


Books in series

#1
Das Haus mit der grünen Tür
1977
En bok om Varg Veum, en bergensk variant av den hardkokte privatdetektiven: fattig, desillusjonert, men med et hjerte av gull - og en flaske akevit til vern mot ensomheten.
Bukken til havresekken er Gunnar Staalesens første bok med Varg Veum i hovedrollen. En dag blir Veum bedt av en mann om å skygge hans kone. Men Veum har prinsipper, og et av dem er å ikke ta skilsmisseoppdrag. Derfor sier han nei til å jobbe for advokat Moberg.
Noen dager etter skyggeer han allikevel Margrethe Moberg. Men ikke for Moberg. Oppdragsgiver er fruens bror, Ragnar Veide.
Varg Veum tjener penger og tenker mindre over tilfeldighetenes spill. Men en morgen finner han liket av Margrethe Moberg, med en blå stripe rundt halsen og merker etter nålestikk i armen.

#2
Yours Until Death
1979
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 blue-eyed, 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.

#3
The Beauty Slept for a Hundred Years
1980
Veum, le privé, cherche Lisa, seize ans. Il sait où aller, hélas. Il la trouve, déjà bien amochée par la vie, la drogue, les passes, et la ramène chez ses parents. Et ce coup-ci c'est Peter, le fils des voisins et ex-petit ami de Lisa qui a disparu. Ce qui risque d'être une tout autre affaire.

#4
Kvinnen i kjøleskapet
1980
Petrolio e sangue nella nuova indagine di Varg Veum. Le piattaforme che di notte luccicano come diamanti di fronte alla costa norvegese hanno trasformato Stavanger in un Eldorado per affaristi e sfruttatori di ogni sorta. È in questa antica cittadina di pescatori che ha venduto l’anima ai signori del cemento e dei locali notturni che il detective di Bergen approda per ritrovare Arne Samuelsen, tecnico di una compagnia americana scomparso senza lasciare traccia. Niente di strano, un’indagine di routine, finché Varg non perquisisce la casa del giovane e apre lo sportello del frigorifero. Il mistero si tinge di sangue, ogni pista conduce a una cortina di omertà, e a complicare le cose a quell’inguaribile romantico di Varg ci si mette la languida Elsa, prostituta d’alto bordo abituata a giocare con il fuoco. Ma è impossibile non scottarsi in una società snaturata dal denaro facile, in cui il vizio è un lucroso business, e tutto, anche la vita, ha un prezzo.

#5
At Night All Wolves Are Grey
1983
US Hardback

#7
Black Sheep
1988
Black Sheep brings Veum face to face with immigration problem and a tough narcotics world.

#8
Fallen Angels
1989
Exploring his own dark memories may be the only way to find a killer…
When Bergen PI Varg Veum finds himself at the funeral of a former classmate on a sleet-grey December afternoon, he’s unexpectedly reunited with his old friend Jakob – guitarist of the once-famous 1960s rock band The Harpers – and his estranged wife, Rebecca, Veum’s first love.
Their rekindled friendship is thrown into jeopardy by the discovery of a horrific murder, and Veum is forced to dig deep into his own adolescence and his darkest memories, to find a motive … and a killer.
Tense, vivid and deeply unsettling, Fallen Angels is the spellbinding, award-winning thriller that secured Gunnar Staalesen’s reputation as one of the world’s foremost crime writers.

#9
Bitter Flowers
1991
Fresh from rehab, Norwegian PI Varg Veum faces his most complex investigation yet, when a man is found drowned, a young woman disappears, and the case of a missing child is revived. The classic Nordic Noir series continues...
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PI Varg Veum has returned to duty following a stint in rehab, but his new composure and resolution are soon threatened when a challenging assignment arrives on his desk.
A man is found dead in an elite swimming pool and a young woman has gone missing. Most chillingly, Varg Veum is asked to investigate the 'Camilla Case': an eight-year-old cold case involving the disappearance of a little girl, who was never found.
As the threads of these apparently unrelated crimes come together, against the backdrop of a series of shocking environmental crimes, Varg Veum faces the most challenging, traumatic investigation of his career.

#9
Begravde Hunder Biter Ikke
1993
Norwegian

#9.5
Dødelig Madonna
1993

#10.5
De Døde Har Det Godt
1996
Åtte fortellinger om Varg Veum
En ekteskapssvindler som lurer penger av kvinner over hele Vestlandet,
et forsvinningsnummer i et kirkeasyl,
en bokstavelig talt dødelig tannpine
og et ytterst giftig datavirus
er bare noen av ingrediensene i denne samlingen med korte fortellinger om den bergenske privatdetektiven Varg Veum.

