The success of Swedish crime novels has been noted and discussed at length. Much of this commentary refers to a salient characteristic atmosphere which seems to be a common feature of most if not all Scandinavian crime novels. In this paper the potential of some recurring lexicogrammatical features to construct this characteristically gloomy and sombre atmosphere is presented and discussed. It will be shown that the vague feeling of unease which is perceived while reading these fictional texts is linguistically attestable. The analysis is conducted within the framework of M.A.K. Halliday’s systemic-functional grammar (SFG) which will be applied to three contemporary Swedish crime novels by different authors. One of the main goals is to illustrate by what means the authors instantiate perceptions and extra-linguistic phenomena in their fictional worlds.