At Night All Wolves Are Grey

Staalesen, Gunnar

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Quartet Crime

A case for Varg Veum . . . Bergen, Norway. Young teenage girls are being drawn into prostitution, partly for kicks, but also to earn money for drugs and clothes. Matters take a turn for the worse when the local magistrate is discovered in a luxury hotel, clad only in women_s lingerie_and most assuredly dead. Private detective Varg Veum is called by anxious parents soon after to look for their missing daughter.

The Writing on the Wall (Euro Crime)

Mystery

Arcadia Books

In this crime drama, set in Bergen, Norway, detective Varg Veum's adventures take him into a dark world of privileged citizens who have been drawn into cross-dressing, drugs, and prostitution. When the local judge is discovered dead, clad only in women's lingerie in a luxury hotel, Varg is called in to explain the judge's death. Soon a teenage girl goes missing and her parents ask that he find her. Varg learns that all of the clues lead him deeper into Bergen's criminal underworld.

The Writing on the Wall

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

The single-mother families of the isolated high-rise community under the shadow of the Lyderhorn, Bergen's great mountain - steep, dark and oppressive - were being robbed, terrorized and molested by a teenage gang led by the psychopath, Joker, who looked like a priest, but with the eyes of a tiger and the teeth of a decaying corpse. It was at their "torture chamber", a hut in the pinewoods nearby, that Varg Veum, Private Investigator, first encountered the gang's pathetic but deadly ferocity. Eight-year-old Roar's bicycle had been stolen and not an adult in sight dared retrieve it. But a preliminary brush with such youthful violence was as nothing compared to what awaited Veum when he got to know Roar's shy yet sensuous mother, Wenche Andresen, and her estranged husband, Jonas. Veum's attempts to break up Joker and his pack of young thugs by enlisting the help of the local youth club leader proved a dead end. But not so dead as the man who lay prone with a knife in his back on the floor of Andresen's flat. Yours Until Death is an unbearably tense novel of revenge and murder about marriage, childhood, bereavement and the destructive force of passion. First published in Norwegian in 1979, it was described by the critic Nils Nordberg as "one of the finest, most serious, most ambitious books in post-war Norwegian crime writing." "Staalsen's mastery of pacing enables him to develop his characters in a leisurely way without sacrificing tension and suspense."-Publishers Weekly

Yours Until Death (Eurocrime)

Literary

On a frosty January day in Bergen, private detective Varg Veum is visited by a prostitute whose friend has disappeared. Before her disappearance, something had unsettled her: she'd turned away a customer and returned to the neighborhood in terror. Shortly after taking the case, Veum finds the first body - and it won't be the last either. His investigation leads him into a dark subculture where corrupted idealism has had deadly consequences. "Veum can skillfully dole out violence, but the essentially humane detective prefers methods that involve dialogue and deduction, investigation and intellect- a welcome contrast to many in his line of work."--Publishers Weekly Sept. 9, 2013 "Cold Hearts is top-tier Scandinavian crime fiction; straightforward dialogue drives the plot, and tough but sympathetic Veum is equally comfortable in a fistfight, proving for secrets behind Bergen's closed doors, or examining crime's sociological roots."--Booklist*, Nov. 1, 2013

Cold Hearts

1998. Varg Veum sits by the hospital bedside of his long-term girlfriend Karin, whose life-threatening injuries provide a deeply painful reminder of the mistakes he’s made. Investigating the seemingly innocent disappearance of a wind-farm inspector, Varg Veum is thrust into one of the most challenging cases of his career, riddled with conflicts, environmental terrorism, religious fanaticism, unsolved mysteries and dubious business ethics. Then, in one of the most heart-stopping scenes in crime fiction, the first body appears… A chilling, timeless story of love, revenge and desire, We Shall Inherit the Wind deftly weaves contemporary issues with a stunning plot that will leave you gripped to the final page. This is Staalesen at his most thrilling, thought-provoking best. 'The Varg Veum series is more concerned with character and motivation than spectacle, and it’s in the quieter scenes that the real drama lies.’ Herald Scotland ’Staalesen is one of my very favourite Scandinavian authors and this is a series with very sharp teeth’ Ian Rankin ‘A Norwegian Chandler’ Jo Nesbo ‘Gunnar Staalesen was writing suspenseful and socially conscious Nordic Noir long before any of today's Swedish crime writers had managed to put together a single book page … one of Norway's most skillful storytellers’ Johan Theorin ‘Razor-edged Scandinavian crime fiction at its finest’ Quentin Bates ‘Not many books hook you in the first chapter – this one did, and never let go!’ Mari Hannah

We Shall Inherit the Wind (17) (Varg Veum Series)

Orenda Books

September 1977. Mette Misvær, a three-year-old girl disappears without trace from the sandpit outside her home. Her tiny, close middle-class community in the tranquil suburb of Nordas is devastated, but their enquiries and the police produce nothing. Curtains twitch, suspicions are raised, but Mette is never found. Almost 25 years later, as the expiry date for the statute of limitations draws near, Mette’s mother approaches PI Varg Veum, in a last, desperate attempt to find out what happened to her daughter. As Veum starts to dig, he uncovers an intricate web of secrets, lies and shocking events that have been methodically concealed. When another brutal incident takes place, a pattern begins to emerge… Chilling, shocking and full of extraordinary twists and turns, Where Roses Never Die reaffirms Gunnar Staalesen as one of the world’s foremost thriller writers. 'Mature and captivating’ Herald Scotland ‘One of the finest Nordic novelists - in the tradition of Henning Menkell’ Barry Forshaw, Independent ‘Masterful pacing’ Publishers Weekly ‘Norwegian master Staalesen is an author who eschews police procedural narratives for noirish private eye pieces’ Financial Times ‘Staalesen is one of my very favourite Scandinavian authors and this is a series with very sharp teeth’ Ian Rankin ‘A Norwegian Chandler’ Jo Nesbo ‘One of Norway’s most skilful storytellers’ Johan Theorin

