New Thrillers in Sweden, France

New mysteries took the top spots on the French and Swedish fiction lists in July. Popular crime novelist Fred Vargas is back with An Uncertain Location, which debuted at #1 in France. Vargas has had several U.S. publishers, with Penguin doing her most recent titles, including This Night's Foul Work, which came out in June. Camilla Lackberg is another thriller writer with a string of hits in her native country; her newest work, The Mermaid, landed in the top spot in Sweden last month. Henning Mankell is a Swedish bestseller who already has a following in America, and his The Chinese was in second place in July. Vintage published Mankell's The Man Who Smiled last year, while the New Press plans to release The Pyramid: And Four Other Kurt Wallander Mysteries in hardcover next month.

While there was no movement among the top fiction bestsellers in Spain in July, there were plenty of changes further down. Stieg Larsson's international hit The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo made another country's top 10 list, landing at #4 in Spain. (In France, Larsson's titles were in the third, fourth and fifth slots.) In fifth place was another title that has hit other international bestsellers list, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which is set for release in the U.S. Sept. 2 from Europa Editions.