In Sweden in 1998, “among the ten bestselling books of the month was not even a single Swedish crime novel. There were historical novels, chick lit, contemporary novels, satire. And just two crime novels of any description: one British, one American. That’s how the literary scene looked just 20 years ago! … The Swedish crime novel — the Scandinavian crime novel — was stuck in a rut of whodunnits, essentially the same thing written over and over again.” Then things changed.