Outstanding crime fiction – twelve crime novels from Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden have made the longlist for the 2025 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year. They are:

1. Samuel Bjørk – Dead Island tr. Charlotte Barslund (Norway, Bantam)
2. Stella Blómkvist – Murder Under the Midnight Sun tr. Quentin Bates (Iceland, Corylus Books)
3. Pascal Engman – The Widows tr. Neil Smith (Sweden, Legend Press)
4. Malin Persson Giolito – Deliver Me tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles (Sweden, Simon & Schuster)
5. Óskar Guðmundsson – The Dancer tr. Quentin Bates (Iceland, Corylus Books)
6. Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger – Victim tr. Megan E Turney (Norway, Orenda Books)
7. Jo Nesbø – Blood Ties tr. Robert Ferguson (Norway, Harvill Secker)
8. Aslak Nore – The Sea Cemetery tr. Deborah Dawkin (Norway, MacLehose Press)
9. Sólveig Pálsdóttir – Shrouded tr. Quentin Bates (Iceland, Corylus Books)
10. Satu Rämö – The Clues in the Fjord tr. Kristian London (Finland, Zaffre)
11. Max Seeck – Ghost Island tr. Kristian London (Finland, Mountain Leopard Press)
12. Gunnar Staalesen – Pursued by Death tr. Don Bartlett (Norway, Orenda Books)

The longlist contains a mix of newer and more established authors including previous Petrona Award winners Pascal Engman, Malin Persson Giolito, Jørn Lier Horst, and Gunnar Staalesen. Both large and small publishers are represented on the longlist, with Corylus Books having an impressive three entries. The breakdown by country is Norway (5), Iceland (3), Finland (2) and Sweden (2).

The shortlist will be announced on 18 September 2025.

The Petrona Award 2025 judging panel comprises Jackie Farrant, the creator of RAVEN CRIME READS and a bookseller for a major book chain in the UK; Ewa Sherman, translator, writer and blogger at NORDIC LIGHTHOUSE, and Sonja van der Westhuizen, a book critic for print and online publications in the UK and South Africa, as well as a blogger at WEST WORDS REVIEWS. The Award administrator is Karen Meek, owner of the EURO CRIME blog and website.

The Petrona team would like to thank our sponsor, David Hicks, for his continuing support of the Petrona Award.

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 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. More information on the history of the Award and previous winners can be found at The Petrona Award website.