty good opener and premise..

Setting

Dark Swedish Forest, a moose hunt, a body found in a slaughterhouse? Lots of great characters and a police force in a small town having to deal with it all is a nice almost closed room murder. The sense of claustrophobia and haunting qualities to this read are something else!

Hudiksvall is a small town but is surrounded by woods, rural homes and log cabins and there’s a sense of menace when reading this book!

Harper Collins Nordic

Characters

Johan Rokka and Janna Weissman – having not read the other books in the series, I think there’s a lot more to appreciate about these two.However, I got to know them pretty well and don’t feel I’ve missed out by not meeting them earlier. Having said that, I’m off to get the other books in the series. The police work and investigation is interesting as is the police’s reactions and relationship with the locals. It’s a strange crime and one which seems to have lots of loose threads which don’t seem to link up at first…

Scandi Noir rating?

Ooh it’s brutal in places this one. Torture, blood and gore in a slaughterhouse and in the middle of a forest in a small town, in the middle of nowhere…..

Plot

It starts with a bang and then you weave in and out of the forest from one case, one thread to another but when you realise how it’s all connected and why these murders are taking place…Kudos to the author!

Translate this now please! English speakers of gory Scandi Noir will love this one!

Susan BookTrailer

With thanks to HarperCollins Nordic for the Swedish copy of the book.