The Petrona Award 2026 - Longlist

From the press release which was embargoed until 8.00am today:

 

Petrona Award 2026 - Longlist

OUTSTANDING CRIME FICTION FROM FINLAND, ICELAND, NORWAY, AND SWEDEN LONGLISTED FOR THE 2026 PETRONA AWARD

Twelve crime novels from Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden have made the longlist for the 2026 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year.

They are:

Snæbjörn Arngrímsson - One True Word tr. Larissa Kyzer (Pushkin Vertigo, Iceland)

Stella Blómkvist - Murder Tide tr. Quentin Bates (Corylus Books, Iceland)

Jón Atli Jónasson - Broken tr. Quentin Bates (Corylus Books, Iceland)

Ørjan N Karlsson - Into Thin Air tr. Ian Giles (Orenda Books, Norway)

John Ajvide Lindqvist - The Writing in the Water tr. Michael Meigs (Amazon Crossing, Sweden)

Jo Nesbø - Wolf Hour tr. Robert Ferguson (Harvill Secker, Norway)

Aslak Nore - The Heirs of the Arctic tr. Sean Kinsella (MacLehose Press, Norway)

Satu Rämö - The Grave in the Ice tr. Kristian London (Zaffre, Finland)

Lilja Sigurðardóttir - Black as Death tr. Lorenza Garcia (Orenda Books, Iceland)

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir - The Wake tr. Victoria Cribb (Hodder & Stoughton, Iceland)

Karin Smirnoff - The Girl with Ice in her Veins tr. Sarah Death (MacLehose Press, Sweden)

Antti Tuomainen - The Winter Job tr. David Hackston (Orenda Books, Finland)

The longlist contains a mix of newer and more established authors including previous Petrona Award winners Satu Rämö, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir and Antti Tuomainen.

Both large and small publishers are represented on the longlist, with Orenda Books having three entries and Corylus Books and MacLehose Press having two apiece. Both longlisted entries by Corylus Books have been translated by Quentin Bates.

The breakdown by country is Iceland (5), Norway (3), Finland (2) and Sweden (2).

The shortlist will be announced on 24 September 2026.

The Petrona Award 2025 judging panel comprises Jackie Farrant, the creator of RAVEN CRIME READS and a bookseller for a major book chain in the UK, Ewa Sherman, translator and writer, and blogger at NORDIC LIGHTHOUSE, and Sonja van der Westhuizen, a book critic for print and online publications in the UK and South Africa, as well as a blogger at WEST WORDS REVIEWS. 

The Award administrator is Karen Meek, owner of the EURO CRIME blog and website.

The Petrona Award was established to celebrate the work of Maxine Clarke, one of the first online crime fiction reviewers and bloggers, who died in December 2012. Maxine, whose online persona and blog was called Petrona, was passionate about translated crime fiction but in particular that from the Scandinavian countries. 

The award is open to crime fiction in translation, either written by a Scandinavian author or set in Scandinavia and published in the UK in the previous calendar year.

More information on the history of the Award and previous winners can be found at the Petrona Award website.

The Petrona Award 2026 - Entries

I am pleased to announce that 29* titles have been entered by the publishers for the 2026 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year.

The Longlist will be announced on 27 August 2026.

The rules for eligibility are:

• The submission must be in translation and published in English in the UK during the preceding calendar year ie 1 January – 31 December 2025.
• The author of the submission must either be born in Scandinavia* or the submission must be set in Scandinavia*.
• The submission must have been published in its original language after 1999.

(E-books that meet the above criteria may be considered at the judges’ discretion (does not include self-published titles))
*in this instance taken to be Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

More details about the award and the history behind it can be found on the Petrona Award website. The winner of the 2025 Award was THE CLUES IN THE FJORD by Satu Rämö translated from the Finnish by Kristian London and published by Zaffre.

Entries 

[11 titles are by Female authors and 15 by Male plus 3 teams of Female and Male authors. There are 22 individual or pairs of translators (7 Female (10 titles), 13 Male (17 titles) and 2 pairs of male and female translators (2 titles)); 7 countries are represented (10 Iceland, 7 Sweden, 6 Norway, 3 Finland, 2 France and 1 Denmark.]

