Europa Blues

Europa Blues The Europe Blues

Intercrime #4

What does the bizarre execution of a man at an open-air museum have to do with eight Eastern European women who have disappeared from a refugee center outside of Stockholm? Do these cases possibly have something to do with the horrifying murder of an old Jewish professor? And what is their relation to the diary from an oblique, nightmarish place on the verge of death in 1945? Could this really have anything to do with A Unit member Arto Söderstedt’s long vacation in Tuscany with his large family? Slowly these seemingly disconnected events converge in the minds of the A Unit. The individual cases come together and form a net that the investigators cast over Europe.

The Europe Blues is the fourth installment in the Intercrime series.

The Europe Blues was No. 1 on the German KrimiWelt-Bestenliste in April 2005.

Awards

The German Crime Fiction Award (Best International Crime Writer) Germany 2006
The Danish Crime Writing Award (Palle Rosenkrantz Prisen) (Best Crime Novel of the Year) Denmark 2004
The Danish Academy of Crime Writers’ Award (The Palle Rosenkrantz Award) Denmark 2003
Close award list

Reviews

  • “After Misterioso, Bad Blood and To The Top Of The Mountain (for which Dahl was recently awarded with the German Crime Writing Award (Deutscher Krimi Preis, 2005), The Europe Blues is yet another highpoint in European crime literature: thought-provoking, with ethical speculations, complex and rich in allusions without being know-it-all, and spiced with grand humor.”

    Tobias Gohlis, Die Zeit, Germany

  • The Europe Blues is quite simply a brilliant piece of mystery literature. Hardly had it reached the shelves before it shot up on the best-seller lists…. Perhaps his best.”

    Der Spiegel, Germany

  • “With his ten crime novels, Arne Dahl is writing a chronicle of Europe. And it´s starting well…. And Arne Dahl has now received a number of awards and is one of Sweden´s most well-known and successful mystery authors. It´s about time that with his fourth book he´s now finally catching on for real in Germany. With his decalogue he actually seems to be succeeding in creating a major work.”

    Die Welt, Germany

  • “You already know about Henning Mankell. It´s time that you read something by Arne Dahl…. For Dahl is a brilliant prose stylist.”

    Stern, Germany

  • “Thus bit by bit the pieces of the puzzle fall into place and at the end a surprise when a sympathetic — as so often happens in Dahl — perpetrator is presented. This is very classic. Every mystery by Dahl is solid. Dahl is a skillful weaver of plots, who has not only read his Thomas Harris but alsoAgatha Christie and, as a young person, Sjöwall/Wahlöö.”

    Die Tagezeitung, Germany

  • “Dahl´s fourth novel about Paul Hjelm and Kerstin Holm of the Intercrime team places itself in the line of classic Swedish mystery literature; he doesn´t need to conceal himself behind his predecessors. The person up for 411 pages will read The Europe Blues in one night. And long for the next case.”

    Der Tagespiegel, Germany

  • “In his fourth book, Dahl succeeds, at a breathless tempo, in relating a dark chapter in the recent Swedish past. A sensational thriller.”

    Hamburger Morgenpost, Germany

  • The Europe Blues is a brilliant work by Arne Dahl. His stylistic command is superb and he has a masterly grasp of plot and composition. His intellectual reach is impressive, and furthermore he has a sensitive ear for the lyrical and humorous. It´s all mixed together, to make the Intercrime series and its heroic hardships a real treat to read. Dahl´s successful combination of grim crime novel with political thriller, serving as a criticism of societies higher services, is according to this critic the best of the four works, up until now published in Danish.”

    Jyllands-Posten, Denmark

  • “A fantastic crime novel by Dahl.”

    BT, Denmark

  • “Arne Dahl is an amazing, even brazen, creator of plot. He guards the purity of poetic logic more than is currently conceived as plausible. The writing of this dark angel is at least twice as good as the others.”

    Information, Denmark

  • “Arne Dahl has taken the lead in Sweden within this sub-genre of crime literature – the police novel.”

    Expressen, Sweden

  • “The best crime novel of the year. I give The Europe Blues, by Arne Dahl, the highest mark. Simply a deviously clever construction.”

    Aftonbladet, Sweden

  • “Dahl keeps me glued to his story about the sex-trade industry in modern-day Europe, and its dark history. He creates a set of cops who are more than cliché. Reading his work is stimulating to say the least. He heaves out fact upon fact pertaining to various areas, almost always relevant to the plot and often interesting despite that. Historical clues are mixed with educated glimpses into the past of the race biological institute and the Finnish winter war, reflexions over the modern-day "economism" and the associations it quickly invokes.”

    GT, Sweden

  • “The tempo is fast-paced throughout and the ending is both refined as well as stirring. The Europe Blues is well-written and very exciting. The author skillfully ties together the pressing issue of international trafficking with the terrors of WWII – the memory of which still casts its dark shadow over Europe. When making a new acquaintance that´s this good in the crime genre, one can only further recommend it for reading.”

    Skånska Dagbladet, Sweden

  • “Arne Dahl is one of the more interesting among new Swedish crime writers.”

    Kvällsposten, Sweden

  • “If you like detective novels, you'll like Arne Dahl. The Europe Blues was the first work by Dahl that I came across and that truly affected me. I was on vacation in Greece but gave up all the beaches, columns and ancient arenas. I was busy reading a book that at times was so horrific I wanted to throw it right into the sea. The sequel was just as impressive and I am already eagerly awaiting the next, and the next, and yet the next one after that.”

    Elle, Sweden

  • “Prepare to lose sleep!”

    Politiken, Denmark

  • “Europa Blues is a superlative crime novel: a complex network of narrative rivulets that all flow to a central roiling torrent that deals with the Holocaust, sex trafficking, the Mafia and some very peckish wolverines. In Dahl’s deft hands this potentially overwhelming plot is rendered effortlessly gripping by writing that is in turns simple and evocative – the crime novel as literary fiction. But Dahl’s elegant writing is not above getting its hands dirty. Europa Blues is violent, exciting and satisfying too.”

    Metro, UK

Author
Photo: Sara Arnald Arne Dahl
Published
2001
Genre
  • Crime
Pages
390
Reading material

Swedish edition

German edition

Rights sold

Czech Republic, Mladá Fronta

Denmark, Modtryk

Estonia, Eesti Raamat

Finland, Otava

France, Seuil

Germany, Piper

Greece, Metaixmio

Italy, Marsilio

Netherlands, De Geus

Norway, Cappelen Damm

Poland, Muza

Slovakia, Priroda

Slovenia, Presernova Druzba

Sweden, Albert Bonniers

UK, Harvill Secker

Film rights sold

Sweden, Filmlance International

More From Arne Dahl

The NOVA series

Berger & Blom

Opcop

Intercrime

Stand-alone