How are the authors affected by the audiobook boom? Will the books be shorter and more event-driven? Or has the development lasted longer?
It seems quite obvious: an author writes his book, and then it is read as an audiobook for those who would rather listen than read.
But there are more and more books written directly for the audiobook format. There has been a lot of talk about the dramaturgy needing to be different in an audiobook, and that the narrative should be more stripped down. Things should happen more often, and there should not be too lengthy environmental descriptions.
Detectives are usually described as event-driven, and therefore probably fit extra well in audiobook form. At least it seems so on the charts: audiobook listeners remarkably often engage in detective stories.
Although readers in general do too, after all.
Still, I have wonders spring has come upon myself with suspecting some writers for having started writing primarily for the audiobook market. They have changed style, and something has happened to the story itself that makes me get hooked. It goes too fast, it becomes too impersonal, it’s like the plot takes over and the tempo accelerates a little too mechanically.
That applies to me, of course, and we all have different preferences. I probably belong to the detective story reading group that likes more old-fashioned, reasoning stories with authors such as Elly Griffiths, Håkan Nesser, Leif GW Persson and Åsa Larsson.
Disappointed, I find that some of my newer favorites are not really for me anymore. Others write so succinctly that I barely have time to go into the story before it ends. Sure, it’s nice that Elizabeth George-sized bricks have become less common, but some of the newer decks are too thin instead. I also suspect that the audiobook industry is behind it, because there I have understood that the books need to be shorter.
It needs to be understood not at all due to the audio books, because it is easy to stare blindly at the development of recent years. Compared to Dickens, Balzac and the other nineteenth-century epics, most newer writers write extremely short.
But the basis is, as usual, that writers take impressions of their time, so probably the audiobook development also affects.
5 x new detective stories
Anton Marklund
“Under the falcon’s wings”
Norstedts
Supernatural elements in books are difficult to handle: they often deplete all tension. I remember (luckily only vaguely) a detective story where the main character constantly received practical messages from some kind of ghost as soon as she lacked clues. It got boring after the first time.
It is a difficult art to write suspense, even though so many people seem to know it. One of the most important elements is to settle at exactly the right level when it comes to discoveries, so that they do not go too easily or too sluggishly.
In “Under the Falcon’s Wings”, the main character, Ramona, has the ability to see just a little more than ordinary people. She can not control it, and sometimes it does not work at all. But every now and then she sees what people are most tormented by, what they are ashamed of, and sometimes even what has happened to them.
The sociologist Ramona lives with her husband a few miles outside Skellefteå, and in the nearby lake a dead teenage girl is found in a boat. What happened to her? She probably belongs to the migrants, someone thinks, while someone else suspects trafficking. When it seems impossible to move forward in the investigation, the police turn in desperation to Ramona and her strange ability. And yes, from time to time her professional skills as a sociologist are also needed.
It is Anton Marklund’s first detective story, and he handles the moments of excitement skilfully. In everything but Ramona’s ability, it is a realistic crime story, but so dizzyingly beautifully told that it becomes something bigger: a melancholy view of human helplessness.
Even the supernatural elements become relatively realistic. Of course, Ramona’s ability is questioned by everyone, until they become convinced. Then everyone becomes uncomfortable instead. For who wants to have to hang out with someone who can suddenly see your secrets?
Ulf Kvensler
“Sarek”
Albert Bonnier’s publisher
Rugged dense thriller about two young couples on a mountain hike. Three of them are old friends. Anna tells most of the story, a hard-working lawyer in her career who has problems with her depressed partner. Anna’s best friend Milena has finally met a guy, so it’s clear that he will also be allowed to come along.
Or, maybe not quite clear. And the warning signals are so dense that you as a reader jump out of anxiety in your armchair: do they not realize how dangerous this can be?
They would go on a relatively easy trip to Kebnekaise, but instead they end up in Sarek and then everything goes awry. Ulf Kvensler has a mind for both moods and tempo, human aggression and nature’s relentless dangers, and also manages to twist the plot several turns at the end.
Although he will have to apologize to Sarek, because you never dare go there after this book.
Malin Thunberg Schunke
“Blind peace”
Piratförlaget
Among the stranger elements in the day’s events is when people from seemingly completely opposite political directions begin to work together. Right-wing and left-wing extremists can benefit from each other in scattered demonstrations against the authorities, not to mention the old common problems when peaceful demonstrators are exploited by more violent groups.
“Blind Wrath” is the fourth book about Swedish Esther Edh and Italian Fabia Moretti who work together at Eurojust in The Hague, and Malin Thunberg Schunke continues to describe the international crime of our time. Now the popular protests in Europe have become increasingly violent, and there are many indications that there is a small group organizing the escalating violence.
Unfortunately, there will be a little too many people involved in the story this time, which makes it difficult to keep the thread. But the basic plot is disturbingly credible.
Ann Cleeves
“Heron”
Over. Johan Nilsson, Albert Bonnier’s publisher
Sadly, Jen gets really on the doja during the party, that may be why the doctor Nigel would rather meet her later. He has something he needs to discuss with a police officer.
But he does not have time for that. The next day he is found dead.
Ann Cleeves, best known for her Shetland detective stories, has made it to the second part of her North Devon series, where the environments are at least as charming as in Shetland. The main character, police officer Matthew Venn, is a bore, but one should never underestimate the role of the bearers either in reality or in the books. It is easier to discern what happens when you are not blinded by charismatic personalities.
The tracks this time lead to the healthcare sector, and an online suicide group. Do they support each other to survive, or are there, on the contrary, nasty members of the group?
Carin Hjulström
“A corpse too much”
Forum
It’s so much feel good that it’s hard to call a detective story. Yes, except for the drug ringing and the murders, then. Surprisingly many people move in the forests around Säbyholm a bit outside Stockholm: there wanders a young woman who needs to get away from her everyday life, where the petty villains Håna and Stokka roam, there moves something that looks like a wolf and something else that looks like an extremely large dog.
The actress Siri is still the main character, and lives at the nursery Säbyholm’s green fingers, which she runs together with her nephew Anton, whose petty criminal past sticks its head out from time to time. The newly divorced policeman Olle looks in quite often, but when Siri’s old lovers from Dramaten also show up, it gets complicated.
It is pleasant and scary in a charmingly sprawling mix, where the crimes are also credible.
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