Another good Scandinavian author
343888
I thought this book was absorbing and well written. Really liked the lead character and I'm looking forward to reading more in the series. The ending was a surprise and worked fairly well.
1379114
If you love good Scandinavian crime thrillers, you'll love this.  Great characterization and plot.  Can't wait to read more with Sebastian Bergman.  I love books whose characters and humanity resonate with me long after I've read them..
2006291
Another good one from an author I have started to watch for.
3472331
I'm going to try and read all the books in this series.  Very good mysteries.  Some of the Swedish words were hard to pronounce in my mind but not distracting.
2137654
Too many Scandinavian series are jumping on the Nordic Noir bandwagon. They seem to be either very good (The Killing, The Bridge & Those Who Kill) or very poor (Arne Dahl). This one is the latter. The strength of the good ones is that the characters and the plots are strong and hold your attention. The poor ones however, like this one, have weak characters and a rambling story that too often has obvious trivial filler scenes. They also tend to have too many main characters resulting in none of them being developed much as the plot jumps from one to another. The only reason I didn't give this one star is that unlike Arne Dahl, I didn't actually fall asleep watching this. Pretty close though. Compare that with The Killing where I watched about five episodes in a row.
4474488
Good continuation of the serial.  Many colorful characters introduced alongside heroes Blomkvist and Salander.  No letdown from the first novel.  Larsson = the Scandinavian Robert Ludlum.

Looking forward to reading the third in the trilogy.
522829
Having been reading a few of the Scandinavian writers after helplessly roaring through Larsson with mixed feelings, I tried Nesbo. Really like the way he writes two stories occurring and sometimes interacting at once with implications of more. Some of the Scandinavians seem to be writing in a more "contemplative" mood - Mankel, Nesson. Nesbo's style is a bit more active. Like him a lot!
3704898
What all of Kate's books that I have read do is start with disparate people and events which slowly but surely come together in interesting and often surprising ways.

By the time the story takes over, you know and are rooting for or against all the main players.

Intricate and interesting. As good or better than the best of the Scandinavians. Must be the latitude.
4694458
I enjoyed reading this author. The characters were easily brought to life and seemed real. My family is from Malmo Sweden so I was interested to try this author. I would read more by this author, especially if she does a series that follows a character through a time period.
3165383
Another good novel from Iceland's Arnaldur Indridason. This time Erlendur is out of the plot and Sigurdur Oli plays only a minor part. This solid police procedural plus glum Northwest Scandinavian psychological novel features Elinborg, who - to me - is the most interesting character of the trio. She is, thankfully, no "profiler"; she is just a down-to-earth, hardworking detective, who follows her instinct and manages to extract the important leads from the scarce evidence in the case of a strange rape/murder case, where the presumed rapist was found under the influence of Rohypnol. Elinborg reminds me of Marge Gunderson in Fargo, as played by Frances McDormand.

I have been fascinated with Iceland for many years, and this novel adds a lot to my vision of this country. Thanks to Indridason I feel like I almost have been to Iceland. Elinborg is not only a detective; she is also a cookbook writer. There are some really funny fragments about boiled air-cured haddock. I can't imagine any blander food than that.

"Outrage" is not as good as Indridason's masterpieces "The Draining Lake" or "Silence of the Grave", but it is a very good book.
2642522
If youve not read the first books by Stegg Larssen you may not find this one as interesting. It captures Lisbeth but not quite as clearly. The whole premise was fascinating and didn't just happen in Sweden.
1923512
Jo Nesbo is one of many terrific Scandinavian crime writers. The book is well written with a good plot line and an interesting method of scene changing with some flash backs. Harry Hole, the main character, reminds me of of Michael Connely's Harry Bosch. A hard working street savvy detective who works outside the system. Hole like Bosch has  his own personal problems that always makes the reader feel they might ruin "the case", and sometimes they get close. The author made me feel like I could grasp the Norwegian culture, at least within the geography of this story.

I have read a few of Nesbos books and so far enjoyed them all. If you like gritty crime novels you will like this one.
3283098
For me this was a very enjoyable book. The characters were well developed and their personalities were interesting and understandable.  There was suspense with unexpected twists in the plot.  This book certainly lived up to my expectations of a well-written and interesting novel by a Scandinavian author.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and hated to see it come to an end. I will look for future books by this author.
383302
This isn't nearly as good as the Stieg Larsson books.  The characters are mostly as they were in the original trilogy, but the new author (Lagercrantz) has taken the rough edge off of many of them. In particular, Lisbeth's actions are much more measured and reasonable --- you don't really feel the conflict of righteous desires vs. out-of-control methods any more. You also don't get the sheer sense of horror from the villains' actions that came with the earlier books, and Lisbeth's interactions with them lack the depth of "hornet's nest".  The English translation also had some glitches. Maybe the idioms make sense in Britain, but to an American like me they sounded off.

But despite all these faults, it was still a very good read! The plot was interesting, and the soul of the main characters has been preserved. I still care about Mikel and Lisbeth and Erika and Bublanski like I did before.  There were plenty of good new characters, too. The intricate plot, with some predictable turns but with plenty of surprises, kept my interest through a long trip across the Atlantic, and despite my jet lag I had a hard time putting the book down when I got home.

Bottom line: It's still a good franchise, and I expect to buy additional Millenium books as they come out, even if they lack Larsson's punch. I just wish Larsson's family would let Eva Gabrielsson (Larsson's common-law wife) finish the 4th book that Larsson started.
4228560
This book is the 3rd of a series.  I believe the 4th of the series became available on Nov. 10th.  The same characters are present in all he books, and the stories revolve around murders investigated by the Swedish police.  While I definitely became involved in the plot, I thought events in this story moved a little too slowly.  But all the characters are well developed and I look forward to reading the next adventure of these three main characters.
189092
Sun on Fire is an entertaining police procedural. The detectives are a bit quirky - accident-prone Gunnar, chain smoking Anna and runner Birkir, who seem to have a good team working relationship while also following leads independently. Aside from the hook in the first chapter, the beginning of the book is a bit slow moving, but once they get to Iceland the pace picks up. This is the first Infolfsson book I have read, and I will read more of them.
I am drawn to Nordic mysteries as I enjoy learning about other countries  the landscape, people, culture, customs... Some authors are especially good at creating an atmosphere with the descriptions of the setting. This book, not so much. The first third of the story takes place at the Nordic Embassies in Berlin (Icelandic Embassy, specifically), the rest of the book in Iceland. While the descriptions of the Embassy are very detailed, I don't get a similar feel for Iceland. Disclosure: I received this book as a Good Reads Giveaway and Amazon Crossing.
4839371
Good story of Scandinavia partial history.  Young girl beliefs and her decisions to be the mother of a future king.  Christianity is starting to interfere with the validity of Norse God's. Well written and a good story unfolds but the end leaves an opening for another book.