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Red
herrings and other puzzles surround the subject of detective
fiction, not least when it comes to terminology and definitions.
This type of story is variously labelled detective story,
crime novel, thriller, murder mystery, whodunit. We encounter
the sub-genres of the classical puzzle, the psychological
novel, the locked-door mystery, the Had-I-But-Known, the police
procedural and so on. I was torn between calling this Supplement
“Swedish Detective Fiction” or “The Swedish Detective Story”
and my eventual title, Swedish Crime Writers. Although some
critics, writers and academics get hung up on definitions
and variations, personally I have no argument with “detective
story”, in that even modern thrillers and crime novels will
involve some element of detection. Indeed I teach, at the
University of Hull, two modules called respectively “The Swedish
Detective Story’” and “European Detective Fiction”. Detective
fiction can usefully be employed as a generic term which can
encompass all these variants referred to above.
Yet
I decided against the term Detective Fiction, since the term
detective story tends to be associated with the puzzle-orientated
mysteries of the pre and early post-war period. Crime novel
probably better describes the work of Sweden’s leading contemporary
crime writers, and with the exception of the first two extracts
included in this Supplement, you will find only contemporary
Swedish writers here.
I
have included one early post-war writer like Maria Lang as
well as the great political procedural writers Sjöwall and
Wahlöö of the sixties and seventies in order to give some
indication of the journey through time detective — or crime!
— fiction has taken in Sweden. However, I also wanted this
to be a celebration of the depth of new talent in contemporary
Swedish crime writing. Not only is contemporary Swedish crime
writing reflecting an increased depth of talent, but I hope
that something of the variety of this genre will also be demonstrated.
Although translations of works by the likes of Henning Mankell
and Liza Marklund are introducing Swedish crime writing to
an English-speaking readership, I would also like this Supplement
to serve as a showcase for some lesser known names — in particular
“new” women writers such as Åsa Nilsonne and Helene Tursten.
I
could, of course, have made other choices: Trenter in addition
to or instead of Lang, Rönblom, Heller, Kerstin Ekman, a Wallander
novel. From the list of contemporary names I could have selected
the rather different and rather good Karin Alvtegen — recent
winner of the Glass Key prize awarded annually to a Scandinavian
crime writer — Kjell Eriksson or the enjoyable Willy Josefsson.
I could also have made myself extremely unpopular with our
Chief Editor by ignoring budget considerations with an — even
more — extended Supplement! So, let this be a taster; discover
more about Swedish crime / detective writing for yourselves
and perhaps in a few years time there may even be yet another
Supplement on Swedish Crime (or perhaps even Detective?) writers!
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