The Academy will retroactively recognize a winner for 2018, too |
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| The Thread's Must Read | 
"I Remember You" by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
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I was reading Henning Mankell long before Scandinavian noir was trendy. And I like Stockholm as much as the next gal, but I think Scandinavian noir — as a genre — gets way too much attention.
It might even be obscuring some great crime thrillers set in some other really interesting places. So, I’ve got some crime thriller recommendations from everywhere but Sweden for the next few weeks.
Put your tray tables up and buckle in, because we’re landing in Reykjavik, Iceland, for our first thriller, where Yrsa Sigurdardottir is a mystery writing rock star. More Americans should be reading her books.
Sigurdardottir has an ongoing series featuring a lawyer who undertakes intricate investigations that often have a dimension of the occult to them, and they are all worth reading.
But I’m recommending her standalone novel, “I Remember You: A Ghost Story.” The ingredients include an alluring yet creepy house in a remote fjord that needs renovation, and naive city people — a married couple and a friend — who take on the job thinking, “How hard could this be?”
A boat captain drops them off for a week. Cue the ominous music. Spirits stir. Strange children appear. And an excellent parallel plotline ensues.
All the stuff you need for a great crime thriller!
But what I especially like about both Sigurdardottir’s series and this novel is how easily she weaves the landscape and cultural geography of Iceland into the story. I’m learning as much about what Icelanders are interested in, how they view the world, how they see themselves, as I am about the details of the mystery that’s being solved.
— Kerri Miller |
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 | | 'The Wolf and the Watchman' has serious bite | "The Wolf and the Watchman" a novel by Niklas Natt och Dag |
| Buy this book
Niklas Natt och Dag's new novel is both ornate period piece — set in the grit and grime of late-18th-century Stockholm — and riveting murder mystery starring a mismatched pair of proto-gumshoes.
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 | | 'A Friend is a Gift' for crime novel fans | "A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself" a novel by William Boyle |
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William Boyle's new novel follows mob widow Rena, her granddaughter and an ex-porn-star neighbor, on the run from a crazed mafia enforcer in — what else? — a 1962 Chevy Impala.
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