Finished
A Darker Shade: 17 Swedish Stories of Murder, Mystery & Suspense edited and translated by
John-Henri Holmberg, which I got some time ago when it was on sale (or there was deep-discount couponage; I forget which), and have been reading on and off on public transit over the past few weeks. This is a feature collection of short stories by notable Swedish crime authors, intended as a taster for their longer works, and accordingly there's stuff by very famous authors such as the late Stieg Larsson (a science fiction crime story written for a fanzine when he was 17, apparently one of the few short works of his they could dig up), and some other authors who don't seem to otherwise be available in English translation yet, with a mix of previously-published and newly-written stories.
This was a good mix of subgenres, styles, and settings represented, with standalone and series-introductory tales, including a self-indulgent crossover featuring Henning Mankell (of Wallander fame) & Håkan Nesser's detectives meeting each other and their authors, with many pieces being rather good indeed, and only a few that felt like duds (mostly due to the subject matter not meshing with me, rather than lack of prose quality). There were relatively straightforward standard sleuth vs. serial killer stories, but also stories which looked into fuzzier issues like following up on suspected child neglect by a stranger with no proof, what sort of justice can possibly be meted out after the statute of limitations for prosecution for a murder has passed, institutional prejudice and the morality of allowing someone who was guilty of one thing to be falsely accused of entirely another in order that they be punished, using one crime to cover up another as murderers are framed by other murderers, and other pleasantly complex and nuanced themes. For some reason, there's a lot of Christmas murders going on in Sweden (even allowing for the fact that a couple of them were reprints from holiday-themed anthologies).
IMHO, there were especially standout contributions from Åsa Larsson (an historical piece set in Kiruna, a Swedish mining town now apparently being undermined by its success and
in danger of collapsing into a giant sinkhole, featuring the Laestadian religious sect who judging from their relatively frequent appearances in Nordic crime thrillers—this is the 3rd appearance by them that I've read in the past few years—must be the equivalent of the Amish in terms of fictional popularity), Inger Frimansson (a psychological portrait of despair and resentment that can lead to taking lives), Anna Jansson (an interesting look at escape into fantasy as a coping device for unpleasant reality), Tove Alsterdahl (examining the feelings of guilt and culpability in a not-murder where maybe one could have saved a life). Also quite interesting were the stories by Dag Öhrlund, Magnus Montelius, and Sara Stridsberg (apparently a literary author who wrote a story which did not involve Swedes at all, but was a glimpse into the mindset of a notorious historical accessory).
Highly recommended as a good introductory taster to a lot of Swedish crime authors if you're interested, even if some of the pieces are apparently non-representative of their usual novel-length work. There are helpful biographical/bibliographical write-ups before and after each piece, which mention what each author is known for and some of their key titles. I've added a lot of new-to-me authors to my to-try list, if I can get my hands on their stuff.