Helene Tursten - Read Online Free Books Archive

An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed

Thu, 30 Dec 2021 23:21:24 +0200

Don’t let her age fool you. Maud may be nearly ninety, but if you crossher, this elderly lady is more sinister than sweet.
Just when things have finally cooled down for 88-year-old Maud after the disturbing discovery of a dead body in her apartment in Gothenburg, a couple of detectives return to her doorstep. Though Maud dodges their questions with the skill of an Olympic gymnast a fifth of her age, she wonders if suspicion has fallen on her, little old lady that she is. The truth is, ever since Maud was a girl, death has seemed to follow her.
In these six interlocking stories, memories of unfortunate incidents from Maud’s past keep bubbling to the surface. Meanwhile, certain Problems in the present require immediate attention. Luckily, Maud is no stranger to taking matters into her own hands . . . even if it means she has to get a little blood on them in the process.
*Includes cookie recipes*

The Torso

Sat, 17 Jan 1998 17:30:42 +0200

Part of a human torso washes up on a beach near Göteborg, Sweden. It is so mutilated that gender is only established by DNA testing. A similar crime, now several years old, remains unsolved in Denmark. Detective Inspector Irene Huss is dispatched to Copenhagen to liaise with police. Then a third corpse is discovered. This time it’s identified. It is a girl Detective Huss knew; she had been asked by the girl’s mother to locate her missing daughter. A fourth victim, the son of a woman heading the Copenhagen crime squad, is also known to Huss. She fears the killer is tracking her, killing people with whom she is connected. There is even a chilling suggestion that he or she is one of her colleagues.

Helene Tursten has been compared to P.D. James in her native Sweden. Her Irene Huss mysteries have been highly praised. She lives in Göteborg, where she was born in 1954.

Detective Inspector Huss

Fri, 17 Jan 1997 17:30:44 +0200

Inspector Irene Huss, stationed in Goteborg, is called through the rain-drenched wintry streets to the scene of an apparent suicide. The dead man landed on the sidewalk in front of his luxurious duplex apartment. He was a wealthy financier connected, through an old-boys' network, with the first families of Sweden. But the "Society Suicide" turns out to have been a carefully plotted murder. As more murders ensue, she tangles with street gang members, skinheads, immigrants and neo-Nazis-a cross-section of Sweden's disaffected-in order to catch the killer.

Helene Tursten has been compared to P.D. James in her native Sweden. Her three subsequent Irene Huss mysteries have been highly praised. She was born in Goteborg in 1954 where she now lives.

Hunting Game

Fri, 14 Nov 2014 14:54:37 +0200

The first installment in Helene Tursten’s brand new series featuring the strong, smart Detective Inspector Embla Nyström.

Twenty-eight-year-old Embla Nyström has been plagued by chronic nightmares and racing thoughts ever since she can remember. She has learned to channel most of her anxious energy into her position as Detective Inspector in the mobile unit in Gothenburg, Sweden, and into sports. A talented hunter and prizewinning Nordic welterweight, she is glad to be taking a vacation from her high-stress job to attend the annual moose hunt with her family and friends.

But when Embla arrives at her uncle’s cabin in rural Dalsland, she sees an unfamiliar face has joined the group: Peter, enigmatic, attractive, and newly divorced. And she isn’t the only one to notice. One longtime member of the hunt doesn’t welcome the presence of an outsider and is quick to point out that with Peter, the group’s number reaches thirteen, a bad omen for the week. Sure enough, a string of unsettling incidents follow, culminating in the disappearance of two hunters. Embla takes charge of the search, and they soon find one of the missing men floating facedown in the nearby lake. With the help of local reinforcements, Embla delves into the dark pasts of her fellow hunters in search of a killer.

