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For May 2024 we have 6 books to choose from, and will add books as they become known to us. Good reading.

1) Murder Under the Midnight Sun by Stella Blómkvist to be published on the 3rd of May 2024. Iceland. 285 pages.

What does a woman do when her husband’s charged with the frenzied murder of her father and her best friend? She calls in Stella Blómkvist to to investigate � however unwelcome the truth could turn out to be.'Stella is a force of nature' � Mark Sanderson, The Times

Smart, ruthless and with a flexible moral code all of her own, razor-tongued lawyer Stella Blómkvist is also dealing with a desperate deathbed request to track down a young woman who vanished a decade ago.

It looks like a dead end, but she agrees to pick up the stone-cold trail � and she never gives up, even if the police did a long time ago.�...a perfect example of Icelandic crime fiction at its best—atmospheric, relevant, and undeniably entertaining.� � BOLO Books

Then there’s the mystery behind the arm that emerges from an ice cap, with a mysterious ruby ring on one frozen finger? How does this connect to another unexplained disappearance, and why were the police at the time so keen to write it off as a tragic accident?

Brutal present-day crimes have their roots in the past that some people would prefer to stay forgotten.As Stella pieces together the fragments, is she getting too close to the truth and making herself a target for ruthless men determined to conceal secret sins?‘If you are a fan of Nordic crime fiction, then this title is simply unmissable.�

2) Black Shield Maiden by Willow Smith & Jess Hendel to be published on the 7th of May 2024. Viking.

From WILLOW and co-writer Jess Hendel comes a powerful and groundbreaking historical epic about an African warrior in the world of the Vikings.

Lore, legend, and history tell us of the Vikings: of warrior-kings on epic journeys of conquest and plunder. But the stories we know are not the only stories to tell. There is another story, one that has been lost to the mists of time: the saga of the dark queen.

That saga begins with Yafeu, a defiant yet fiercely compassionate young warrior who is stolen from her home in the flourishing Ghanaian Empire and taken as a slave to a distant kingdom in the North. There she is thrust into a strange, cold world of savage shield maidens, tyrannical rulers, and mysterious gods.

And there she also finds something unexpected: a kindred spirit. She comes to serve Freydis, a shy princess who couldn’t be more different than the confident and self-possessed Yafeu.

But they both want the same thing: to forge their own fate. Yafeu inspires Freydis to dream of a future greater than the one that the king and queen have forced upon her. And with the princess at her side, Yafeu learns to navigate this new world and grows increasingly determined to become one of the legendary shield maidens.

For Yafeu may have lost her home, but she still knows who she is, and she’s not afraid to be the flame that burns a city to the ground so a new world can rise from the ashes. She will alter the course of history—and become the revolutionary heroine of her own myth.

3) A Northern Light in Provence by Elizabeth Birkelund to be published on the 21st of May2024. Greenland & France. 352 pages.

A woman leaves her coastal Greenland village to translate the works of an elderly Provençal poet and finds her life irrevocably changed in this tender and romantic novel set in a French village.

Ilse Lund is a translator who lives in a house on stilts along the west coast of Greenland. Isolated in her world by the sea, and restless, she convinces her publisher to pay for a trip to the country she has never visited but whose language she speaks fluently—France. Her to translate the verses of Geoffrey Labaye, an elderly poet known as “the last living troubadour of Provence.�

Upon arrival in the medieval hilltop village of Beau Rivière, Ilse falls under the spell of the Provençal way of life--and the charming French poet. She becomes captive to the air, the sun, the vibrant spring colors, and the dulcet sounds of the Provençal dialect. And soon enough, Ilse is captive to the poet, too, as she and Labaye develop a daily rhythm, about words and much else. Their warm camaraderie is disturbed, however, when the poet’s son Frey shows up. Though he has a fiancée back in Paris, Frey turns his attention on Ilse, and suddenly she is forced to learn another language, one her translation skills have not prepared her to decode. With whom and where does her future lie?

With an eye and ear attuned to the sensibilities of French life, Elizabeth Birkelund has created a love story about a woman forced to choose between the security of her quiet northern home and possibly the life of her dreams.

4) The Cuckoo by Camilla Läckberg to be published on the 23rd of May 2024. Sweden. 432 pages.

A community torn apart

As a heavy mist rolls into the Swedish coastal town of Fjällbacka, shocking violence shakes the small community to its core. Rolf Stenklo, a famous photographer, is found murdered in his gallery. Two days later, a brutal tragedy on a private island leaves the prestigious Bauer family devastated.

A town full of secrets

With his boss acting strangely, Detective Patrik Hedström is left to lead the investigation. Tensions rise threatening cracks in the team of officers at Tanumshede police station and pressure mounts as the press demand answers.

A reckoning in blood

In pursuit of inspiration for her next true-crime book, Patrik’s wife Erica Falck leaves behind their three children and travels to Stockholm to research the unsolved decades-old murder of a figure from Rolf’s past. As Erica searches for the truth, she realizes that her mystery is connected to Patrik’s case. These threads from the past are woven into the present and old sins leave behind long shadows.

5) The Hero of the North: A Constable Petra Jensen Novella by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 28th of May 2024. Greenland. Short Story.

