"In The Eternal Flame of Alchemy Detective Inspector Maria Wern struggles with a murderer who turns out to follow the principles of alchemy. The hunt of the fanatic perpetrator goes from an old artist community on Gotland to Kosta Art Hotel on the mainland.
The aged glass artist Justus Hartman was one of the last alchemists. What drove him wasn't the thought of gold and wealth, but the mysticism. Tightly bounded, like in a sect, he kept his apprentices. Now someone wants part of the inner secret before Justus dies and an easly morning he is abducted from Visby Hospital in a stolen paratransit mini-van.
His nephew, police commissioner Tomas Hartman, looks for his uncle in Mästerby. Everything seems normal in the Glassworks although forty years have gone by. The memory of Angelika, a lost love, makes him loose grip in his marriage. There are thing he was never able to tell his wife. A guilt that has weighed him down for all these years. The tracks lead to the main land.
A man is found dead in a glass coffin at Kosta Art Hotel. Maria Wern realizes that there is a connection between the murder and Justus' disappearance. But her new chief, Patrik Hedlund, leads the investigation with a firm grip and won't let her follow her intuition. That turns out to be a catastrophic mistake in the hunt of a murderer who fanatically follows the principles of alchemy."
"'With a few simple strokes on the keyboard, he could see the little people in their everyday lives over satellite. These superstitious and hardly intelligent creatures still believed in pure luck. It gave him a feeling of power when he could observe them. When weather was good he could even see their faces. Maybe this is what gave him the greatest pleasure.'
The Gotlandic myth about the White sea-lady has existed ever since Tjelvar lit the fire and the island rose out of the sea. The story is told about a young woman who drowned on her wedding night and who has since tried to lure men down into the underwater streams outside the west coast. The myth is brought up again an early morning just before midsummer, when a nurse is found murdered in the pavilion on the Tempel Hill in the Botanic garden. She is dressed as a bride.
Detective Inspector Maria Wern is investigating the case. It turns out to be an uneven struggle where the killer can observe every step the police takes. With an intelligent and a technical know-how which by far exceeds everything they thought possible an evil strategy is laid out. Evil is closer than they think."
"Two days before Christmas 88-year-old Gertrud disappears without a trace from her apartment in Visby. The town is covered in snow and the temperature is decreasing.
Despite great search efforts, she is nowhere to be found. When Maria Wern investigates the case, she learns that Gertrud's husband recently passed away and she fears that Gertrud is depressed or confused. But new clues surface that makes Maria try another theory in the search for the missing woman."
"It is December in Visby. Pernilla Ekvall cannot feel any holiday spirit - her husband is almost never home and she suspects that he is having an affair.
On Lucia morning, December 13, Pernilla takes off in a rush after leaving the daughter Tove at school. What she does not see, is how someone approaches Tbefore she reaches the school yard."
"The old wooden door to the prison tower Kajsarn in Visby is slightly open. The boy takes the girls hand in the dark when the moist, cold air hits them as a breath from death and the door closes behind them. No one would be able to hear their call for help.
They stumble not to fall down in the dark cave. Between the rocks in the wall Erik finds a leather pouch with a map. In the dim light from the lighter they see it is dated 1816. Since that night, they have a secret agreement - one day they shall go to Gotska Sandön and dig up the shipwreck looter's treasure.
After thirty years of waiting and just as a possibility to collect the treasure opens up, everything is shattered. Just before Christmas, Erik Hansson is found frozen to death in his car on highway 142. There is no proof of a crime. In a confused state, thoughts of revenge and death for a lost life rise. The ones that have caused so much pain and shame shall not remain unpunished.
Death writes an invitation. Seven women travel to Gotska Sandön for a rehab camp, paid for by the Social Insurance Bureau. There is a storm and all the electricity is cut off. Only a few of them will return ...
One of the women on the island is Maria Wern. She needs to disappear for a while since she is going to testify in a trial and has received death threats. The trip turns out to be a fatal mistake: after a couple of days she realizes with horrific clarity that they are all included in an evil plan."