Where Roses Never Die (18) (Varg Veum Series)

Reeling from the death of his great love, Karin, Varg Veum’s life has descended into a self-destructive spiral of alcohol, lust, grief and blackouts. When traces of child pornography are found on his computer, he’s accused of being part of a paedophile ring and thrown into a prison cell. There, he struggles to sift through his past to work out who is responsible for planting the material … and who is seeking the ultimate revenge. When a chance to escape presents itself, Varg finds himself on the run in his hometown of Bergen. With the clock ticking and the police on his tail, Varg takes on his hardest – and most personal – case yet. Chilling, shocking and exceptionally gripping, Wolves in the Dark reaffirms Gunnar Staalesen as one of the world’s foremost thriller writers. ‘Mature and captivating’ Rosemary Goring, Herald Scotland ‘Moving, uncompromising’ Publishers Weekly 'There is a world-weary existential sadness that hangs over his central detective. The prose is stripped back and simple … deep emotion bubbling under the surface – the real turmoil of the characters’ lives just under the surface for the reader to intuit, rather than have it spelled out for them’ Doug Johnstone, The Big Issue ‘An upmarket Philip Marlowe’ Maxim Jakubowski, The Bookseller ‘Norwegian master Staalesen is an author who eschews police procedural narratives for noirish private eye pieces … with some abrasive social commentary’ Financial Times ‘Staalesen is one of my favourite Scandinavian authors and this is a series with very sharp teeth’ Ian Rankin ‘A Norwegian Chandler’ Jo Nesbø ‘Razor-edged Scandinavian crime fiction at its finest’ Quentin Bates 'Staalesen's storytelling draws you in and leaves you breathless all the way to the end, and like a fine wine, always leaving you wanting more, but you know you blood pressure could not take it’ Atticus Finch

Wolves in the Dark (19) (Varg Veum Series)

Varg Veum receives a surprise visit in his office. A woman introduces herself as his half-sister, and she has a job for him. Her god-daughter, a 19-year-old trainee nurse from Haugesund, moved from her bedsit in Bergen two weeks ago. Since then no one has heard anything from her. She didn't leave an address. She doesn't answer her phone. And the police refuse to take her case seriously. Veum’s investigation uncovers a series of carefully covered-up crimes and pent-up hatreds, and the trail leads to a gang of extreme bikers on the hunt for a group of people whose dark deeds are hidden by the anonymity of the Internet. And then things get personal… Chilling, shocking and exceptionally gripping, Big Sister reaffirms Gunnar Staalesen as one of the world’s foremost thriller writers. ‘Staalesen continually reminds us why he is one of the finest of Nordic novelists’ Barry Forshaw, Financial Times ‘Employs Chnadleresque similes with a Nordic Noir’ Wall Street Journal ‘Mature and captivating’ Herald Scotland ‘Chilling and perilous’ Sunday Times ‘Masterful’ Publishers Weekly ‘A Norwegian Chandler’ Jo Nesbø ‘Staalesen is one of my very favourite Scandinavian authors and this is a series with very sharp teeth’ Ian Rankin

Big Sister (Varg Veum Series)

The wolves are no longer in the dark … they are at his door. And they want vengeance… The next instalment in the international, bestselling Varg Veum series by one of the fathers of Nordic Noir … ‘Gunnar Staalesen is one of my very favourite Scandinavian authors. Operating out of Bergen in Norway, his private eye, Varg Veum, is a complex but engaging anti-hero. Varg means “wolf” in Norwegian, and this is a series with very sharp teeth’ Ian Rankin ‘The Norwegian Chandler’ Jo Nesbø One dark January night a car drives at high speed towards PI Varg Veum, and comes very close to killing him. Veum is certain this is no accident, following so soon after the deaths of two jailed men who were convicted for their participation in a case of child pornography and sexual assault … crimes that Veum himself once stood wrongly accused of committing. While the guilty men were apparently killed accidentally, Varg suspects that there is something more sinister at play … and that he’s on the death list of someone still at large. Fearing for his life, Veum begins to investigate the old case, interviewing the victims of abuse and delving deeper into the brutal crimes, with shocking results. The wolves are no longer in the dark … they are at his door. ‘Not many books hook you in the first chapter – this one did, and never let go!’ Mari Hannah ‘Staalesen continually reminds us he is one of the finest of Nordic novelists’ Financial Times ‘Chilling and perilous results — all told in a pleasingly dry style’ The Sunday Times ‘Staalesen does a masterful job of exposing the worst of Norwegian society in this highly disturbing entry’ Publishers Weekly ‘With an expositional style that is all but invisible, Staalesen masterfully compels us from the first pages … If you’re a fan of Varg Veum, this is not to be missed, and if you’re new to the series, this is one of the best ones. You’re encouraged to jump right in, even if the Norwegian names can be a bit confusing to follow’ Crime Fiction Lover ‘With short, smart, darkly punchy chapters Wolves at the Door is a provocative and gripping read’ LoveReading ‘Haunting, dark and totally noir, a great read’ New Books Magazine

Wolves at the Door (Varg Veum Series)

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