Praise

A CrimeReads Most Anticipated Crime & Mystery Novel of 2019

Praise for Hunting Game

“Haunted, driven, immensely human and highly trained as a hunter and tracker, Embla is a winning new Scandinavian noir lead.”
—Jane Ciabattari, BBC Culture

“Impetuous and physical . . . [Embla is] a bright light among young Swedish cop characters.”
—Toronto Star

“[An] outstanding series launch . . . Embla is a refreshingly capable lead, whose situational ethics means that she doesn’t feel she must do everything by the book.”
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“Embla, still plagued by nightmares about losing her teenage best friend, is a sharp, willful, though emotionally vulnerable detective. Fans of the Huss novels in particular and Nordic noir in general will want to follow this series from its start.”
—Booklist, Starred Review

“A breathless thriller that’s impossible to put down. I was fascinated by Embla, a credible and complex character who is hiding secrets . . . A great reading experience.”
—Anna Jansson, author of the Maria Wern series

“Hunting Game is easy-to-read, exciting and interesting. Embla Nyström will surely appeal to readers as much as Irene Huss.”
—Dagbladet (Norway)

Praise for Helene Tursten

“As good as Louise Welsh’s similarly creepy tour of Glasgow.”
—Gillian Flynn, Entertainment Weekly

“These days Scandinavian crime writers are thick on the ground. It’s nice to see that the women can be just as bloodthirsty as the men.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“[Tursten] imbues this novel with a cold chill of dread that can’t be attributed only to the subfreezing temperatures of Gothenburg in winter.”
—Chicago Sun Times

“Truly satisfying.”
—Philadelphia Inquirer

“An engaging mystery with a very likable heroine. With a writing style reminiscent of Camilla Läckberg or Henning Mankell, Helene Tursten offers a detective with a nuanced and compelling personal life, as well as a dark and intriguing mystery.”
—Shelf Awareness

About the Author

Helene Tursten was a nurse and a dentist before she turned to writing. She is the author of the Irene Huss series, including Detective Inspector Huss, Night Rounds, Who Watcheth, and Protected by the Shadows, as well as the short story collection An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good. Her books have been translated into 21 languages and made into a television series. She was born in Gothenburg, Sweden, where she now lives with her husband.

Winter Grave

Mon, 16 Dec 2019 16:13:13 +0200

Two young girls are missing. A police officer is found dead. Detective Inspector Embla Nyström must quickly solve the mystery and find the children before the small town takes matters into their own hands.
When a little girl disappears a few weeks before Christmas, suspicions fall to the last person she was seen with: the mentally handicapped teenage boy who gave her a ride home after school. Complicating the matter is the fact that detectives can hardly get a word out of him.

Meanwhile, 28-year-old Detective Inspector Embla is newly back at work and still trying to recover from her brush with a killer last fall, which left her unable to get back in the ring to defend her title as Nordic light welterweight champion. When a second child disappears and a police officer is found dead, tensions in the small town of Strömstad, Sweden, are at an all-time high—as are Embla's nightmares. As she hunts for the missing children, Embla can't help but think...

Snowdrift

Mon, 03 Feb 2020 11:16:16 +0200

When a new lead breaks in the cold case that has long haunted Swedish Detective Inspector Embla Nyström, the truth she's been seeking about her best friend's disappearance may finally be revealed—if it doesn't kill her first.

One winter night, 28-year-old Detective Inspector Embla Nyström receives a phone call that sends her reeling. It's been fifteen years since Embla's best friend disappeared from a nightclub in Gothenburg, but Embla recognizes her voice immediately, though the call quickly disconnects. Lollo is still alive. But before Embla can dive into the case, she gets another phone call, this time from her cousin. A man has been found shot to death in one of the guest houses he and his wife manage in rural Sweden.

When Embla arrives on the scene, she receives another shock. The dead man is Milo Stavic, a well-known gang member and one of the men she saw with Lollo the night she disappeared. And, as Embla soon learns, the same night...

The Torso dih-2

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 07:44:48 +0200

Who Watcheth

Thu, 17 Nov 2016 11:53:51 +0200

He watches the women from the shadows. He has an understanding with them; as long as they follow his rules, they are safe. But when they sin, he sentences them to death.
A woman is found dead in a cemetery, strangled and covered in plastic. Just a few days before her death, the victim had received a flower, an unintelligible note, and a photograph of herself. Detective Inspector Irene Huss and her colleagues on the Violent Crimes Unit in Göteborg, Sweden, have neither clue nor motive to pursue, and when similar murders follow, their search for the killer becomes increasingly desperate. Meanwhile, strange things have been going on at home for Irene: first the rose bush in her garden is mangled, then she receives a threatening package with no return address. Is Irene being paranoid, or is she next on the killer's list?
From the Hardcover edition.

