Sweden 2012. When Inspector Gunnar Barbarotti returns to work after a terrible personal tragedy his boss asks him to investigate a cold case, hoping to ease him back gently into his police duties.
Five years previously a shy electrician, Arnold Morinder, disappeared from the face of the earth, the only clue his blue moped abandoned in a nearby swamp. At the time his partner, Ellen Bjarnebo, claimed that Arnold had probably travelled to Norway never to return. But Ellen is one of Sweden’s most notorious killers, having served eleven years in prison after killing her abusive first husband and dismembering his body with an axe. And when Barbarotti seeks to interview Ellen in relation to Arnold’s disappearance she is nowhere to be found . . .
But without a body and no chance of interviewing his prime suspect Barbarotti must use all the ingenuity at his disposal to make headway in the case. Still struggling with his personal demons, Barbarotti seeks solace from God, and the support of his colleague, Eva Backman. And as he finally begins to track down his suspect and the cold case begins to thaw, Barbarotti realizes that nothing about Ellen Bjarnebo can be taken for granted . . .
The Axe Woman is the fifth and final Inspector Barbarotti novel from bestselling author Håkan Nesser.
'One of the best Nordic Noir writers' Guardian
A trip behind the Iron Curtain would change their lives forever . . .
It begins in 1969. Six young people arrive in Uppsala, Sweden. Different circumstances push the three young couples together and, over the course of a few years, they become friends. But a summer trip through Eastern Europe changes everything, and when their time at Uppsala University is over it also signals the end of something else.
Years later, a lecturer at Lund University is found dead at the bottom of a cliff in the woods close to Kymlinge. And chillingly, it is the very same spot where one of the Uppsala students died thirty-five years before.
Detective Inspector Gunnar Barbarotti takes on this ominous case of history repeating itself, and is forced to confront an increasingly grave reality.
The Lonely Ones is the fourth novel of Håkan Nesser’s quintet about Inspector Gunnar Barbarotti.
A secluded hut in the middle of the woods. A double life that could be his downfall. The Secret Life of Mr Roos is the third Inspector Barbarotti novel from the 'Godfather of Swedish crime' (Metro), Håkan Nesser.
At fifty-nine years old, Valdemar Roos is tired of life. Working a job he hates, with a wife he barely talks to and two step-daughters he doesn't get on with, he doesn't have a lot to look forward to. Then, one day, a winning lottery ticket gives him an opportunity to start afresh.
Without telling a soul, he quits his job and buys a hut in the remote Swedish countryside. Every day he travels down to this man-made oasis, returning each evening to his unsuspecting wife. Life couldn't be better, until a young woman arrives in paradise . . .
Anna Gambowska is a twenty-one-year-old recovering drug addict. On the run from the rehab centre she hated and an abusive relationship she can't go back to, all Anna's prayers are answered when she comes across a seemingly vacant hut in the Swedish woodland. But it's not long before Anna's ex discovers her location, and an incident occurs that will mar the lives of both Anna and Valdemar forever.
Inspector Barbarotti doesn't take much interest when a woman reports her husband as missing. That is, until a dead body is found near the missing man's newly-bought hut, and Mr Roos becomes the number one murder suspect . . .
The Secret Life of Mr Roos is the third novel in Håkan Nesser’s Inspector Barbarotti quintet.
For fans of Scandinavian crime, Intrigo is the gripping collection of Håkan Nesser's best novellas and short stories, three of which have been adapted into major motion pictures.
Set in the fictional city of Maardam, each story is linked by themes of secrets coming to light, lies being exposed, and pasts coming back to haunt the people who thought they had fled them - all told in Håkan Nesser's signature style of dark, cutting prose that displays a true understanding of human nature.
The collection is the basis for a trilogy of international films - Dear Agnes, Death of an Author and Samaria -directed by Daniel Alfredson and starring Ben Kingsley and Gemma Chan.
'Godfather of Swedish Crime' (Metro), Hakan Nesser, is back with the second installment in the Inspector Barbarotti series, The Root of Evil.
July 2007. A letter arrives on Inspector Barbarotti's doorstep detailing a murder that is about to take place in his own quiet Swedish town. By the time the police track down the subject of the letter, he is already dead.
So when a second letter arrives, then a third, and a fourth, it's a game of cat and mouse to stop the killer before he can make good on all of his promises.
Meanwhile, an anonymous diary is unearthed depicting the incidents of a two week holiday in France five years earlier, and it doesn't take Barbarotti long to realize the people populating the diary are the ones whose lives are now in the balance . . .
A Swedish crime writer as thrilling as Mankell, a detective as compelling as Wallander . . .
The Mind's Eye by Håkan Nesser is the first novel in the stunning Van Veeteren series.
Janek Mitter stumbles into his bathroom one morning after a night of heavy drinking, to find his beautiful young wife, Eva, floating dead in the bath. She has been brutally murdered. Yet even during his trial Mitter cannot summon a single memory of attacking Eva, nor a clue as to who could have killed her if he had not. Only once he has been convicted and locked away in an asylum for the criminally insane does he have a snatch of insight - but is it too late?
Drawing a blank after exhaustive interviews, Chief Inspector Van Veeteren remains convinced that something, or someone, in the dead woman's life has caused these tragic events. But the reasons for her speedy remarriage have died with her. And as he delves even deeper, Van Veeteren realizes that the past never stops haunting the present . . .
The Mind's Eye is followed by the tensely gripping Borkmann's Point.
A Swedish crime writer as thrilling as Mankell, a detective as compelling as Wallander . . .
Borkmann's Point by Håkan Nesser is the second gripping novel in the thrilling Van Veeteren series.
