Scene of the Crime

With my fifth novel, THE BURYING PLACE, now available in U.S. bookstores, I thought you would enjoy some background on my choice of Duluth and its frozen landscape as the locale for the books.

I was recently interviewed by fellow mystery author J. Sydney Jones for his "Scene of the Crime" blog. Syd writes historical mysteries set in turn-of-the-last-century Vienna, so he's very familiar with the importance of place in our books. You can read the interview by clicking here.

Syd talks about Duluth in my books as America's answer to Swedish noir, and I think he's on to something there. There are geographical and cultural parallels between Minnesota and Sweden; in fact, Swedes call Minnesota "Swedishland" because of all the emigrants who made their way to the state. I've had readers draw comparisons between my books and those of Henning Mankell for the same reasons -- and that's a great honor, because I have huge respect for Mankell's work.

So can you find a little bit of the Swedish remoteness in Duluth? And a little bit of Kurt Wallander in Jonathan Stride? Judge for yourself!