When a local reporter goes missing, Constable Petra ‘Piitalaat� Jensen joins a concerned journalist on a perilous search in the far north of Greenland.The Hero of the North is the twenty-seventh in the Greenland Missing Persons series of novellas and novels set in the harsh, unpredictable Arctic, rich in tradition, myth and culture.The Hero of the North continues the adventures of Constable Petra ‘Piitalaat� Jensen, ably assisted by interesting characters, together with a few familiar faces making cameo appearances in the series.The Greenland Missing Persons stories are set prior to The Ice Star and Seven Graves, One Winter.

6) Counting in Danish by Celia Berggreen to be published on the 28th of May 2024. 290 pages.

Losing Sophie is like losing part of herself.

After her sister’s tragic death, Jess is forced to confront the world alone for the first time. Always the quieter, more anxious twin, Jess feels lost without confident, risk-taking Sophie by her side.

Struggling with grief and the burden of a guilty secret, Jess begins to hear her sister’s voice in her head, and Sophie’s words of encouragement inspire her to push herself out of her comfort zone. The twins had always planned to travel together to find their birth father, and with Sophie’s support, Jess is determined to make the journey in her sister’s memory.

As Jess fights to overcome her fears, and family secrets emerge that she could never have foreseen, she discovers that Denmark may hold the key to more than just her past�

7) The Dungale Bothy: Prehistoric Action and Adventure by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 5th of May 2024. Prehistory.

When celebrating her son’s fifth birthday, archaeologist Luci Hampton recalls the story of an encounter with a mammoth at the Dungale Bothy while plotting her escape from the clutches of an evil corporation.

The Dungale Bothy is a short twenty-minute read full of prehistoric action and adventure. Best read after Reviver during North Bane.

8) Sven and Pien: Terror of the Yeti Book 1: Mistaken Identity by Maxwell Hoffman to be published on the 4th of May 2024. Viking.

Welcome to the 14th Century. Alternate historical time period where the Vikings had colonized modern Newfoundland with the local indigenous people approving of their stay. However one sinister yeti isn't so happy about humanity on its turf and decides to do something about it...

9) Broken Braid: A Beth Braid novel by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 20 of May 2024. Greenland.

When criminal lieutenants to high profile bosses wind up dead during a tinderbox summer, broken cop Elizabeth Braid is recalled to duty to solve the murders before war breaks out.

Broken Braid introduces Detective Beth Braid, a cop with a complicated past, in a new series of gritty crime fiction from the author of the Greenland Crime series.

10) The True Finn by Jukka M. Heikkilä to be published on the 6th of May 2024. Finland. 112 pages.

It's 1987 and the time of the Cold War. Jouko Hartikainen, who acts on behalf of the Americans, is killed in Frankfurt, but he manages to send a mysterious statue as a postal package to his brother Aku in Finland. Soon Aku gets to notice that everyone wants the statue. The race of death begins, and in order to survive, Aku must face his past trauma and once again open the weapons cabinet.

11) The Storm Warning: A Constable Petra Jensen Novella by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 1st of May 2024. Greenland.

It was the perfect heist, under the cover of the perfect storm, until Constable Petra ‘Piitalaat� Jensen stumbled into the cabin where the thieves had hidden the loot.The Storm Warning is the thirtieth in the Greenland Missing Persons series of novellas and novels set in the harsh, unpredictable Arctic, rich in tradition, myth and culture.The Storm Warning continues the adventures of Constable Petra ‘Piitalaat� Jensen, ably assisted by interesting characters, together with a few familiar faces making cameo appearances in the series.The Greenland Missing Persons stories are set prior to The Ice Star and Seven Graves, One Winter.

12) Toxic by Helga Flatland to be published on the 23rd of May 2024. Norway. 300 pages.

When Mathilde is forced to leave her teaching job in Oslo after her relationship with eighteen-year-old Jacob is exposed, she flees to the countryside for a more authentic life.

Her new home is a quiet cottage on the outskirts of a dairy farm run by Andres and Johs, whose hobbies include playing the fiddle and telling folktales � many of them about female rebellion and disobedience, and seeking justice, whatever it takes.

But beneath the surface of the apparently friendly and peaceful pastoral surface of the farm, something darker and less harmonic starts to vibrate, and with Mathilde’s arrival, cracks start appearing � everywhere.

13) Broken Braid: A Beth Braid novel by Christoffer Petersen to be published on the 20th of May 2024. Greenland.

In a nameless city plagued by rival criminal syndicates and corrupt politicians, one broken cop and a homeless twelve-year-old girl are all that stands between all-out war.

Broken Braid introduces Detective Beth Braid, a cop with a complicated past, in a new series of gritty crime fiction from the author of the Greenland Crime series.

14) FRODE - Iron Age detective : BLOOD ON HER HANDS: "CLASSIC DETECTIVE FICTION - set in SWEDEN, in the late Iron Age' by Geoff Bunn to be published on the 16th of May 2024. Sweden. 156 pages.

BLOOD ON HER HANDS
A battle gave honour to one man, but disgrace to another.
5 years later, and there is a price to be paid.
Frode and Geirr find themselves in the middle of a trail of THEFT and MURDER.
But who is behind all of this? And why?

The FRODE books are set in Southern Sweden, in the late Iron Age. About 100 years before the first appearance of the Vikings.