Arctic Stunner Earns the Petrona

Norwegian author Ørjan Karlsson’s Into Thin Air (Orenda) has won the 2026 Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year.

“Ørjan Karlsson puts a spotlight on the stunning beauty of the Lofoten Islands in the Norwegian Arctic Circle while discovering devastating secrets hidden beneath the calm surface,” reads the judges’ statement released alongside this news. “With empathy and deep understanding he introduces a fascinating investigative duo dealing with personal challenges, and explores relationships within the tight-knit community. Told from several perspectives, Into Thin Air has a contemporary feel and nuanced narration. This taut and tense thriller has a strong sense of location and utterly engaging characters, with nature as one of them. Perfect pacing and atmospheric storytelling add to the compelling story, which moves seamlessly between recent European political history and dramatic local events from the past, all of them having impact on everyone in the area.”

Both Karlsson and his translator, Ian Giles, will receive trophies.

In addition, today’s award announcement says judges “highly commend” another shortlisted nominee for this prize, Broken, “the dark and compulsive police procedural by Jón Atli Jónasson, which is translated by Quentin Bates and published by Corylus Books.”

Five other novels were also in contention for this year’s Petrona: One True Word, by Snæbjörn Arngrímsson, translated by Larissa Kyzer (Pushkin Vertigo, Iceland); Murder Tide, by Stella Blómkvist, translated by Quentin Bates (Corylus, Iceland); The Writing in the Water, by John Ajvide Lindqvist, translated by Michael Meigs (Amazon Crossing, Sweden); The Grave in the Ice, by Satu Rämö, translated by Kristian London (Zaffre, Finland); and The Winter Job, by Antti Tuomainen, translated by David Hackston (Orenda, Finland).

The Petrona Award memorializes Maxine Clarke, the British editor, crime-fiction blogger, and “champion of Scandinavian crime fiction” who passed away in December 2012 (Petrona was the name of her long-running blog). Previous recipients include Satu Rämö’s The Clues in the Fjord (2025), Jógvan Isaksen’s Dead Men Dancing (2024), Pascal Engman’s Femicide (2023), and Maria Adolfsson’s Fatal Isles (2022), and Mikael Niemi’s To Cook a Bear (2021).