Hakan Nesser

„Trotz allem, was du vielleicht glaubst, bist du nicht wichtig für die Welt.“ Das waren die Worte, die Adalbert Hanzons Vater ihm als Kind mitgab. Vielleicht nicht das ermutigendste Motto, aber Adalbert kommt trotzdem ganz gut zurecht. Zumindest bis die Liebe und der Wahnsinn, der so oft darauf folgt, zuschlagen. 43 Jahre und eine Haftstrafe später ist Adalbert Hanzon ein dem Alkohol zugeneigter älterer Herr mit Rückenproblemen und zunehmend nachlassendem Gedächtnis. Plötzlich holt ihn die Vergangenheit ein: bei einem Apothekenbesuch glaubt er die einzige Frau, die ihm jemals etwas bedeutet hat, wiederzuerkennen. Und die einzigen Menschen, die ihm helfen können, Licht in das Dunkel zu bringen, was vor fast einem halben Jahrhundert passiert ist, sind sein nervtötender Nachbar und seine allzu gesprächige Cousine. Aber Not ist die Mutter der Erfindung, und Adalbert fest entschlossen, der Wahrheit auf den Grund zu gehen.

Der Halbmörder

De man zonder hond / druk 1

The Living and the Dead in Winsford

International Bestseller Internationally bestselling author Häkan Nesser makes his U.S. debut with this riveting tale of murder and suspense that reveals the deep humanity of the characters portrayed even as it sends chills up the spine. Chief Inspector Van Veeteren is called to the sleepy coastal town of Kalbringen to assist the local police in the investigation of two recent ax murders. Soon the case turns from bad to worse when another body turns up and one of Van Veeteren’s colleagues, a young female detective, disappears without a trace. Now Van Veeteren must find the killer, and, it is hoped, his colleague, before anyone else comes to harm. Riveting and intellectually satisfying, Borkmann’s Point unfolds like a chess match where each move could prove deadly.

An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery [2]

Borkmann's Point

What better way to get to know a man than to get to know his best friend? Håkan Nesser's charming, whimsical and celebratory volume to his beloved dog Norton.

Norton's Philosophical Memoirs

A community is left reeling after teacher Arnold Maager is convicted of murdering his female pupil. It seems the girl had been pregnant with Maager's child. Years later, his daughter finally learns the terrible truth about her father. Desperate for answers, Mikaela travels to the institution at Lejnice, where Maager has been held since his trial. But soon afterwards she inexplicably vanishes.

The Weeping Girl

International Bestseller Håkan Nesser is firmly established as one of the world's bestselling crime novelists. And now the novel that introduced Chief Inspector Van Veeteren is available for the first time in English. The swift conviction left Van Veeteren uneasy: Janek Mitter woke one morning with a brutal hangover and his wife dead in the bathtub. With only the flimsiest defense, he is found guilty and imprisoned in a mental institution. But when Mitter is murdered in his bed, Van Veeteren regrets not following his gut and launches an investigation into the two murders. As the chief inspector delves deeper, the twisted root of these violent murders will shock even him.

An Inspector Van Vetteren Mystery (1)

Mind's Eye

International Bestseller Chief Inspector Van Veeteren is on the case once more in this breathless thriller of deception, blackmail, and cold murder. Van Veeteren and his associates are left bewildered by the curious murder of a man shot twice in the heart and twice below the belt. An utterly dull man, the only suspicious activity his surviving wife can report is a series of peculiar phone calls. Repeatedly the telephone would ring, offering no answer but an obscure pop song from the 1960s. This siren song would be linked to an identical murder, but the true connection remains unknown. With a cool, critical eye, Van Veeteren pursues his subject across the country, wading through outrageous leads and fruitless tips in this chilling mystery from master crime novelist Håkan Nesser.

An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery (4)

Woman with Birthmark

A riveting story in show-stopping prose, the latest chapter of this internationally bestselling series is the Nordic noir superstar’s darkest tale yet. In the middle of a dark, rain-slicked night, a young man is struck and killed by a car. The driver, drunk, abandons the body by the side of the road. Tormented with guilt the next morning, he struggles to put the death out of his mind—until a blackmail note arrives and sets into motion a devastating chain of events. Reinhart, the new chief inspector of the Maardam police force, initially has few leads. But when the victim of a second, possibly related killing is identified as somebody in his inner circle, Reinhart realizes that this is no ordinary investigation. And as the killer becomes increasingly unhinged, former chief inspector Van Veeteren—a legend now in retirement—is called forth to face the most haunting and difficult case of his life.

