Crime scene Sweden

There are different ways of experiencing a country. Visitors to Sweden commonly focus on the diversity and beauty; they are awed by the picture-perfect settings and soothed by the calm. However, for those who dare, the journey from the south of Sweden to the north can be made through the eyes and minds of modern crime fiction writers. Swedish crime fiction has a reputation for exploring and analyzing society and the human psyche, while thrilling readers all around the world.

Millennium character Mikael Blomkvist's home on Bellmansgatan in Stockholm. It is one of many stops on the Millennium tour of Stockholm which is arranged to give tourists and fans a chance to see the locations in real life. Photo: Frédéric Reglain/Image Bank Sweden 

In 2010, there were three Swedish crime fiction authors in the top ten list of the most sold novels in Europe. If you consider that Sweden has a population of nine million inhabitants, compared with over 850 million for Europe as a whole, you realize that this is something of a phenomenon — a Swedish crime fiction phenomenon.

Sweden is perhaps not seen as a crime-ridden country. On the contrary. But through authors like Stieg Larsson, Henning Mankell and many others, it has become known for fictional crimes — and well-written ones at that.

Join us on a journey through the darker, but fictional sides of Sweden — as seen and described by the numerous Swedish crime authors now delighting fans of murder and mystery world-wide.

The authors portrayed here represent some of Sweden’s many crime fiction writers. But there are other prolific and talented story tellers too, who are also translated and well-appreciated outside Sweden. We would urge you to use this booklet as an entry point to Sweden, its literature and the thrills of the country.

Created by the Embassy of Sweden, New Delhi, India, in cooperation with VisitSweden, the Swedish Institute in Paris and other individual authors and publishing houses. Author presentations largely based on texts by Gerard Meudal.

The authors alone are responsible for the opinions expressed in this article.

Go to the first section of this publication: Southern Sweden