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Originally Posted by NightBird
I've read the first four books by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, including The Laughing Policeman, but I frankly wasn't that impressed because there really wasn't much to the "mystery" part of it. I did enjoy the humor - particularly in the quips exchanged among the policemen - but not enough to make me keep reading the series. I enjoyed the Stieg Larrson very much - I think because they were quite complex stories with a lot of different elements to them and interesting characters in addition to a good mystery. A lot of these so-called mysteries seem to be more of mainstream books with a little, weak mystery thrown in on top as an afterthought. I didn't care for the couple of books I've read by Henning Mankell, either, mainly due to his rather odd writing style, although of course it could be the translation.
I just learned about the "Amsterdam policemen series by Van De Wetering" also and just started the first one in the series. The combination of Amsterdam setting, Japan and Buddhism sounds intriguing.
I have Jo Nesbo on my list, too.
If you haven't seen it, here is a good website for finding out about Scandinavian authors. Of course, unfortunately, a lot of them are not in ebooks yet.
http://www.scandinavianbooks.com/index.html |
Thank you for the link to the index of Scandinavian books. A few days ago I began reading Janwillem Van Der Wetering's "Outsider in Amsterdam". I am delighting in it. I think you're right about the Amsterdam setting mixing well with elements of Asian culture and religion. The books contain some very fetching social statements as well as some very downplayed humor, that almost at times seems to be ingenious - and oh so enjoyable.