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 ... The book’s first half...is a spellbinding long essay in which Lesser tells us what she has learned in four decades of reading Scandinavian noir ... Her engagement with the source material, hundreds of titles’ worth, is rigorous yet playful. She’s interested in the art on the walls in the characters’ homes, as well as the psychology behind the books’ most frequent themes — children in danger, female sexuality, the political ramifications of immigration ... She manages to interview several real-life police detectives, while also seeing the region’s museums, castles and tourist attractions. It’s charming and illuminating, if not quite equal to the brilliance of the first section. Perhaps when it comes to fiction and reality, what we need most are critics like Lesser, who can dissect the former with the tools of the latter.
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 ... Fans of Nordic crime fiction who have traveled through the pages of many of these books will surely enjoy Scandinavian Noir, and it's an interesting (if somewhat light) exercise in comparing fiction and real-life ... The third-person narration of the second part is very odd, but the stilted approach does have the benefit of holding the reader's attention -- it's like a camera-angle one has never seen before (say, everything being filmed from ground level), captivating in its own right ... An enjoyable variation on the usual 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 ... It’s a brave author who can so blithely link the term 'sadistic tendencies' with the experience of reading something written by, for instance, Henning Mankell, but Lesser is tenaciously hoping that she’s preaching to the convertible ... Nordic noir has an unaccountably enormous fan-base, and Wendy Lesser has written the ultimate love-letter to both those books and those fans. And given how endlessly allusive Scandinavian Noir is, even those fans may find some new recommendations in these pages, along the general principle of misery loving company, one assumes.
Part literary criticism and part travelogue, this exceptionally well-conceived cultural history compares the 'mental image' of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden that critic Lesser...derived from immersion in Nordic noir thrillers, and the reality she found when she finally visited those countries ... Lesser is remarkably encyclopedic in her knowledge of Nordic noir and easily conveys her enthusiasm to readers. This fine exploration of fiction as reality and reality as fiction will draw many readers to the authors she covers.
...comprehensive and insightful assessment of noir novels from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark ... [Lesser] clearly has her finger on the pulse of Scandinavian society, discussing such topics as childhood abuse, obsessive references to original art, a scarcity of Jewish as well as female and gay cops, and sadism ... Lesser’s opinionated Appendix summarizes the series that she has read, and her recommended list of TV adaptations is user-friendly as well ... Perfect for any die-hard fan of Scandinavian mysteries and culture.
