Today we welcome local Nordic Noir expert Miriam Owen to the blog to give you a wee preview of the Scandi flavoured events at Bloody Scotland this year.
Recent news and opinions at book festivals have bolstered the argument that Nordic Noir and Scandinavian Blanc* are going to be around for much longer and Bloody Scotland festival goers have a selection of Nordic choices at this year’s festival.
First up is The Swedish Crime Wave panel on Saturday 22nd of September at 10.30am. This session features Christoffer Carlsson, Johana Gustawsson and Will Dean. All of these authors have novels set in Sweden however not all are Swedish. Johana is French and married to a Swede and Will is English moved to rural Sweden to be with his Swedish wife. Johana’s book Keeper is published by Orenda who also published Bloody Scotland favourite Ragnar Jonasson’s Dark Iceland series. Will’s book Dark Pines is featured in Zoe Ball’s Book Club on ITV whilst Christoffer is the youngest person to win Swedish crime novel of the year for his Leo Junker series. Varying viewpoints to be expected!
The second panel for Nordic Noir fans is The Reykjavik Connections panel featuring Ragnar Jonasson (Darkness) along with fellow Icelander Lilja Sigurdardottir (Snare) and the UK’s Simon Cox on Sunday 23rd September at 12.45pm. Simon recently conducted a BBC News investigation about a case in Iceland’s crime history which has been turned into a book – The Reykjavik Confessions. This case is really fascinating and makes you think about prejudice and the role of the media in society (something I am sure you were all already thinking about anyway!) Ragnar’s latest book Darkness (Hidden Iceland series) has been published by Penguin and is getting positive reviews. Snare is a great read and Lilja’s second book Trap is due out later in autumn 2018. Lilja also appears on the Breaking Barriers panel at 2.30pm with three other authors where she will be talking about gender and sexuality in crime writing and publishing.
Both the Swedish Crime Wave and Reykjavik Connections panels will be chaired by Dr Jacky Collins aka Dr Noir. A colleague in crime she is the organiser of the Newcastle Noir crime writing festival, Noir at the Bar Edinburgh and an avid reader. An excellent panel chair Dr Noir will lead the discussions on numerous themes and will give you an opportunity to ask questions to the authors. We do hope you come along with your friends and enjoy all things Nordic at Bloody Scotland this year.
*Alexander McCall Smith has coined the new phrase Scandinavian Blanc as an alternative to the gritty Nordic Noir. This ties in with his new series featuring Ulf Varg a Swedish detective based in Malmo with a hearing impaired dog, Marten, who can lip read Swedish. McCall Smith recently stated at the Edinburgh International Book Festival that he had tremendous fun writing the book in which no one is murdered!
Miriam Owen