"Determined Frida Norrby folds her wool skirt and gathers the remains of the child in the fabric. She strikes the head.
'You little one ... what did they do to you? Quiet! Is there anyone there?' She stops with the shovel in her hand and listens. 'Helge, is that you?' No, the steps she just heard were shorter and lighter. A living person's steps.
Some people think she has become paranoid after the death of her husband. Maybe that is true, when she night after night digs according to the maps she found in the safe deposit Helge had. While away, someone has searched through Helge's desk and left the front door open. She is convinced the maps, can rewrite the Swedish history.
Not Until the Giver is Dead is like a Swedish Da Vinci Code. Knowledge is just preliminary assumptions while waiting for new findings. True or false, that is left for the afterworld to decide ..."
"Strange things happen at Katthamra manor.
Admiral Hägg is on watch duty at four in the morning regardless of whether he's alive or dead. In the forest with the twisted trees it's easy to get lost because clocks stop running and compasses no longer work. This could be due to the gnome Bysen or the Little People Underground. Andreas Nilsson, 9 years old, thinks about these things and about the minesweeper Albatross as he rides his bicycle from the graveyard with a stolen skull securely fastened on his bike rack. Together with his brother he has discovered a secret, but his brother is buried at the cementary. The cause of death was drowning, or was it?
Detective Inspector Maria Wern spends the summer working on the island of Gotland to gain some peace and quiet and to get some distance from her divorce. Just before midsummer the police receive a report of a missing nine-year-old boy after a party at Herrvik's fishing camp. The search includes the caves in the hills above Östergarn School. Throughout the years, school children have scratched their names on the wall in one of the caves. Maria Wern discovers two names, encircled by a heart. Old love never dies - or is that exactly what does happen to it?"
"When a bird flu pandemic reaches the picturesque yet uncanny island Gotland, panic spreads among the inhabitants who are frantic for an elusive cure. As the community becomes more desperate, the hunt for scapegoats begins. Extremist and anti-immigrant groups gain ground while nurse Sandra Hägg makes a gruesome discovery at the health clinic where she works - a discovery that will cost her life. Soon Detective Inspector Maria Wern is handpicked to investigate the case."
"When a woman is found murdered at a rest area in Kronviken, Detective Inspector Maria Wern becomes involved in the investigation. The woman's body is severely burned, her clothes are in shreds and the blue synthetic cap has melted over her face. Who is she? And is there a connection with the pyromaniac's deed?
Anna Jansson's mysteries often ask pressing questions about the present day and the world we live in. Can a child's make-believe world become such an important place of refuge that it can't be escaped as an adult? Does society have a plan for dealing with the children who are forced to live with parents who are drug addicts or mentally ill?"
"It's reassuring when teenagers keep themselves busy at home on their computers. At least then you know where they are. Don't you?
A 14-year old girl disappears on her way home from a film night at school. Her lifeless body is found in the forest the next day. Detective Inspector Maria Wern is assigned the unpleasant task of informing the father. When another girl disappears, panic begins to spread, media blames the police's inefficiency and parents turn vigilante. Can Maria Wern solve the murder before the crisis escalates out of control?"
"May Death Sleep is the third book in the hit series about Detective Inspector Maria Wern.
A murder, and a suicide leads DI Maria Wern into the world of renowned IVF-clinic Cheiron and its owner Per Göthe - a man with an impeccable history. How is he involved in the grisly murder?
As Maria tries to untangle the web of greed and envy, people's lives are at stake as someone wants to profit off of their misfortune…"
"All The Tranquil Dead is the second book in the hit series about Detective Inspector Maria Wern.
A man has been reported missing. Rosmarie Haag, his wife, seeks out Detective Inspector Maria Wern. What initially appears to be a routine matter develops with frightening speed into one of the worst investigations the county crime scene has faced. With reduced resources and under severe time pressure, they are looking for a killer. A man with nothing to lose."
