Murder, My Swede

If you’ve ever headed down to IKEA for lunch, you’ve probably scarfed down some knackerbrod and a steaming plate of meatballs, but we doubt you’ve encountered anything with the aftertaste of Swedish novelist Håkan Nesser, who’ll read from his bloodcurdling crime thrillers Borkmann’s Point and The Return.

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More About

• Hakan Nesser
• Van Veeteren

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The series centers on police inspector Van Veeteren, a dour, northern European gumshoe given to cryptic pronouncements and acrobatic deductions. Nesser situates his protagonist in a cold, gray literary landscape as chilly as a fjord in January. For example, this description of the victim of an ax murder: “His head was still attached, but it looked as if it had very nearly been severed, as well . . . Not only blood had flowed out of the opening in his neck, but also some undigested bits of food, by the look of it . . . and something fleshy that was still attached somewhere. Van Veeteren assumed it must be his tongue.”

Another plate of gravlax, anyone?