I am not a huge fan of Yrsa. She does all right but she's no Arnaldur. (Good on you to get his last name right-ð and all! How long did you have to search for the symbol? I'm assuming you don't just have it right there on your keyboard, like me...)
Arnaldur's first books were better than his latter tomes, in my opinion. The same is sort of true of Henning Mankell, too. Mankell does best when he stays within the limits of what he can do - he wrote one book about computer theft which just ended up sort of strange. I do enjoy his books, but it's a hassle getting them in Swedish, sometimes.
I'm assuming you've read Stieg Larsson?
If you're willing to veer off the Scandinavian path, my most recent discovery is the French author Fred Vargas. (Don't let the name fool you - she's a woman.) I can honestly recommend all of her books - though "The Chalk Circle Man", her first, is a bit of a bumpy ride. My favourites are "Seeking Whom He May Devour" and "Lord Have Mercy on Us All." Vargas deals mostly in hurts that are so old that motive and links between characters are difficult to find and often extremely tenuous. The main character of the books is Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg, who is... well, he's not like any cop you've seen before. The best thing about every single book is the characterization. No matter how trivial, every character leaps off the page.
I'm totally a whodunit junkie, but I haven't been able to afford books in years, until now, suddenly, and then I haven't had much luck finding stuff I want to read...
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Arnaldur's first books were better than his latter tomes, in my opinion. The same is sort of true of Henning Mankell, too. Mankell does best when he stays within the limits of what he can do - he wrote one book about computer theft which just ended up sort of strange. I do enjoy his books, but it's a hassle getting them in Swedish, sometimes.
I'm assuming you've read Stieg Larsson?
If you're willing to veer off the Scandinavian path, my most recent discovery is the French author Fred Vargas. (Don't let the name fool you - she's a woman.) I can honestly recommend all of her books - though "The Chalk Circle Man", her first, is a bit of a bumpy ride. My favourites are "Seeking Whom He May Devour" and "Lord Have Mercy on Us All." Vargas deals mostly in hurts that are so old that motive and links between characters are difficult to find and often extremely tenuous. The main character of the books is Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg, who is... well, he's not like any cop you've seen before. The best thing about every single book is the characterization. No matter how trivial, every character leaps off the page.
I'm totally a whodunit junkie, but I haven't been able to afford books in years, until now, suddenly, and then I haven't had much luck finding stuff I want to read...