An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery (7)

Hour of the Wolf

Probudil se a nejprve cítil nezměrnou úlevu. Ta trvala tři vteřiny, pak pochopil, že to nebyl zlý sen. Že to byla skutečnost. Ten hustý liják, náhlé trhnutí volantem, kluzká krajnice, to vše byla skutečnost. Tíha chlapcova těla v jeho náručí i krev, která mu kapala z kapuce. Opilý řidič usmrtí malého chlapce. Pod rouškou tmy a deště z místa nehody uprchne. Tragédie mu však zcela převrací život: zabředá čím dál hlouběji do tíživého, ďábelského dilematu. A komisař Van Veeteren z kriminálky v Maardamu stojí před případem, který má svou vlastní, zvrácenou logiku, v němž se vše zdá být předurčené, avšak nepředvídatelné...

Karambol

Laurie Thompson

Intendent Münster, Inspector Van Veeteren's right-hand man, and his beguiling colleague Ewa Moreno take center stage in the latest shocking thriller in Håkan Nesser's internationally bestselling series. The final day of Waldemar Leverkuhn's life begins auspiciously: With three friends, he wins a modest sum in the lottery. But it ends, after a celebratory dinner, with him belligerent, drunk, and stumbling home to his bed, where he is brutally stabbed to death with a carving knife. The case seems to be going nowhere, until the reserved, weary widow confesses to the killing. When the Leverkuhns' formidable neighbor goes missing, and then turns up gruesomely murdered, Münster and his team find a few, wispy clues that suggest her death is connected to Leverkuhn's--clues that lead to a dark and terrible secret.

An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery

Munster's Case

A woman arrives in the village of Winsford on Exmoor. She has travelled a long way and chosen her secluded cottage carefully. Maria's sole intention is to outlive her beloved dog Castor. And to survive the torrent of memories that threaten to overwhelm her. Weeks before, Maria and her husband Martin fled Stockholm for Morocco, where Martin planned to write an explosive novel; one that would reveal the truth behind dark events within his commune of writers decades before. But the couple never made it to their destination.As Maria settles into her lonely new life, walking the wild, desolate moors, it becomes clear that Winsford isn't quite the sanctuary she thought it would be. While the long, dark evenings close in and the weather worsens, strange things begin to happen around her. But what terrible secrets is Maria guarding? And who is trying to find her?

A dark family mystery from Hakan Nesser – "in the front rank of Swedish crime writers" (The Times)Four friends celebrate winning the lottery. Just hours later, one of them – Waldemar Leverkuhn – is found stabbed to death in his home. With Chief Inspector Van Veeteren on sabbatical, working in a second hand bookshop, the case is assigned to Inspector Munster. But when another member of the lottery group disappears, as well as Leverkuhn's neighbour, Munster appeals to Van Veeteren for assistance. Soon Munster will find himself interviewing the Leverkuhn family, including the eldest – Irene – a resident of a psychiatric clinic. And as he delves deeper into the family's history, he will discover dark secrets and startling twists, which not only threaten the clarity of the case – but also his life...

The Unlucky Lottery

Prosinec v Kymlinge. Členové Hermanssonovy rodiny se scházejí, aby oslavili dohromady stopětileté výročí – otec Karl-Erik slaví 65 a nejstarší dcera Ebba 40 let. Nic se ale nedaří tak, jak to bylo naplánováno. V noci před „velkým dnem“ si Robert, černá ovce rodiny a nechvalně známá „celebrita“ z reality show „Zajatci z ostrova Koh Fuk“, vyjde na procházku a už se nikdy nevrátí. A příští noc zmizí beze stopy Ebbin syn Henrik. Jedná se o zvláštní případ, kterému má přijít na kloub italsky vyhlížející kriminální inspektor Gunnar Barbarotti. Může to být náhoda, že dva lidé ze stejné rodiny odejdou pouhý den po sobě z téhož místa? Nebo se to děje podle plánu? Existuje mezi událostmi nějaká souvislost?

