OUTSTANDING CRIME FICTION FROM DENMARK, FINLAND, ICELAND, NORWAY, SWEDEN AND SWITZERLAND LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 PETRONA AWARD

The award is open to crime fiction in translation, either written by a Scandinavian author or set in Scandinavia and published in the UK in the previous calendar year. Twelve crime novels from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland have made the longlist for the 2023 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year.

They are:

Jussi Adler-Olsen – The Shadow Murders, tr. William Frost (Denmark, Quercus) 

Lina Areklew – Death in Summer, tr. Tara F Chace (Sweden, Canelo Crime)

Kjell Ola Dahl – Little Drummer, tr. Don Bartlett (Norway, Orenda Books)

Pascal Engman – Femicide, tr. Michael Gallagher (Sweden, Legend Press)

Anne Mette Hancock – The Corpse Flower, tr. Tara F Chace (Denmark, Swift Press)

Susanne Jansson – Winter Water, tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles (Sweden, Hodder & Stoughton)

Håkan Nesser – The Axe Woman, tr. Sarah Death (Sweden, Mantle)

Petra Rautiainen – Land of Snow and Ashes, tr. David Hackston (Finland, Pushkin Press)

Joachim B Schmidt – Kalmann, tr. Jamie Lee Searle (Switzerland, Bitter Lemon Press)

Lilja Sigurðardóttir – Red as Blood, tr. Quentin Bates (Iceland, Orenda Books)

Gustaf Skördeman – Codename Faust, tr. Ian Giles (Sweden, Zaffre)

Gunnar Staalesen – Bitter Flowers, tr. Don Bartlett (Norway, Orenda Books)

The significantly increased number of entries for this year’s Petrona Award illustrates the continuing popularity of Scandinavian crime fiction in translation. The longlist contains a mix of new and established authors including previous Petrona Award winner, Gunnar Staalesen. Both large and small publishers are represented on the longlist, with Orenda Books leading with three entries, and the breakdown by country is Sweden (5), Denmark (2), Norway (2), Finland (1), Iceland (1) and Switzerland (1), with translators Don Bartlett and Tara F Chace having translated two entries each.

The shortlist will be announced on 7 September 2023.

The Petrona Award was established to celebrate the work of Maxine Clarke, one of the first online crime fiction reviewers and bloggers, who died in December 2012. Maxine, whose online persona and blog was called Petrona, was passionate about translated crime fiction but in particular that from the Scandinavian countries.

The Petrona Award 2023 judging panel comprises Jackie Farrant, the creator of RAVEN CRIME READS and a bookseller / Area Commercial Support for a major book chain in the UK; Miriam Owen, founder of the NORDIC NOIR blog, passionate about the arts, she moderates author panels and provides support at crime fiction festivals, and Ewa Sherman, translator and writer, and blogger at NORDIC LIGHTHOUSE. The Award administrator is Karen Meek, owner of the EURO CRIME blog and website.

More information on the history of the Award and previous winners can be found at the Petrona Award website (https://www.petronaaward.co.uk/). The Petrona team would like to thank our sponsor, David Hicks, for his generous support of the 2023 Petrona Award.