Eva Björg Ægisdóttir - Home Before Dark tr. Victoria Cribb (F, Iceland, Orenda Books)
Snæbjörn Arngrímsson - One True Word tr. Larissa Kyzer (M, Iceland, Pushkin Vertigo)

Stella Blómkvist - Murder Tide tr. Quentin Bates (F, Iceland, Corylus Books)

Thomas Enger & Johana Gustawsson - Son tr. Thomas Enger & Johana Gustawsson (B, Norway/France, Orenda Books)

Guðrún Guðlaugsdóttir - A Lethal Legacy tr. Quentin Bates (F, Iceland, Corylus Books)
Johana Gustawsson - The Scars of Silence tr. David Warriner (F, France, Orenda Books)

Jørn Lier Horst - The Lake tr. Anne Bruce (M, Norway, Michael Joseph)

Arnaldur Indriðason - The Quiet Mother tr. Philip Roughton (M, Iceland, Harvill Secker)

Jón Atli Jónasson - Broken tr. Quentin Bates (M, Iceland, Corylus Books)
Ragnar Jónasson - Fadeout tr. Larissa Kyzer (M, Iceland, Orenda Books)
Ragnar Jónasson - The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer tr. Victoria Cribb (M, Iceland, Michael Joseph)

Ørjan N Karlsson - Into Thin Air tr. Ian Giles (M, Norway, Orenda Books
Lars Kepler - The Sleepwalker tr. Alice Menzies (B, Sweden, Zaffre)
Karl Ove Knausgaard - The School of Night tr. Martin Aitken (M, Norway, Harvill Secker)

Camilla Läckberg & Henrik Fexeus - Mirage tr. Ian Giles (B, Sweden, Hemlock Press
David Lagercrantz - False Note (ebook/audio only) tr. Elizabeth DeNoma (M, Sweden, Amazon Original Stories)
John Ajvide Lindqvist - The Writing in the Water tr. Michael Meigs (M, Sweden, Amazon Crossing)

Jo Nesbø - Wolf Hour tr. Robert Ferguson (M, Norway, Harvill Secker
Aslak Nore - The Heirs of the Arctic tr. Sean Kinsella (M, Norway, MacLehose Press)
*Olivier Norek - The Winter Warriors tr. Nick Caistor (M, France, Open Borders Press)

Satu Rämö - The Grave in the Ice tr. Kristian London (F, Finland, Zaffre)
Satu Rämö - The Shadow of the Northern Lights tr. Kristian London (F, Finland, Zaffre)

Lilja Sigurðardóttir - Black as Death tr. Lorenza Garcia (F, Iceland, Orenda Books)
Yrsa Sigurðardóttir - The Wake tr. Victoria Cribb (F, Iceland, Hodder & Stoughton)
Karin Smirnoff - The Girl with Ice in her Veins tr. Sarah Death (F, Sweden, MacLehose Press)
Viveca Sten - Hidden in Memories tr. Marlaine Delargy (F, Sweden, Amazon Crossing)

Antti Tuomainen - The Winter Job tr. David Hackston (M, Finland, Orenda Books)

Christian Unge - Blood Will Tell tr. George Goulding & Sarah De Senarclens (M, Sweden, MacLehose Press)

Inger Wolf - The Perfect Place to Die tr. Mark Kline (F, Denmark, Wolf Productions)

*Olivier Norek's The Winter Warriors tr. Nick Caistor was submitted and is included in the statistics above, however the judges felt after reading that this was a historical novel rather than a historical crime novel and so was not considered for the longlist. 

** Mariette Lindstein's Children of Fog Island (translator unknown) was eligible but was not submitted.

Book covers courtesy of Goodreads:

Petrona Award 2026 - Eligibles

The Petrona Award 2026 - Submissions welcome

The Petrona Award 2026 has opened for submissions. If you have an eligible title and have not yet heard from me then please leave a comment below and I'll be in touch.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the 2026 Petrona Award the following rules apply to all submissions: 

The Award is for adult fiction only. 

The submission must be in translation and published in English in the UK during the preceding calendar year ie 1 January – 31 December 2025. 

The author of the submission must either be born in Scandinavia* or the submission must be set in Scandinavia*. 

The submission must have been published in its original language after 1999. 

 (E-books that meet the above criteria may be considered at the judges’ discretion (does not include self-published titles))

*in this instance taken to be Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

Publishers must send a copy of the submission to each of the judges and the administrator. 

More than one submission per author can be made. 

There is no fee for entering a submission for the Petrona. 

All submissions must be received by 6 March 2026. 

The publisher agrees to receive the trophy on behalf of the winning author and to arrange for subsequent delivery to the winning author.  (new for 2026)