I’m always looking for the best Scandinavian Noir books and shows and this book was definitely not what I expected. Check out my review of Thirty Days of Darkness by Jenny Lund Madsen.
Thirty Days of Darkness by Jenny Lund Madsen
Translated by Megan Turney
Published on May 23, 2023 by Orenda Books
Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy. I read Thirty Days of Darkness in November 2023.
Plot Summary for Thirty Days of Darkness
Prickly Danish literary novelist Hannah Krause-Bendix writes lyrical stories that are praised by critics. But Hannah’s terrible sales figures chip away at her confidence and slow her progress on her current manuscript.
While attending a book festival, Hannah angrily watches everyone fawn over Jørn Jensen, an author of popular crime fiction. Annoyed at his success with his “churned out” books, Hannah confronts Jørn during an interview, insults his work, and finds herself accepting a challenge: to write her own crime novel in thirty days. After all, banging out a crap genre book in a month should be easy, right?
Hannah’s editor sends her to Húsafjöður, a tiny Icelandic fishing village, to stay with a friend of his family. Not only does he want to get her out of trouble, he figures there will be nothing in Húsafjöður to distract Hannah from her task.
But just days after Hannah’s arrival, the body of Thor, her host’s nephew, is pulled from the water. Hannah starts to meddle in the investigation. After all, she needs real life details for her novel. Unless she ends up being the killer’s next victim.
Why I Loved Thirty Days of Darkness
Okay, I see that the Goodreads rating for Thirty Days of Darkness is not great. I attribute this to a few things:
- Reading books that have been translated can be a challenge, especially for Americans who are less used to it
- Hannah is an acquired taste and some readers hated her
- This is NOT the classic Scandinavian Noir novel, but more of a comic cozy mystery
Okay here is my case for why you MIGHT want to try Thirty Days of Darkness:
- The literary rivalry theme with a feminist spin. Hannah is basically Jennifer Weiner asking why she doesn’t get as much respect as Jonathan Franzen. Yes, I know in this scenario that Franzen is the literary author and Weiner is the genre author. But still, book nerds love a literary smackdown!
- Thirty Days of Darkness is also a neighborhood thriller of sorts, set in a tiny village where everyone knows everyone and one of them did it!
- I found Thirty Days of Darkness to be genuinely funny. It’s a sort of satire/spoof on cozy mysteries but a good natured one.
- I also love a good fish out of water story, and Hannah was definitely the out of place fish in this fishing village.
- Wasn’t this similar to the plot of A Castle for Christmas with Brooke Shields? She plays a writer who has a public meltdown and has to run off to Scotland to hide, try to understand quaint local customs and fall in love with a hunky guy in a kilt?
- Also doesn’t this sound like an Emily Henry book? Prickly millennial ends up in a small town with the person she hates more than anyone?
Does Hannah finish her crime novel? Does she solve the real-life mystery? Does she completely lose it when Jørn Jensen shows up in Húsafjöður and starts nosing around the crime scene (spoiler: yes).
Does she learn to be less of a snob (spoiler: yes.) Does she fall in love (spoiler: yes, but not with the person you’d expect!)
I’m not sure how easy it will be to find this book for the average person, but if you’re up for something different, I really enjoyed it!