Jørn Lier Horst is the winner of the 2019 Petrona Award for ‘Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year’ for The Katharina Code. This marks the second time that Horst received the prestigious award – he first did so in 2016 with The Caveman.

The jury motivates their choice of the novel and Horst with the following official comment:

“From the code’s intriguing introduction in the novel’s opening pages to the duel of wits at its end, Jørn Lier Horst has crafted an outstanding and thrilling police procedural. The judges were particularly impressed with how the author takes established tropes – the ‘cold case’, the longstanding suspect, the dogged nature of policework – and combines them in ways that are innovative and fresh. The Katharina Code is the seventh novel in Horst’s ‘William Wisting’ series to be superbly translated by Anne Bruce from Norwegian into English, and a highly worthy winner of the 2019 Petrona Award.”

Niklas Natt och Dag’s The Wolf and the Watchman has been longlisted for the prestigious 2019 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger.

Named after the iconic author Ian Fleming, the award is given to a title that fits the broadest definition of the thriller novel – it can be set in any period and include, but not be limited to, spy fiction and/or action/adventure stories. All in the spirit of Fleming, who said there was one essential criterion for a good thriller – that “one simply has to turn the pages.”

The winners of all the CWA Daggers will be announced at the Dagger Award Dinner in London, on October 24th.

Jørn Lier Horst’s The Katharina Code has been longlisted for the prestigious 2019 CWA International Dagger Award. The winners of all the CWA Daggers will be announced at the Dagger Award Dinner in London, on October 24th.

The official Swedish bestseller lists for the month of April see the repeat appearance of some familiar authorships and titles, starting with Lars Kepler and Lazarus, which comes in at No. 3 in hardcover this month. The seventh Joona Linna novel has featured on the monthly lists since October.

Next on the hardcover lists is Hjorth & Rosenfeldt’s A Higher Justice, coming in at No. 4 this April. The author duo is followed by Fredrik Backman, whose Anxious People debuts on the monthly lists at No. 5 both in hardcover and audio.

The paperback list has Stefan Ahnhem appear at No. 3 with Motive X, the fourth Fabian Risk novel. Stina Jackson nabs the No. 5 spot with The Silver Road, which also features at No. 2 on the e-book list. Jackson’s debut novel has been on the monthly paperback bestseller lists since December last year.

The award-winning Norwegian director Sara Johnsen is one of Scandinavia’s most distinguished directors and writers. In addition to penning and directing TV-series and feature films, Johnsen is the author of two novels: White Man, and He Knows Something She Can Try.

Her first feature film, Kissed by Winter (2005), received fantastic reviews, became Norway’s submission to the Academy Awards, won the Grand Jury Prize at AFI Fest and was nominated for the prestigious Nordic Council Film Prize. Her second feature, Upperdog (2009), was received with great acclamation and became a box office success. Upperdog was presented with the Norwegian Film Critics Award and became the big winner at that year’s Amanda Awards.

All That Matters Is Past (2012) had its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival and was nominated for ‘Best Nordic Film’ at the Gothenburg Film Festival.

Johnsen is currently working on 22 July, a series about the everyday heroes who took action following the terror attack in Norway on July 22nd, 2011. The anticipated series, created by Johnsen and Pål Sletaune, will premiere early 2020.

The official bestseller lists of week 18 (April 29th – May 5th) see Fredrik Backman once more claim the No. 2 spot on the hardcover list with Anxious People. The title also features on the audio and e-book lists, where it comes in at No. 3 and No. 4 respectively.

Ulf Lundell makes his debut on the bestseller lists with the just published Weekdays 2, which is No. 3 in hardcover and No. 3 in e-book.

Roslund & Hellström likewise make an appearance with their bestseller Three Hours, which comes in at No. 4 in paperback.

Simon Stålenhag’s highly acclaimed The Electric State is shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the UK’s premier prize for science fiction literature.

Named after British author Arthur C. Clarke, the award was established in 1987. The winning title and author is chosen by a jury comprising of members nominated by the award's supporting organisations, currently the British Science Fiction Association, the Science Fiction Foundation and the Sci-Fi-London film festival.

The winner will be announced at a public award ceremony on Wednesday, July 17th, 2019.