Oh Yeah, About the Petrona …

As it turns out, I missed another crime-fiction awards announcement during my time away in Europe this month. Just a couple of weeks back, the Euro Crime blog reported that these six books are vying for the 2024 Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year:

• The Collector, by Anne Mette Hancock,
translated by Tara F. Chace (Denmark, Swift Press)
• Snow Fall, by Jørn Lier Horst,
translated by Anne Bruce (Norway, Michael Joseph)
• The Girl by the Bridge, by Arnaldur Indriðason,
translated by Philip Roughton (Iceland, Harvill Secker)
• Dead Men Dancing, by Jógvan Isaksen,
translated by Marita Thomsen (Faroe Islands, Kingdom of
Denmark, Norvik Press)
• The Sins of Our Fathers, by Åsa Larsson,
translated by Frank Perry (Sweden, MacLehose Press)
• The Prey, by Yrsa Sigurðardottir,
translated by Victoria Cribb (Iceland, Hodder & Stoughton)

This shortlist of the latest Petrona nominees has been culled from a previous longlist of works, all published in 2023.

The annual Petrona Award was established in 2013 in memory of Maxine Clarke, a British editor and “champion of Scandinavian crime fiction” who died in 2012. (Petrona was the name of her long-running blog). All entries “must be in translation and published in English in the UK during the preceding calendar,” and their authors “must either be born in Scandinavia or the submission must be set in Scandinavia.” This year’s winner will be announced on November 14.