Van Veeteren series – serie

When Chief Inspector Van Veeteren is reluctantly drawn from his holiday, he finds himself entwined in an investigation of two murders before the culprit strikes again. Håkan Nesser's Borkmann's Point is the gripping second novel in the compelling 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. Chief Inspector Van Veeteren is summoned to assist the local authorities, under a retiring local police chief eager to conclude his duties.But there is no clear link between the victims. Then one of Van Veeteren's colleagues, a determined young female detective vanishes, muddying the waters further – perhaps she has reached Borkmann's Point before anyone else . . .

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 . . . 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.

A Swedish crime writer as thrilling as Mankell, a detective as compelling as Wallander . . . The Strangler's Honeymoon is the penultimate gripping Scandinavian crime thriller in the Van Veeteren series by Håkan Nesser.Desperately lonely, sixteen-year-old Monica Kammerle has little idea of what she is getting herself into when she begins an affair with her mother's latest partner; the sophisticated Benjamin Kerran . . .Months later, when a woman's strangled body is found, the Maardam police must discover who has committed this terrible crime. It isn't long before they realize the perpetrator may have killed before – and is likely to do so again.Meanwhile former Chief Inspector Van Veeteren finds himself drawn into the mystery when a priest, who has learned dreadful secrets, appeals to him for help. But when the priest falls beneath the wheels of a train and the police find more dead-ends than leads, it seems Van Veeteren will have to come up with a new approach to unearth this dark serial killer. Before he chooses his next victim . . .The Strangler's Honeymoon is followed by the tenth and final Van Veeteren novel, The G File.