Brian Oliver at the Guardian has an interesting piece about Norwegian authors whose protagonists face neo-Nazi hate groups in their fiction, starting with Norwegian Jo Nesbø’s The Redbreast. Oliver concentrates on Norwegian authors, but also mentions Swedes like Henning Mankell, who wove far-right extremism into Return of the Dancing Master, as well as some of his Wallander books.
Oliver mentions other Norwegians like Karin Fossum, KO Dahl and Gunnar Staalesen. The only one I’ve read is Nesbø, whose Harry Hole is a morose and conflicted alcoholic, and an interesting protagonist, like Mankell’s Wallander. Maybe some of you have read the others and can offer an evaluation in the comments.
Scandinavian detective fiction is interesting because it deals with broader social issues, and if you’ve been reading it, the notion that a right wing extremist would do something violent in those countries isn’t much of a surprise.