This post is the first in a series suggested by reader Laura Courier.
Hakan Nesser
Now that Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium Trilogy” has taken the world by storm, English-speaking readers are finally taking notice of some of Scandinavia’s other stellar authors. Most booklovers are familar with Sweden’s media darling, Henning Mankell, but the world is just warming to the other Nordic bestsellers.
Håkan Nesser has published twenty wildly successful books in Sweden over the past twenty-two years, but only four have been translated into English so far. These titles are from a ten book series based on Chief Inspector Van Veeteren and his detective squad. The series takes place in an unnamed northern European country that at various times resembles Sweden, Germany, Norway and even the Netherlands. The characters, places and locations switch between Swedish, Dutch and German names.
The action in Nesser’s novels generally centers on the fictitious city of Maardam; a town rife with contemporary European angst that could be just about anywhere north of Brussels. The recurring central character, Chief Inspector Van Veeteren, a lugubrious, philosophical cop, is a cross between Mankell’s unsentimental, depressive Kurt Wallender and Fred Vargas’ quirky, sardonic Commissaire Adamsberg.
Nesser’s complex characters, economical writing and Hitchcock-ian plots make for intriguing, disconcerting and riveting novels from start to finish. Nesser is a controlled stylist, who manages to unsettle, frustrate, challenge, but still amuse his audience. Fortunately, we will finally see more of his books in translation. Nesser’s latest novel to be published in English, The Inspector and Silence, will be released on July 2nd.
The Inspector and Silence
Travel Between The Pages 
Well, that’s a relief! I’ve spent the first quarter of ‘Woman With Birthmark’ driving myself crazy trying to decide whether it was Sweden or The Netherlands before I had the sense to Google!
Glad to help. I hope that all is well in your part of NZ.
well, i had the same problem, couldn’t place it… curiosity sent me to google; slendid stories…
Same here, could’nt figure the geography. Really enjoy Nesser’s writing.
I, too, have been pondering location, so glad to know that was the intent. More of Nesser’s work in translation, please.
Love his writing and yes I too have googled Maardam!!!
Couldn’t find Maardam on any map, when in doubt Google, love Hakan Nesser’s work. More in English please! Dale (South Africa)
It’s probably the Netherlands or northern Belgium, according to the spelling. The suffix -dam means just exactly what it means in english, a dam. In swedish it would be spelled “damm” and it’s not a very common part of a swedish geographic name. The Netherlands is three feet under the sea level so the dutch are very familiar with dams, levees etc. Cities like Rotterdam (the dam on river Rotte), Amsterdam (the dam on river Amstel) contains “dam”. According to that etymology, Maardam means “the dam on river Maar”, However, there is no river called Maar in NL.
Dutch is spoken in northern Belgium, i.e. Flanders, yet it’s called vlaams or flemish.
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The names of the characters aren’t exactly swedish, rather than some generic germanic names or even obvious dutch names.
/Magnus,native swedish speaker
Speaking of Henning Mankell’s novels, the character “Kurt Wallander” lives in Ystad, a small town with a population of ca 20 000, which is on the southern tip of Sweden, Scania county. , I have read that tourists actually visit Ystad becuse of the Mankell novels.
Might as well come from the river Maas, this Maardam?
It mentioned he got an advance pay of 1000 guilders at the start of the book. This means it could only be in the Netherlands and would rule other countries out. Even though Maardam is a fictious place.
The guilders swung it for me, as long as that’s not the translator’s error