Paula Arvas is Lecturer in Finnish literature at the University of Helsinki and Andrew Nestingen is Professor of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle.

This volume consists of a series of clear-cut analyses, examining prevalent notions in Scandinavian crime fiction. The contributors participate admirably in defining the concept of 'Scandinavian' by focusing on historical and cultural aspects of proximity and differences within the Scandinavian region. The history and present transformations of Scandinavian police procedurals are mapped, the tendency to harsh social criticism is scrutinized, and widespread attitudes to gender and cultural politics are highlighted and discussed. Timely and highly informative, this anthology discusses why Scandinavian crime fiction has been so widely exported and which significant contributions in particular it has made to the popular genre. It will be a landmark text in the study of Scandinavian crime fiction and its social significance.

• Introduction Andrew Nestingen and Paula Arvas I. Genre revision 1. Swedish cops in the new millennium: The transformation of the police procedural Kerstin Bergman, Lund University, Sweden. 2. High crime in contemporary Scandinavian literature: Peter Hoeg's Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow Magnus Persson, Malmo University, Sweden 3. Nordic crime fiction and the opacity of social life Andrew Nestingen II. Crime and affect 4. The place of pessimism in Henning Mankell's 'Kurt Wallander' novels Shane McCorristine, University College Dublin 5. Not the usual suspects: Hakan Nesser and collateral guilt in the north Sylvia Soderlind, Queen's University in Kingston, Canada III. Contested identities 6. Contesting the past: Rewriting history in modern Scandinavian crime fiction Karsten Wind Meyhoff, University of Copenhagen, Denmark 7. National identity in contemporary Icelandic crime fiction Katrin Jakobsdottir 8. The final frontier: Finland and Russia in Nordic crime fiction since the 2000s Paula Arvas IV. Intermediality 9. Dirty Harry in the Swedish welfare state Michael Tapper, Lund University, Sweden 10. Making Swedish crime queens: Maria Lang, Liza Marklund and Camilla Lackberg Sara Karrholm 11. Gender at the margins in contemporary Nordic crime fiction on TV and in print Karen Klitgaard Povlsen, University of Aarhus