Nordic Killers

Swedish mystery writers continue to hit high on bestseller lists both at home and abroad. In Sweden, the collaboration between Swedish bestseller Liza Marklund and American megasell-ing author James Patterson, Postcard Killers, debuted at #1 in February. Postcards will be published in the U.S. in August by Patterson's U.S. house, Little, Brown, where the authorship is described as “James Patterson & Liza Marklund #1 Bestselling Author in Europe.” The new top-selling novel in Spain last month was The Blood Spilt by Swedish crime writer Asa Larsson. Spilt was published in the U.S. as a trade paperback by Delta in 2007, following the publication of Larsson's debut novel, Sun Storm in 2006. Delta published Larsson's The Black Path in 2008. All three titles are also available in Kindle editions.

The top three sellers in Germany in February were all new and included another Scandinavian, Norwegian author Jo Nesbø, whose Leopard landed in third place. Nesbø has been published in the U.S. by HarperCollins, and the publisher has just released The Devil's Star, the third title featuring Oslo detective Harry Hole. Nesbø has a five-city U.S. tour scheduled to promote Star, which received a starred PW review. The literary discussion in Germany, however, has been dominated by the book and author in the second position at the end of February—teenager Helene Hegemann and her Axolotl Roadkill. The book was an early critical success before it was discovered that Hegemann had copied parts of it. Her vigorous defense of her work as “mixing” rather than plagiarism has drawn international media attention but no American publisher.

In nonfiction, the #1 title in Sweden is one that could come straight from the Running Press or Cider Mill catalogue—Rubberband Exercise, which the publisher notes comes with that popular exercise tool, the rubber band.

International Bestsellers