Ian Rankin

Photo of Ovret, courtesy of Visit Sweden So many books are based on real places, but how often do you get a chance to visit them? I’ve lived in London, so recognized the parts of town Monica Ali wrote about in Brick Lane. I’ve travelled to Edinburgh and seen the steep side streets Ian Rankin have described so well in his Rebus books.   Fjällbacka of Camilla Läckberg's brilliant books, however, was a complete unknown to me, despite being a huge fan of her books. I’ve been reading all her books with images in my head that were a mix of the televised Henning Mankell-books and islands I’d been to myself. What a lovely place it turned out to be, though! I can see why Ingrid Bergman spent all her holidays there. Read More

Roseanna by Martin Beck Long renowned as the novels that shaped the future of Scandinavian crime writing, Roseanna is the first book in the hugely acclaimed 10 book Martin Beck detective series from the 1960s that has inspired the writings of Stieg Larsson, Henning Mankell and Jo Nesbo. ‘Roseanna' begins on a July afternoon, the body of a young woman is dredged from Sweden's beautiful Lake Vattern. Three months later, all that Police Inspector Martin Beck knows is that her name is Roseanna, that she came from Lincoln, Nebraska, and that she could have been strangled by any one of eighty-five people. Read More