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Maybe someday
36
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
4/100Critics
67/100Scholars
Author:
Wendy Lesser
Publisher:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Date:
May 5, 2020
An in-depth and personal exploration of Scandinavian crime fiction as a way into Scandinavian culture at large.
What The Reviewers Say
Lesser isn’t here to win converts, but even those unmoved by its subject will thrill to the book, a beautifully crafted inquiry into fiction, reality, crime and place.
Lesser concludes the volume with a useful appendix, in which she shares her favorite Scandinavian mysteries, along with helpful commentary. Whether readers are transfixed by the spectacular exploits of Lisbeth Salander, or impressed with the doggedness of Kurt Wallander, or even if they've never encountered these characters, they'll find in Scandinavian Noir an entertaining journey into the world of these mysteries and the cultural milieu that spawned them.
...an enjoyable travelogue.
Once these thematic commonalities have been laid out, the examination that follows is utterly delicious. Lesser is the perfect, upbeat guide to all this dour Nordic wet-wash, and she’s eloquent on the bedrock reasons why people might subject themselves to such books in the first place.
