Ten crime novels from Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden have made the longlist for the 2024 ‘Petrona Award’ for the ‘Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year’. They are:

Tove Alsterdal – You Will Never Be Found tr. Alice Menzies (Sweden, Faber & Faber)
Anne Mette Hancock – The Collector tr. Tara F Chace (Denmark, Swift Press)
Jørn Lier Horst – Snow Fall tr. Anne Bruce (Norway, Michael Joseph)
Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger – Stigma tr. Megan E Turney (Norway, Orenda Books)
Arnaldur Indriðason – The Girl by the Bridge tr. Philip Roughton (Iceland, Harvill Secker)
Jógvan Isaksen – Dead Men Dancing tr. Marita Thomsen (Faroe Islands, Denmark, Norvik Press)
Åsa Larsson – The Sins of our Fathers tr. Frank Perry (Sweden, MacLehose Press)
Lilja Sigurðardottir – White as Snow tr. Quentin Bates (Iceland, Orenda Books)
Yrsa Sigurðardottir – The Prey tr. Victoria Cribb (Iceland, Hodder & Stoughton)
Karin Smirnoff – The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons tr. Sarah Death (Sweden, MacLehose Press)

The longlist contains a mix of newer and more established authors including previous Petrona Award winners, Jørn Lier Horst and Yrsa Sigurðardottir. Both large and small publishers are represented on the longlist, with Orenda Books and MacLehose Press both having two entries, and the breakdown by country is Iceland (3), Sweden (3), Denmark (2) and Norway (2).

The shortlist will be announced on 10 October 2024.

The Petrona Award 2024 judging panel comprises Jackie Farrant, the creator of RAVEN CRIME READS and a bookseller/Area Commercial Support for a major book chain in the UK and Ewa Sherman, translator and writer, and blogger at NORDIC LIGHTHOUSE, with additional help from Sarah Ward, author, former Petrona Award judge and current CWA Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger judge. The Award administrator is Karen Meek, owner of the EURO CRIME blog and website.

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.

Read more on Petronaaward.co.uk