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Sure — we’re three weeks into 2021, but if you’re still catching up on books you missed in 2020, you’re in good company. MPR News host Kerri Miller shares three crime novels published outside of the U.S. that you should not miss.

At the end of each year, I search some of my favorite book sites for the international crime fiction I missed. There are so many terrific thrillers being published in Nigeria, Scandinavia, Spain and Australia.

Americans tend to give short shrift to translated fiction, but we’re missing out on some authors who should have a following in this country.

So, I’m here with three crime novels published outside of the U.S. that you should not miss.

The first is Hakan Nesser’s “The Summer of Kim Novak.” The novel was translated by Saskia Vogel.

Nesser is a bestselling crime fiction writer in Sweden and his backlist is rich and deep. I just listened to the audiobook version of “The Mind’s Eye.”

His new book opens with the kind of sentence that prompted me to mute my phone and settle in for a long afternoon of reading. “I’m going to tell you about a tragic and terrible event that marked my life.” Then, we’re plunged into 1962, a lonely lake house where two brothers are summering as their mother is treated for cancer and, indeed, a tragic event that will change their lives.

My second international crime novel is set on a Caribbean island you’ll want to book a ticket to — that’s how atmospheric and appealing it is — but author Jacob Rosa made it up.

He’s British and Grenadian and the novel, titled “Black Rain Falling” takes us along as a police investigator tries to prove the innocence of a colleague, who killed a man who’d once victimized her in a violent crime. Rosa’s novel is the second in a promised quartet of novels.

Finally, I spotted my third international don’t-miss on a CrimeReads 2020 wrap-up and was thrilled to discover that a new novel was out by Victor del Arbol. I loved his 2018 novel “A Million Drops.”

Del Arbol is a former veteran police officer in the Catalan police department and he blends just enough street crime sensibility with the complex psychology of criminal motives and flawed characters.

The new novel, “Breathing Through the Wound” tells the story of an artist in grief who receives a new commission and a new purpose in life from a woman who has lost her child to violence.

My three don’t-miss overseas crime thrillers are: “Breathing Through the Wound” by Victor del Arbol; “Black Rain Falling” by Jacob Rosa; and Hakan Nesser’s “The Summer of Kim Novak.”

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Kerri Miller

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Sure — we’re three weeks into 2021, but if you’re still catching up on books you missed in 2020, you’re in good company. MPR News host Kerri Miller shares three crime novels published outside of the U.S. that you should not miss.


Three book covers in a combined photograph

International crime thrillers to crack open

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