#11
The Writing on the Wall
1995
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.

#12
Ansikt til ansikt
2004
«Det satt en død mann på venteværelset mitt.» Slik begynner Ansikt til ansikt .
Det viser seg at Varg Veums tause gjest på egen hånd har begynt å grave i et mystisk dødsfall på Mørekysten 14 år tidligere. Kostet denne nysgjerrigheten ham livet?
Trådene fører tilbake til et radikalt studentkollektiv i Bergen på 1970-tallet, der de begge hadde bodd.
«Herlig Varg Veum-krim… en fest å lese.»
Terje Stemland, Aftenposten
Terningkast 5. «Glitrende Veum.»
Ann Kristin Ødegård, Bergensavisen

#13
Som i et Speil
2002
As Bergen PI Varg Veum investigates two different cases, it becomes clear that they are uncannily similar to harrowing events that took place thirty-six years earlier… A gripping instalment of the award-winning Varg Veum series, by one of the fathers of Nordic Noir. Bergen Private Investigator Varg Veum is perplexed when two wildly different cases cross his desk at the same time. A lawyer, anxious to protect her privacy, asks Varg to find her sister, who has disappeared with her husband, seemingly without trace, while a ship carrying unknown cargo is heading towards the Norwegian coast, and the authorities need answers. Varg immerses himself in the investigations, and it becomes clear that the two cases are linked, and have unsettling – and increasingly uncanny – similarities to events that took place thirty-six years earlier, when a woman and her saxophonist lover drove their car off a cliff, in an apparent double suicide. As Varg is drawn into a complex case involving star-crossed lovers, toxic waste and illegal immigrants, history seems determined to repeat itself in perfect detail … and at terrifying cost... A chilling, dark and twisting story of love and revenge, Mirror Image is Staalesen at his most thrilling, thought-provoking best.

#15
Dødens drabanter
2006
When detective Varg Veum takes a telephone call in his office, his mind is suddenly thrust back 25 years, to his days as a child protection officer and the case of a small boy separated from his mother under tragic circumstances. This same boy has surfaced in several other cases, in connection with a sudden death in his new foster home and, a decade later, in a dramatic double murder in Sunnfjord. Now that boy is an adult on the run in Oslo, determined to take revenge on those responsible for destroying his life-among them his former child protection officer, detective Veum.

#16
Kalde hjerter
2008
On a frosty January day in Bergen, Private Detective Varg Veum is visited by a prostitute. Her friend Margrethe has disappeared and hasn't been seen for days. Before her disappearance, something had unsettled her: she'd turned away a customer and returned to the neighbourhood in terror. Shortly after taking the case, Veum is confronted with a brutal, uneasy reality. He soon 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.

#17
We Shall Inherit the Wind
2010
Varg Veum takes on the perplexing case of a missing wind-farm inspector and gets more than he bargained for, as religious zealots, environmental terrorism and then murder take centre stage … The gripping next instalment in the award-winning Varg Veum series, by one of the fathers of Nordic Noir. 'Not many books hook you in the first chapter – this one did, and never let go!' Mari Hannah 'Mature and captivating' Rosemary Goring, Herald Scotland 'Moving, uncompromising' Publishers Weekly \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ 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. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Praise for Gunnar Staalesen '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 '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 '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' Sunday Times 'Staalesen does a masterful job of exposing the worst of Norwegian society in this highly disturbing entry' Publishers Weekly '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 'Every inch the equal of his Nordic confreres Henning Mankell and Jo Nesbo' Independent '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 'An upmarket Philip Marlowe' Maxim Jakubowski, The Bookseller 'Razor-edged Scandinavian crime fiction at its finest' Quentin Bates

#18
Where Roses Never Die
2012
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…
Shocking, unsettling and full of extraordinary twists and turns, Where Roses Never Die reaffirms Gunnar Staalesen as one of the world’s foremost thriller writers.

#19
Wolves in the Dark
2014
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 pedophile 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.

#20
Big Sister
2016
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 apartment 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.

#21
Wolves at the Door
2019
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.
Authors

Fredrik Skagen
Author · 8 books
Fredrik Skagen is a Norwegian writer. He was born in Trondheim. He is best known for his crime fiction, but is also the author of some children's books and several radio plays. His first book was published in 1968. His works have been translated into German, Danish, Swedish, Dutch and French. Skagen has received several awards, including the Norwegian Booksellers' Prize in 1985 and the Glass Key Award in 1996 for best Nordic crime novel.