Swedish Crime Fiction

The Van Veeteren series

The series take place in Maardam, a fictitious city in a made-up country that could be anywhere in northern Europe. It follows the murder cases of Chief inspector Van Veeteren – and eventually the retired Chief Inspector – and his two crime squad protégés, Münster and Moreno.

Van Veeteren is a philosophical detective with a unique ability to draw lines between dots that are far apart and nearly invisible. He firmly believes that he is able to solve any murder case. He is somewhat enigmatic and at times difficult to deal with. Vaguely gruff, temperamental, a little eccentric, but overall very warm, and funny, and someone it’s easy to identify with. He is currently one of the most popular Swedish fictional characters, with a popularity apporaching that of Martin Beck and Kurt Wallander.

When Van Veeteren goes into retirement he buys an antiquarian bookshop where he plans to live out his remaining years devoting himself to his other great passion – books. He also wants to spend more time with his family – especially his estranged son Erich, whose history of crime and drug abuse are at least in part a result of Van Veeteren’s deep commitment to his work.

However, his retirement is in name only, as Münster and Moreno continue to consult the master detective, who helps them with new perspectives in their investigations and invariable ends up getting actively involved himself. And one senses he would not have it any other way.

Hakan Nesser

Hakan Nesser (Håkan in Swedish, born February 21, 1950) is a Swedish author and teacher who has written a number of successful novels, mostly crime fiction. He has won Best Swedish Crime Novel Award three times, and his novel Carambole won the Glass Key award in 2000. His books have been translated from Swedish into 9 languages.

Hakan Nesser has published 20 books in Swedish. Four of them have so far been translated to English. They are Borkmann’s Point (2006), The Return (2007), The Mind’s Eye (2008), and Woman with Birthmark (2009). All of these are books in the series about Van Veeteren. (Read more …)