Fred Vargas, despite, the assumption you might make from the name, is a French lady writing (in the books I’ve enjoyed so far) about male detectives. By contrast, travelling back north to Sweden for the last entry in my week of crime, Mons Kallentoft is a man who writes about a female detective. Fit and determined to the point of obsession, Malin Fors would give any of the others I have written about a run for their money.

So far, I’ve read four of the five novels in the series that have been translated into English; I finished the latest one, The Fifth Season, earlier this week but haven’t managed to get my hands on Summertime Death so far. A particular feature is that the narrative uses shifting perspectives; mainly the protagonist, Malin, but also other characters, most notably the spirits of the disembodied victims. It doesn’t quite become a supernatural series, with the dead guiding the living to find the truth, but there is a feeling that Malin is partly driven by picking up the resonance of the unjustly killed even if she still has to put in the legwork to track down the perpetrators.

Dark, but mysterious, gripping and highly recommended. You might have come across some of the stories I’ve mentioned this week but I hope I’ve provided a few leads to help you travel further if crime fiction is your bag.