Stockholm Syndrome:
The Return of
The Scandinavian
Murder Mystery
Next week the enormously popular “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” will see its second cinematic incarnation at the hands of the mighty David Fincher. As a book, it’s a great thriller - however, once one completes the Larsson trilogy, what then? An out of order elevator and seven flights of stairs saw the author expire before even one word of his trilogy was published, and his partner and family are fighting over what is left in his notes and drafts. Are there any other Scandinavian thriller writers that one should know about...? Er… yes, quite a few in fact, and some pretty good ones too.
Stieg Larsson is in fact only the latest in a line of Scandinavian thriller writers who have enjoyed success over the years. The first in this line are the husband and wife team of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, whose loner, divorced (he starts out married), anti-establishment detective hero Martin Beck appeared in 10 novels between 1965 and 1975 and even received the Hollywood treatment with Walter Matthau in an adaptation of “The Laughing Policeman.”
More recently, Peter Høeg had an international smash with “Smilla's Sense of Snow,” a powerful thriller where Høeg’s Smilla investigates the alleged accidental death of her friend, a 6 year old boy. This also received the Hollywood treatment with Julia Ormond as Smilla.
Henning Mankell brought us Kurt Wallander, who made his debut in the novel “Faceless Killers.” Wallander followed a similar pattern to Martin Beck, with alcohol and diabetes added to our angry everyman detective’s plate. However, the novels are effective and engaging thrillers which I can personally recommend. Wallander has been filmed for television and cinema in Sweden, and the British television adaptation starring Kenneth Branagh has been a considerable hit on PBS, with two series already produced and a third on the way.
Other notable Scandinavian thriller writers include: Camilla Läckberg, author of “The Ice Princess," in which a woman returns to a small seaside village after the death of her parents and discovers the dead body of her childhood best friend, so she starts to investigate…; Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom’s amazing "Three Seconds" - a drug deal goes wrong leading to murder, the potential exposure of an undercover cop and the start of an investigation that nobody wants to succeed except the brilliant but troubled Detective Ewart Grens; and last but not least, Kjell Eriksson, whose suspense filled “The Princess of Burundi” sees an entire town terrorized by an unknown killer.
And that is not the half of it - from Kerstin Ekman to Karin Fossum or Jo Nesbo, there are a whole range of other Scandinavian thriller writers to check out. Back to Stieg though, if you do head to the movies and see “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” chances are you will encourage Hollywood to follow through on the sequels - which would not be a bad thing, David Fincher and the cast have signed up for sequels if this film is a hit. Early signs (according to an embargo-breaking David Denby) are that it will be!
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