The best Scandi noir books to read right now

The book which inspired the hit Netflix series, this addictive Scandi noir thriller is as much about the nature of family as it is about the crime at its heart. When eighteen-year-old Stella comes home late one night, her parents Adam and Ulrika think nothing of it, until they wake up the next morning to the news their daughter is accused of a brutal murder. Finding themselves in a living nightmare, Adam and Ulrika fight to uncover the truth, and work out how well they’ve known their child all along. 

A cold case, a missing man, and a hunt for one of Sweden’s most notorious killers. Inspector Barbarotti is back in The Axe Woman, the gripping fifth Scandi noir book in Håkan Nesser's bestselling series. Searching for Arnold Morinder, a man who vanished without a trace five years ago, Inspector Gunnar Barbarotti begins with the man’s ex-partner, Ellen Bjarnebo, a convicted murderer, who claims the missing man had traveled abroad. When Barbarotti realises that Ellen has also disappeared after her release from prison, he begins a relentless pursuit to uncover what really happened to Arnold.

Embarking on a camping trip in Iceland’s desolate yet beautiful volcanic landscape, four friends set off to escape the pressures of everyday life. As they venture deeper into the hinterland, their jeep becomes shrouded in fog, and they crash into a remote farmhouse. Taking shelter with the elderly couple who live there, the friends begin to wonder why they barricade themselves inside at night. After discovering what they hope are animal bones in the abandoned village nearby, the group soon realises they are in far greater danger than they ever imagined.  

Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder – and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, truculent computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. When the pair link Harriet's disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.

Detectives Pia Kirchoff and Oliver von Bodenstein arrive at the scene of a strange accident on a rainy November day – a woman has fallen from a bridge and onto the motorway below, and it seems she may have been pushed. The hunt for clues leads them to a small town near Frankfurt and the home of Rita Cramer, the victim. But eleven years earlier, two girls vanished without trace from the same village, leading to the imprisonment of Rita's son Tobias. As he returns to the village to clear his name, events from the past appear to repeat themselves. The first book in the Bodenstein & Kirchoff crime series, Snow White Must Die is the international bestseller from Nele Nauhaus. 

As she begins her final day in Copenhagen’s police department, Detective Sarah Lund is ready to say goodbye to the city ahead of her move to Sweden. But her plans for a fresh start are thwarted when nineteen-year-old student Nanna Birk Larsen is found brutally murdered, and Lund and her partner, Jan Meyer, are assigned to the case. Searching for the killer, the pair find themselves at the heart of Copenhagen’s City Hall, as they discover the case is connected to the city’s political elite. The Killing 1 is David Hewson's novelisation of the hit Scandi noir crime drama of the same name.

A suspenseful story from international crime-thriller sensation Camilla Läckberg, The Ice Princess follows Erica Falck as she returns to her childhood home – the tiny, remote village of Fjällbacka, Sweden – following the death of her parents. Having only just arrived, Erica encounters another tragedy: the suicide of her childhood best friend, Alex. A beautiful woman who had it all, Erica is bewildered as to why Alex would take her own life, until she teams up with police detective Patrik Hedström. As the two delve deeper into the mysteries' of Alex's childhood, their friendly flirtation gives way to powerful attraction, just as it becomes clear that a deadly secret is at stake. 

The first novel in the acclaimed Martin Beck mystery series is renowned as a masterpiece, from crime writing duo Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. Martin Beck is hunting for a murderer. When a young woman's body is pulled from Sweden's picturesque Lake Vattern, Beck opens an investigation into the identities of both murderer and victim. Three months later, all Beck has is a name – Roseanna. As Beck's list of suspects gets shorter, his obsession with the murderer and his psychopathology begins to deepen . . .

Louise Rick, a rookie homicide detective from Copenhagen, becomes entangled in a complex series of murder investigations. Assigned first to the strangling of a young woman in a park, she quickly becomes involved in another case, one that her best friend and journalist Camilla is extremely close to. Despite Louise trying to keep her friend away from the case, Camilla's never been one to miss out on a scoop – but has she gone too far this time? Now an internationally bestselling series, Louise Rick's debut in The Midnight Witness launched Sara Blaedel's incredible career.