Flora has seen it all, but nobody believes her. A young girl is dead, someone killed her. She was only 14 years old and was found in her room at the institution for young women in distress, north of Stockholm. The walls are splashed with blood, the sheets are soaked. None of the other girls know what happened, but one of them has fled into the night. What Flora does not know is that it is the redoubtable Joona Linna who will be investigating the worst and most puzzling crime of his career.
Having come thus far in his deliberations, Van Veeteren gave in to temptation and lit a cigarette. It was time to address the big question, and that would no doubt need a bit of extra effort. Why? Why in hell's name should anybody march up to somebody's door, ring the bell and shoot whoever opened it?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?
A Treacherous Paradise sees Henning Mankell turn his talents for writing gripping thrillers to a world where power and powerlessness meet and passion is a dangerous commodity. Hanna Lundmark escapes the brutal poverty of rural Sweden for a job as a cook onboard a steamship headed for Australia. Jumping ship at the African port of Lourenço Marques, Hanna decides to begin her life afresh. Stumbling across what she believes to be a down-at-heel hotel, Hanna becomes embroiled in a sequence of events that lead to her inheriting the most successful brothel in town. Uncomfortable with the attitudes of the white settlers, Hanna is determined to befriend the prostitutes working for her, and change life in the town for the better, but the distrust between blacks and whites, and the shadow of colonialism, lead to tragedy and murder.
Once a successful surgeon, Frederick Welin now lives in self-imposed exile on an island in the Swedish archipelago. Nearly twelve years have passed since he was disgraced for attempting to cover up a tragic mishap on the operating table. One morning in the depths of winter, he sees a hunched figure struggling towards him across the ice. His past is about to catch up with him. The figure approaching in the freezing cold is Harriet, the only woman he has ever loved, the woman he abandoned in order to go and study in America forty years earlier. She has sought him out in the hope that he will honour a promise made many years ago. Now in the late stages of a terminal illness, she wants to visit a small lake in northern Sweden, a place Welin's father took him once as a boy. He upholds his pledge and drives her to this beautiful pool hidden deep in the forest. On the journey through the desolate snow-covered landscape, Welin reflects on his impoverished childhood and the woman he later left behind. However, once there Welin discovers that Harriet has left the biggest surprise until last. Italian Shoes is as compelling as it is disturbing. Through his anti-hero Welin, Mankell tackles ageing and death with sensitivity and acuity, and as with the critically acclaimed Depths, delivers a moving tour-de-force on the frailty of mankind.
A new case for Chief Inspector Van Veeteren - the complicated history of a nearly perfect murder. On a sunny August day a man is released from prison. On a rainy April day children at play find his corpse. The fact that the dead man is Leopold Verhaven only becomes clear after some time because the mutilated corpse is without its head, legs and feet. Who would be interested in killing this man, a double murderer who spent 24 years in prison? Determined to let no case go unsolved, Chief Inspector Van Veeteren reopens the case. What he discovers is that Verhaven was a star sprinter before he went to prison for allegedly killing two of his lovers. However, he never confessed to the murders and spent a lifetime proclaiming his innocence. Was he killed because someone thought he had not been punished enough? Or was someone afraid of Verhaven's revenge? A terrible suspicion stalks Van Veeteren: had Verhaven been telling the truth? Was he really innocent?
In this superbly gritty thriller, Emilie Jansson, a new partner at a
prestigious law firm, and Teddy, an ex-con trying to stay on the right side of
the law, become involved with a burglary-turned-murder, but they are soon
entangled in a snarly web with deep connections to Stockholm's criminal world,
where history is never a thing of the past, and always ready to threaten those
who lived it.
October 1914- the destroyer Svea emerged from the Stockholm archipelago bearing south-south-east. On board was Lars Tobiasson-Svartman, a naval engineer charged with making depth soundings to find a navigable channel for the Swedish navy. As a child Tobiasson-Svartman was fascinated by measurement; nothing is as magical as exact knowledge. His instinct for his profession is reflected in his comfortable domestic life with his wife - herself meticulous in every detail.Close to the waters where soundings are taken Tobiasson-Svartman alights on a barren skerry, presumed uninhabited, and is surprised to discover an unkempt young woman, Sara Fredrika. Despite her almost feral appearance, something about her strikes him to the core. The mission is a success and the Svea returns to Gothenburg. Tobiasson-Svartman, however, remains haunted by this chance encounter; his equilibrium has been disturbed, and he is now compelled to find any pretence to return to the remote islet.In DEPTHS Mankell confirms his status a writer beyond the crime genre. By delving deep into the male psyche, he has produced a novel both as tense and compelling in every way as the Wallander series, but also powerful, moving and ultimately tragic.
Tea-Bag, a young African girl, has fled a refugee camp in Spain for the
promise of a new life in Sweden. Tania has made a long and dangerous journey
to escape the horrors of human trafficking. Leyla has come with her family
from Iran. All of them are facing different challenges in their new home.
Meanwhile, celebrated poet Jesper Humlin is looking for inspiration. Harried
by his mother and girlfriend, misunderstood by his publisher and tormented by
his stockbroker, Jesper needs a new perspective on life. A chance encounter
with Tea-Bag leads him into the shadow world of the immigrant experience in
Sweden. Initially he sees the girls purely as material for his next work, but
soon discovers they have very different ideas. In The Shadow Girls, Henning
Mankell tells the extraordinary stories of three young women who are
determined to overcome the hardships they face to take control of their own
lives. This inspiring novel encompasses both humour and tragedy and
illuminates our understanding of those left on the margins of our society.
Zweden is in de ban van een seriemoordenaar die zijn slachtoffers eerst filmt vanuit het donker, thuis waar ze zich veilig wanen, en het filmpje vervolgens op YouTube plaatst. Enkele dagen later wordt degene die gefilmd is zijn volgende slachtoffer. Het onderzoek naar de moordenaar verloopt stroef, tot bij het lichaam van het vierde slachtoffer een bewusteloze man wordt aangetroffen. De man kan zich echter niets herinneren van de moord. Om zijn onschuld te bewijzen, roept zijn familie de hulp in van hypnotiseur Erik Maria Bark. Maar de informatie die Erik verkrijgt biedt geen enkele duidelijkheid. Dan wordt er een nieuwe moord gepleegd, en de verdachte heeft dit keer een alibi. Er lijkt slechts één persoon te zijn die de zaak kan oplossen: Joona Linna. Maar die is meer dan een jaar geleden verdwenen ...