Detective Inspector Huss dih-1

Tue, 16 Nov 2004 22:12:50 +0200

Night Rounds ih-4

Sat, 16 Nov 2013 22:44:59 +0200

Irene Huss is a former Ju-Jitsu champion, a mother of twin teenage girls, the wife of a successful chef, and a Detective Inspector with the Violent Crimes Unit in Goteborg, Sweden. And now she’s back with a gripping follow-up to Detective Inspector Huss . One nurse lies dead and another vanishes after their hospital is hit by a blackout. The only witness claims to have seen Nurse Tekla doing her rounds, but Nurse Tekla died sixty years ago. Detective Inspector Irene Huss of the Violent Crimes Unit has the challenge of disentangling wandering ghosts and complex human relationships to get to the bottom of this intriguing case. A cult hit in its first three installments, the Irene Huss series is available once again for English-language fans.

The Golden Calf

Sun, 17 Nov 2013 11:53:51 +0200

In this fifth installment in the critically acclaimed Irene Huss series, three men are found brutally executed in one of Goteborg's most fashionable neighborhoods. All three men were involved in an online poker company, but that's all they appear to have in common. The complex investigation immerses Detective Inspector Irene Huss and her colleagues into a world of expensive cars, fancy homes and impressive castles in the air.

Meanwhile, the normally peaceful atmosphere of the Huss family is disturbed by marital tension as Irene suspects her husband Krister of a having an affair with a younger woman.

Review

Praise for the Irene Huss series:

"As good as Louise Welsh's similarly creepy tour of Glasgow."—Entertainment Weekly

"These days Scandinavian crime writers are thick on the ground. It's nice to see that the women can be just as bloodthirsty as the men." ─The New York Times Book Review

Praise for Night Rounds:

"A superior Scandinavian crime novel.... Tursten does an outstanding job of offering multiple plausible murders, making this the rare procedural that actually requires the reader to evaluate alibis, motives, and means to solve the
case." ─Publishers Weekly, Starred Reveiw

"I couldn't put down this finely crafted, Swedish procedural with its complex story line and heart-stopping climax." ─Library Journal

About the Author

Helene Tursten was a nurse and a dentist before she turned to writing. Other books in the Irene Huss series include Detective Inspector Huss, The Torso, The Glass Devil, and Night Rounds. She was born in Goteborg, Sweden, where she now lives with her husband and daughter.

The Glass Devil dih-3

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 00:50:03 +0200

Protected by the Shadows

Fri, 17 Nov 2017 11:53:52 +0200

With gang violence escaling in Göteborg, Sweden, the Organized Crimes Unit pairs with the Violent Crimes Unit to help defuse the situation. But could there be a mole on the force?
In this final installment of the internationally bestselling Irene Huss investigations, the gang warfare that has been brewing in Göteborg is about to explode. A member of a notorious biker gang has been set on fire—alive. Even in a culture where ritual killings are common, this brutal assault attracts the attention of both Irene's unit and the Organized Crimes Unit. Anticipating a counterattack, the two units team up to patrol the lavish party of a rival gang, but that doesn't stop another murder from occurring just outside the event hall.
And that's not the only thing going up in flames. Someone has planted a bomb under Irene's husband's car. Fearing for her family's safety, Irene sends her husband and daughters into hiding and takes up residence at a colleague's apartment....

An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good

Tue, 27 Nov 2018 20:35:39 +0200

Maude is an irascible 88-year-old Swedish woman with no family, no friends, and . . . no qualms about a little murder. This funny, irreverent story collection by Helene Tursten, author of the Irene Huss investigations, features two-never-before translated stories that will keep you laughing all the way to the retirement home.
Ever since her darling father's untimely death when she was only eighteen, Maud has lived in the family's spacious apartment in downtown Gothenburg rent-free, thanks to a minor clause in a hastily negotiated contract. That was how Maud learned that good things can come from tragedy. Now in her late eighties, Maud contents herself with traveling the world and surfing the net from the comfort of her father's ancient armchair. It's a solitary existence, but she likes it that way.
Over the course of her adventures—or misadventures—-this little, bold lady will handle a crisis with a local celebrity who has her eyes on Maud's apartment,...