When Halland is found murdered almost right outside his door, his widow, Bess, is of course the prime suspect. She isn't worried about that, though, but about the daughter she abandoned years ago. As the police investigate, the slightly cantankerous Bess instead follows a trail of her own regrets and misapprehensions.

Atmospheric and haunted by the uncanny, The Murder of Halland is anything but your typical whodunnit. It won Denmark's most important literary prize, Den Danske Banks Litteraturpris, and its English translation was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Prize.

'[Juul's] writing is sparse, ascetic, and exquisite … a beautifully wrought narrative about reclamation, letting go, and moving on.'

– Publishers Weekly

'Anything but a standard crime novel. The mystery at its heart is the mystery we are to each other.'

–The Economist

'The Murder of Halland … is cooler and more calculated than any old Killing, and wrong-foots till it reveals the real mystery.'

– Ali Smith, author of How to Be Both

'Written with deft poetic precision, the compact scenes keep you turning pages breathlessly to get to the heart of the mystery and to the mystery of the narrator. The Murderof Halland is beautifully realized – an instant Nordic noir classic – and also beautifully translated by Martin Aitken.'

– Thomas E. Kennedy, author of The Copenhagen Quartet

'Juul’s novella is a spare, elegant jewel … Terse and enigmatic, this novel is a classic to be savoured again and again.'

– Maclean's

Pia Juul has published five books of poetry, two short story collections and two novels. The Murder of Halland won Denmark’s most important literary prize, Den Danske Banks litteraturpris. She has translated Ali Smith and Alain de Botton into Danish.

Pia Juul's profile page

Martin Aitken has translated a score of books into English and Danish, including Janne Teller’s Nothing (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum and Strident Publishing) which received both a Printz Honor and a Batchelder Honor, the most prestigious awards for young adult fiction in the US. In 2012 he was awarded the American-Scandinavian Foundation’s Nadia Christensen Translation Prize. His translation of Pia Juul's The Murder of Halland was longlisted for The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2012 and for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2014. Recent translations are The Elephant Keepers' Children by Peter Høeg (Harvill & Secker/Other Press), likewise longlisted for the IMPAC award in 2014, and Dorthe Nors' Karate Chop (Graywolf Press/A Public Space). He has also recently translated three crime thrillers by Nordic noir phenomenon Jussi Adler-Olsen for Penguin (Dutton in the US). Forthcoming work includes novels by Helle Helle (to be published in November 2014 by Harvill Secker) and Kim Leine (2015 by Atlantic Books). Martin Aitken lives in rural Denmark.

Martin Aitken's profile page

• Long-listed, IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
• Long-listed, Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
• Winner, Den Danske Banks Litteraturpuis