Scandinavian Crime Thrillers

When Kurt Wallander first appeared in Faceless Killers back in 1990, he was a senior police officer, just turned 40, with his life in a mess. His wife had left him, his father barely acknowledged him; he ate badly and drank alone at night. The Pyramid chronicles the events that led him to such a place. We see him in the early years, doing hours on the beat whilst trying to solve a murder off-duty; witness the beginnings of his fragile relationship with Mona, the woman he has his heart set on marrying.

Ellas son jóvenes, guapas y viven de las subvenciones estatales. Su único sueño es convertirse en las estrellas de un famoso reality show. Pero lo que no se pueden imaginar es que son el blanco de una persona desequilibrada cuyo objetivo es eliminarlas de una en una. Al inigualable trío de investigadores del Departamento Q, compuesto por el cínico inspector Carl Mørck y sus fieles Assad y Rose, se une Gordon, que será decisivo en esta investigación.

He calls himself Ulf—as good a name as any, he thinks—and the only thing he’s looking for is a place where he won’t be found by Oslo’s most notorious drug lord: the Fisherman. He was once the Fisherman’s fixer, but after betraying him, Ulf is now the one his former boss needs fixed—which may not be a problem for a man whose criminal reach is boundless. When Ulf gets off the bus in Kåsund, on Norway’s far northeastern border, he sees a “flat, monotonous, bleak landscape . . . the perfect hiding place. Hopefully.”

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Darkness by Ragnar Jonasson. A young woman, an asylum seeker from Russia, is found murdered on the seaweed-covered rocks of the Vatnsleysuströnd in Iceland. Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdottir of the Reykjavik Police is called to investigate this - the final case in her career before she is forced into retirement. When Hulda starts to ask questions, it isn't long before she realises that no-one can be trusted and that no-one is telling the whole truth.

Old crimes, new consequences. In wartime Reykjavik, a young woman is found strangled behind the National Theatre, a rough and dangerous area of the city known as 'the shadow district'. An Icelandic detective and a member of the American military police are on the trail of a brutal killer. A 90-year-old man is discovered dead on his bed, smothered with his own pillow. Konrad, a former detective now bored with retirement, finds newspaper cuttings in the dead man's home reporting the shadow district murder....

Detective Sigurdur Oli is in trouble. After a school reunion exposes the chasm between his life and those of his much more successful contemporaries, leaving him bitter and resentful, one of his old friends asks him to pay an unofficial visit to a couple of blackmailers. He readily agrees, only to arrive to find one of the pair lying in a pool of blood. When the victim dies in hospital, Sigurdur Oli is faced with investigating a murder without revealing his own reasons for being present at the murder scene.

¿Puede un terrible hecho del pasado seguir teniendo consecuencias devastadoras? Cuando una botella que contiene un mensaje escrito con sangre humana llega al Departamento Q, el subcomisario Carl Mørck y sus asistentes Assad y Rose logran descifrar algunas palabras de lo que fue la última señal de vida de dos chicos desaparecidos en los años noventa. Pero ¿por qué su familia nunca denunció su desaparición? Carl Mørck intuye que no se trata de un caso aislado y que el criminal podría seguir actuando con total impunidad.

Emelie is a young lawyer who's just started her own firm. Teddy is a reformed criminal looking for a fresh start. The first time they teamed up, in Stockholm Delete, they uncovered the secrets of a Swedish sex ring. Though their partnership proved rewarding - both professionally and personally - they haven't seen each other since. But when a vulnerable young client of Emelie's is murdered before she can testify against her abusers, Emelie turns to her ex-partner/lover for help.

Jon is on the run. He has betrayed Oslo’s biggest crime lord: The Fisherman. Fleeing to an isolated corner of Norway, to a mountain town so far north that the sun never sets, Jon hopes to find sanctuary amongst a local religious sect. Hiding out in a shepherd’s cabin in the wilderness, all that stands between him and his fate are Lea, a bereaved mother; and her young son, Knut. But while Lea provides him with a rifle and Knut brings essential supplies, the midnight sun is slowly driving Jon to insanity.

Nouveau défi pour le Département V de la police de Copenhague, en charge des affaires non résolues : un "serial" chauffard dont les victimes sont des femmes jeunes, jolies et... pauvres. Elles touchent les aides sociales et ne rêvent que d'une chose : devenir des stars de reality-show. Sans imaginer un instant qu'elles sont la cible d'une personne gravement déséquilibrée dont le but est de les éliminer une par une.