'Borkmann's rule was hardly a rule; in fact, it was more of a comment, a landmark for tricky cases . . . In every investigation, he maintained, there comes a point beyond which we don't really need any more information. When we reach that point, we already know enough to solve the case by means of nothing more than some decent thinking.'
Two men are brutally murdered with an axe in the quiet coastal town of Kaalbringen and Chief Inspector Van Veeteren, bored on holiday nearby, is summoned to assist the local authorities. The local police chief, just days away from retirement, is determined to wrap things up before he goes.
But there is no clear link between the victims. Then one of Van Veeteren's colleagues, a brilliant young female detective, goes missing - perhaps she has reached Borkmann's Point before anyone else . . .
Borkmann's Point is followed by the third title in the series, The Return.
A Swedish crime writer as thrilling as Mankell, a detective as compelling as Wallander . . .
Håkan Nesser's third title in the Van Veeteren series is the dark and compelling The Return.
An unmissable hospital appointment is looming for Inspector Van Veeteren when a corpse is found rolled in a rotting carpet by a young child playing in a local beauty spot. Missing head and limbs, the torso is too badly decomposed for forensic identification - bar one crucial detail . . .
Circumstantial evidence soon points to a local man, a double murderer who disappeared nine months before, shortly after being released on parole; a local hero turned monster after being convicted of killing two women over a span of three decades.
Recuperating after an operation, Van Veeteren is nevertheless directing investigations from his hospital bed, for he is convinced that only the innocence of this new victim can be the motive for his murder. But the two women have been dead for long enough for any evidence to have died with them . . . And is he simply on the wrong track completely?
The Return is followed by the fourth title in the series, Woman with Birthmark.
A Swedish crime writer as thrilling as Mankell, a detective as compelling as Wallander . . .
Woman with Birthmark by Håkan Nesser is the fourth title in his atmospheric Van Veeteren series.
A young woman shivers in the December cold as her mother's body is laid to rest in a cemetery. The only thing that warms her is the thought of the revenge she will soon take . . .
Then a middle-aged man is killed at his home, shot twice in the chest and twice below the belt. He had recently received a series of bizarre phone calls where an old song is played down the line - evoking an eerie sense of both familiarity and unease. Before the police can find the culprit, a second man is killed in the same way.
Chief Inspector Van Veeteren and his team must dig far back into each man's past - but with few clues at each crime scene, can they find the killer before anyone else dies?
Woman with Birthmark is followed by the fifth book in the series, The Inspector and Silence.
A Swedish crime writer as thrilling as Mankell, a detective as compelling as Wallander . . .
Håkan Nesser's The Inspector and Silence is the fifth gripping crime novel in the Van Veeteren series.
In the heart of summer, the country swelters in a fug of heat. In the beautiful forested lake-town of Sorbinowo, Sergeant Merwin Kluuge's tranquil existence is shattered when he receives a phone call from an anonymous woman. She tells him that a girl has gone missing from the summer camp of the mysterious The Pure Life, a religious sect buried deep in the woods. Chief Inspector Van Veeteren is recruited to help solve the mystery.
But Van Veeteren's investigations at The Pure Life go nowhere fast. The strange priest-like figure who leads the sect - Oscar Yellineck - refuses even to admit anyone is missing. Things soon take a sinister turn, however, when a young girl's body is discovered in the woods, raped and strangled; and Yellineck himself disappears. Yet even in the face of these new horrors, the remaining members of the sect refuse to co-operate with Van Veeteren, remaining largely silent.
As the body count rises, a media frenzy descends upon the town and the pressure to find the monster behind the murders weighs heavily on the investigative team. Finally Van Veeteren realizes that to solve this disturbing case, faced with silence and with few clues to follow, he has only his intuition to rely on . . .
The Inspector and Silence is followed by the sixth book in the series, The Unlucky Lottery.
A Swedish crime writer as thrilling as Mankell, a detective as compelling as Wallander . . .
Chief Inspector Van Veeteren delves into a dark family mystery in the sixth book in Håkan Nesser's Van Veeteren series, The Unlucky Lottery.
Four friends celebrate winning the lottery. Just hours later, one of them - Waldemar Leverkuhn - is found in his home, stabbed to death.
With Chief Inspector Van Veeteren on sabbatical, working in a second hand bookshop, the case is assigned to Inspector Münster. But when another member of the lottery group disappears, as well as Leverkuhn's neighbour, Münster appeals to Van Veeteren for assistance.
Soon Münster will find himself interviewing the Leverkuhn family, including the eldest - Irene - a resident of a psychiatric clinic. And as he delves deeper into the family's history, he will discover dark secrets and startling twists, which not only threaten the clarity of the case - but also his life . . .
The Unlucky Lottery is followed by the seventh book in the series, Hour of the Wolf.
A Swedish crime writer as thrilling as Mankell, a detective as compelling as Wallander . . .
Van Veeteren faces a chilling case in Håkan Nesser's Hour of the Wolf, the seventh book to feature Chief Inspector Van Veeteren.
In the dead of night, in the pouring rain, a drunk driver smashes his car into a young man. He abandons the body at the side of the road, but the incident will set in motion a chain of events which will change his life forever.
Soon Chief Inspector Van Veeteren, now retired from the Maardam police force, will face his greatest trial yet as someone close to him is, inexplicably, murdered.
Van Veeteren's former colleagues, desperate for answers, struggle to decipher the clues to this appalling crime. But when another body is discovered, it gradually becomes clear that this killer is acting on their own terrifying logic . . .
Hour of the Wolf is followed by book eight in the series, The Weeping Girl.
