Last month, I wrote about how much I enjoyed watching Department Q. As I noted in that post, Netflix describes that show as a Tartan Noir. This description marked the coining of a new genre, an offshoot of the novels and television shows of Nordic Noir (only in English). Even Department Q is based on novels set not in Edinburgh but in Copenhagen.

After watching Department Q, I’ve gone further down the rabbit hole and taken on the burden of reading some subtitles (I prefer reading subtitles to watching dubbed audio but I understand many people don’t want to read while watching television) to take in more of a genre categorized by troubled protagonists, unadorned narratives and dialogue, and the bleakness of winter in the far north. Thus far in my limited but ongoing exploration, The Åre Murders gets my highest recommendation.

I don’t like reviews that offer spoilers so I won’t here, but I will offer a teaser of the introduction so that you’ll be able to get your bearings quicker should you watch the show. The plot starts with a suspended Stockholm detective escaping the city for a while by going to her sister’s vacation home in a little ski town in the north of Sweden. Then she meets the local police force and becomes involved in their investigation of two murders when they accept her help.

Perhaps it is seeing the stark wintry landscape shots in the midst of a hot and humid summer here, my growing up in a small town that saw a few incidents of hidden secrets leading to violence, or how the main character is unable to outrun some of her internal demons even after fleeing the city for the picturesque town in which the story unfolds. It’s probably a combination that kept me glued to the television. It’s only five episodes long, which I watched in about a week taking in no more than one per day.