
For decades the Swedes have excelled at crime fiction, which is often as gloomy as their long winter nights, filled with philosophical asides on life and politics. Procedure, rather than clues or flights of deductive fancy, are the usual hallmarks of a Scandinavian thriller. You’ll find plenty of that in Helen Tursten’s finely crafted novels but she also pays homage to the grand old form, down to a bit of old-fashioned alibi busting.