Winter is here and so is the Adult Winter Reading Club 2011, Riverhead Reads: Passport to Mystery. Read or listen to any book for a chance to win prizes in our weekly raffle drawings. Read a book from our preferred reading list, featuring international crime fiction, and double your chances of winning. Here's a sample of a few of the books listed for Scandanavia. 
Before the popular Stieg Larsson series (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), the first grandmasters of Swedish dectecive fiction were the writing team of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. The Man on the Balcony features Stockholm police inspector Martin Beck who also fights crime in The Locked Room. If you don't mind Scandinavian dreariness or brutal crimes, put this Edgar winning duo next on your list.
Even James Patterson has hopped on the bandwagon with his own Swedish crime thriller, The Postcard Killers, which he co-wrote with Swedish novelist, Lisa Marklund. We have plenty of extra copies of this book on hand. The number one bestselling author in Europe, Marklund has yet to make it big in the USA, but expect more of her books to surface here in the near future.
Swedish mystery writer Henning Mankell's Detective Inspector Kurt Wallander series features a rumpled, irritable middle-aged cop. Though the character failed to capture the same devoted attention of American readers as did Larsson's tattooed heroine, the author gets high praise for intricate plotting and for his tackling of social and global issues. Try The Dogs of Riga or any of his other available mysteries for something different.
The Scandanavian invasion is not just limited to Sweden. Many top notch crime writers hail from other countries, including Norwegian writer Karin Fossum. Her Inspector Sejer series is kicked off by Don't Look Back, set in an idyllic Norwegian village. Fossum is another author who is widely acclaimed across Europe and many of her books are available here as well.Most of the international mystery authors write series mysteries with continuing characters. However, their books that are published in the USA may vary from the order in which they were published in their native countries. In most cases it is unnecessary to read an author's books in any particular order. Check with the Reference Desk to join the Adult Winter Reading Club and pick up a kit for your Passport to Mystery.