Four nuns and a fifth woman, a visitor to Africa, are killed in a savage nighttime attack. Months later in Sweden, the news of the unexplained tragedy sets off a cruel vengeance for these killings. Inspector Kurt Wallander is home from an idyllic holiday in Rome, full of energy and plans for the future. Autumn settles in, and Wallander prays the winter will be peaceful. But when he investigates the disappearance of an elderly birdwatcher, he discovers a gruesome and meticulously planned murder - a body impaled in a trap of sharpened bamboo poles.

Varias desapariciones ocurridas en los años ochenta ponen de nuevo en marcha a Carl Mørck. Su investigación lo conduce hasta Nete Hermansen, una mujer que ha hecho todo lo posible por ocultar su trágico pasado hasta que este le vuelve a dar alcance. Mientras Carl se enfrenta a las sombras de su propia existencia, y a los secretos de sus colaboradores Assad y Rose, deberá indagar en la historia del líder de un partido político de extrema derecha que defiende una siniestra ideología racista.

Has anyone seen Andreas? Andreas's disappearance is a mystery to all, including his inseparable friend Zipp. But its not easy for Zipp to come forward with details of the last time he saw his friend - they had been following an old woman, an easy target for some quick cash, and Andreas boldly followed her into her home brandishing his knife, the next moment he was gone.

When a young woman is found dead, the police are quick to respond. But what they find at the scene is unexpected. The body is posed, the scene laboriously set. And there is almost no forensic evidence to be found. Detective Mia Krüger has been signed off work pending psychological assessment. But her boss has less regard for the rules than he should. Desperate to get Mia back in the office, Holger Munch offers her an unofficial deal.

"Schuldig." Nur dieses eine Wort steht auf dem Pappschild des jungen Mannes, der in Kopenhagen unter einer Straßenlaterne sitzt. Am nächsten Morgen liegt er leblos im Schnee, ermordet. Jensen, Journalistin bei der Zeitung Dagbladet, stolpert fast über seine Leiche. Sie ruft Kommissar Henrik Jungersen zum Tatort, ihren besten Kontakt bei der Kopenhagener Polizei - und ehemaligen Liebhaber. Es ist schon der zweite Mord an einem Obdachlosen innerhalb von zwei Wochen, und als kurz darauf eine dritte Leiche auftaucht, gehen alle von einem Serien-Mörder aus.

Kommissar Barbarotti auf dem Abstellgleis? Als er nach einem persönlichen Schicksalsschlag zum ersten Mal wieder im Dienst erscheint, soll er zwei ungeklärte Mordfälle wieder aufnehmen. In deren Zentrum steht die mysteriöse Ellen Bjarnebo: die hat nicht nur ihren ersten Mann grausam ermordet, sondern wahrscheinlich auch ihren zweiten - der ist nämlich seit Jahren spurlos verschwunden. Doch ohne Leiche keine Mörderin. Beweisen konnte man ihr in diesem Fall nichts.

El comisario Christian Habersaat lleva diecisiete años intentando en vano esclarecer la muerte de una joven que apareció colgando cabeza abajo de un árbol. Desesperado, le pide ayuda a Carl Mørck, que, malhumorado como siempre, no le hace demasiado caso. Poco después, Habersaat muere en extrañas circunstancias y, al cabo de unos días, fallece también su hijo.

In der Nähe eines Waldstücks bei Västerås in Schweden finden Kinder eine Leiche. Bei der Identifizierung stellt sich heraus, daß der aufgefundene Junge Schüler eines Elitegymnasiums war und seit Tagen als vermisst galt. Da die örtliche Polizei mit dem Fall überfordert ist, reist der Stockholmer Kommissar Höglund an und nimmt gemeinsam mit seinem Team die Ermittlungen auf. Die Lösung des Falles bringt mehr als nur ein dunkles Geheimnis ans Licht.

Auf den isländischen Westmännerinseln werden bei Ausgrabungen drei Leichen und ein abgetrennter Kopf gefunden. Sie liegen im Keller des Elternhauses von Markús Magnússon, das bei einem Vulkanausbruch vor mehr als dreißig Jahren verschüttet wurde. Da Markús mit Hilfe seiner Anwältin Dóra die Ausgrabung unbedingt verhindern wollte, steht er plötzlich unter Mordverdacht: Hat er als Jugendlicher drei Menschen getötet und verstümmelt?

Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell, read by Sean Barrett. Sweden, winter, 1991. Inspector Kurt Wallander and his team receive an anonymous tip-off. A few days later a life raft is washed up on a beach. In it are two men, dressed in expensive suits, shot dead. The dead men were criminals, victims of what seems to have been a gangland hit. But what appears to be an open-and-shut case soon takes on a far more sinister aspect.