Inspector Anders Knutas Mysteries
3 primary works
Book 1
The first body they found was the dog. The poor creature's throat has been cut, and one paw severed completely. Then they found the body of the woman. She had been stabbed, again and again; she was naked, a piece of cloth had been stuffed into her mouth. The picturesque holiday island of Gotland is in the middle of a busy tourist season when the young woman is discovered murdered. Suspicion falls on her husband - the couple had been seen fighting the evening before. Inspector Anders Knutas is hoping it will be a straight-forward case; the local authorities are hoping so too, but more out of an interest in protecting the tourist trade than any desire to see justice served. Then another victim is discovered, again she is a young woman and she has been murdered in the same chilling manner. Inspector Knutas must face up to the horrifying prospect that there is a serial killer loose on the island. Knutas, aided by investigative journalist Johan Berg, begins to piece together the tragic history that unites the two victims, and alarmingly points to more murders to come. The killer remains unknown, moving freely, unseen, on the island.
All that is clear is that the two victims are just the beginning, unless Knutas and Berg find the killer before he strikes again.
All that is clear is that the two victims are just the beginning, unless Knutas and Berg find the killer before he strikes again.
Book 2
The dead man was a drunk; a regular on the park benches of Gotland's city centre. He had been celebrating winning 80,000 Krona at the races. His body is discovered by one of his drinking buddies: he is drenched in blood and someone or something has left a hole the size of a fist in the back of his head. It's winter on the island of Gotland. The tourists have returned home. The tree branches are bare, the sky is sleet grey and the days are getting shorter and darker. Winter is a quiet time for Chief Inspector Anders Knutas and Detective Karin Jacobsson; the tourists tend to take the violent crimes with them back to the mainland. To keep their lives simple, they are tempted to assume that the victim died as a result of a drunken brawl over money. But all of the clues point to something far more sinister. Then 14-year old Fanny Jansson, a volunteer at the local stables, vanishes. At first, Knutas and Jacobsson find it hard to believe that the two cases are linked: one is a violent murder, the other, the disappearance of a lonely and isolated child who has probably run away. Painstakingly, they work the clues, assisted by ambitious TV reporter Johan Berg.
But what none of them realise is that truth is much closer to home than they'd ever imagine.
But what none of them realise is that truth is much closer to home than they'd ever imagine.
Book 3
Working on an archaeological dig to uncover an ancient Viking fortification on the Swedish island of Gotland, a group of students becomes caught up in a web of horror when a young woman turns up dead, naked, and hanging from a tree, the victim of a ritual killing.