Helene Tursten brings the Swedish landscape and culture to life in her Inspector Embla Nyström series.
Embla Nystrom is a champion boxer and hunter of moose and boar in the Swedish countryside. She is the youngest of four children and the only girl. Her family, which includes an actress and an artist, doesn’t quite know what to make of her chosen profession – police detective. When she was fourteen, her best friend disappeared. Embla was a witness to her abduction, but because of her fear of getting into trouble, she made up a story to explain why the girls got separated. Embla is plagued by nightmares and a deep sense of guilt and uses this in her work – which is why Embla is relentless and highly motivated while working on her cases.
The first book, Hunting Game, involves missing hunters and a revenge plot. The second, Winter Grave, involves a hunt for missing children. The third, Snowdrift, brings Embla back to her friend’s abduction. The family of gangsters that were responsible are now dying one by one. In the midst of a possible gang war, Embla learns what really happened fifteen years ago. This is the perfect series for long winter nights- which thankfully, are almost over!
Check out Helene Tursten’s Inspector Irene Huss series and her other acclaimed crime novels.
Read about some other series of this popular genre at Nordic noir 101 and our past blog entry about
Scandinavian noir.