The Petrona Award’s jury has just presented its longlist for the 2026 Petrona Award for ‘Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year.’

Among the 12 nominees are Jo Nesbø’s Wolf Hour, Satu Rämö’s The Grave in the Ice, Aslak Nore with The Heirs of the Arctic, Yrsa Sigur∂ardóttir’s The Wake, Antti Tuomainen’s The Winter Job, and Lilja Sigur∂ardóttir with Black as Death.

The shortlist will be announced on September 24, 2026. 

When Lars’ wife Henriette goes missing from their fjord side cabin on a dark night, the disappearance shakes their small town to the core. Everyone believes Lars killed her. Lars – who knows more than he lets on – has spent the year since keeping up the pretense, not least towards his police officer brother and distressed teenage daughter. Then Lars’ new girlfriend also mysteriously goes missing, at the same time as he starts to receive disturbing texts from a phone number that should have stayed silent forever. As one of Norway’s top homicide detectives is sent out to prove that Lars is a killer, the past comes back to haunt Lars and sends him into a nightmarish downward spiral.

Winter Grave is an eerie and gripping crime novel about family ties, revenge and jealousy.

The trailer for Kärlek och andra diagnoser has officially been released, offering audiences the first glimpse of the upcoming Swedish romantic dramedy.

Written and directed by Daniel Sawka, the film explores love, relationships and the challenges of navigating life when things don’t always go according to plan. At the heart of the story are two young people on the autism spectrum who unexpectedly find love in each other. Blending humor, warmth and relatable situations, Kärlek och andra diagnoser offers a fresh and heartfelt take on modern romance.

Kärlek och andra diagnoser is set to premiere this October in Swedish theatres.

Anders de la Motte’s The Night Hunter, the latest installment in the Leo Asker series, and Pascal Engman’s The Clan, the first book in the Clan Trilogy, have been nominated for this year’s BookBeat Award in the “Crime Book of the Year” category.

Additionally, both authors have also been shortlisted for “Crime Writer of the Year.”

The winners will be determined based on BookBeat’s statistics from the past year, and will be announced during the Crimetime Awards ceremony at the Gothenburg Book Fair on September 26.

Rojda Sekersöz’s feature film Will You Care If I Die? (Blir du ledsen om jag dör?) opens in Swedish cinemas this Friday, August 21, and has already received fantastic reviews. Based on Nicolas Lunabba’s acclaimed autobiographical novel of the same name, the film tells the moving story of an unexpected friendship between youth worker Nic (Peshang Rad) and Elijah (Rudwan Socdal), a 14-year-old basketball talent growing up in a reality shaped by violence, vulnerability and the threat of gang crime.

Peshang Rad’s portrayal of Nic has received strong praise from critics. His nuanced and powerful performance has been singled out as one of the film’s major strengths, with critics even calling on the Guldbagge Awards jury to make sure Rad receives a Best Actor nomination.

A shocking phone calls forces Detective Sergeant Sakka Pienni to return to the place she has done everything to avoid: the dark land up north.

Shortly after coming home, the small village is hit with a tragedy. An entire family is found dead. Local police dismiss it as a murder-suicide, but Sakka suspects that the truth is more complex than that and starts digging. She is also seeking answers to questions that have tormented her for more than thirty years. Questions about her sister’s mysterious death and her mother’s disappearance. Did Nicci Pienni really leave the village voluntarily all those years ago, or is there another story than the one Sakka has been told?

The Waste Land is a suggestive crime novel about trauma, grief, and vulnerability. With atmospheric prose, Lina Bengtsdotter portrays small town secrets, the people who must carry those secrets, and how the past refuses to let go.

The only thing left is the kill shot.

New Year’s Eve, Oslo: Harry Hole is balancing on the balcony railing. He’s quit the police force, quit drinking, and the woman he loves is dead. Seventeen stories below him lies Oslo.

New Year’s Day and Oleg Fauke’s first day at the Homicide Unit opens with three bodies. The victims all have connections to the film industry. When the police are sent videos showing recreations of murders from film history, the question arises: has Oslo once again got a serial killer?

The killer is editing his masterpiece, and Harry is doomed to play a role in it.

The next take might be his last.

Kill Shot is the fourteenth installment in Jo Nesbø’s bestselling Harry Hole series.

The Swedish bestseller lists for the second quarter of 2026 are out, and Kristina Ohlsson’s debut in literary fiction, Beyond the Bridges, is the No. 1 highest grossing book across all genres. Anders Hansen’s The Achilles Heels of Your Brain comes in at No. 1 in the nonfiction category, and is No. 7 across all genres.