Muž bez psa

The author of Borkmann’s Point spins a story that leaves even the most veteran crime novel readers chilled. A new case for Chief Inspector Van Veeteren – the complicated history of a nearly perfect murder. On a sunny August day a man is released from prison. On a rainy April day children at play find his corpse. The fact that the dead man is Leopold Verhaven only becomes clear after some time because the mutilated corpse is without its head, legs and feet. Who would be interested in killing this man, a double murderer who spent 24 years in prison? Determined to let no case go unsolved, Chief Inspector Van Veeteren reopens the case. What he discovers is that Verhaven was a star sprinter before he went to prison for allegedly killing two of his lovers. However, he never confessed to the murders and spent a lifetime proclaiming his innocence. Was he killed because someone thought he had not been punished enough? Or was someone afraid of Verhaven’s revenge? A terrible suspicion stalks Van Veeteren: had Verhaven been telling the truth? Was he really innocent?

The Return

Could this be Van Veeteren's darkest case yet? Desperately lonely, sixteen-year-old Monica Kammerle has little idea of what she is getting herself into when she begins an affair with her mother’s latest partner; the sophisticated Benjamin Kerran . . . Months later, when a woman’s strangled body is found decomposing in her flat, the Maardam police must discover who has committed this terrible crime. It isn’t long before they realise the perpetrator may have killed before – and is likely to do so again. Meanwhile former Chief Inspector Van Veeteren finds himself drawn into the mystery when a priest, who has learned dreadful secrets, appeals to him for help. But when the priest falls beneath the wheels of a train and the police find more dead ends than leads, it seems Van Veeteren will have to come up with a new approach to unearth this dark serial killer, before he chooses his next victim . . .

The Strangler's Honeymoon

Komisaři Barbarotti a Backmanová z kriminální policie v Kymlinge tráví volné podzimní týdny na ostrově Gotland. Při jednom z výletů narazí na cyklistu, jenž se nápadně podobá jistému Albinu Rungemu, člověku, který byl před více než jedenácti roky účastníkem tragické havárie – řídil totiž autobus, v němž zahynulo osmnáct lidí. O několik let později – poté, co mu kdosi opakovaně vyhrožoval smrtí – beze stopy zmizel. Policii v Kymlinge se tuto záhadu nepodařilo vyšetřit, Rungeho tělo se navíc nikdy nenašlo. Může být člověk, kterého nyní Barbarotti s Backmanovou potkali, skutečně on? Oba komisaři se k případu vrátí a zjišťují, že všechno je daleko komplikovanější, než se jim před lety zdálo...

Smolná vteřina

Now don't start getting ideas. I am not a philosopher. I'm a dog. But I look like a philosopher, they say, and I'm not sure the distinction is as great as you might think. I'm what's known as a Rhodesian Ridgeback. My forebears used to hunt lions in Africa, but I'm a modernized urban specimen. I don't hunt much of anything. I was born somewhere on the plains west of Uppsala, Sweden. In the beginning I was blind and tumbled around with my siblings. We pooped and bit each other and nursed, and our mother — who I must admit was kind of a bitch — tried to raise us to the best of her ability. Without all that much success, I must say too. When I was about two months old I was adopted. Two long-legged humans, a man and a woman, came and picked me up, loaded me in a car and drove into town. This is the story of the eleven years we spent together.

Je parné léto a komisař Van Veeteren už se nemůže dočkat dovolené. Dokonce má jisté plány s jistou dámou. Jenže právě v té době se z dívčího tábora tajemné náboženské sekty ztratí jedno z děvčat. A nedlouho po něm druhé. Komisaři nezbývá než splatit starý dluh a ujmout se podivného případu. Jak má ale něco zjistit, když všichni svědci zarytě mlčí? Po nálezu mrtvých těl, k nimž policii dovedl anonymní volající, se vyšetřování zaměří na vůdce sekty Oscara Jellinka, už dříve podezřelého ze zneužívání mladistvých. Ten však beze stopy zmizí a členové sekty o tomto „svatém muži“ nehodlají kriminalistům nic prozradit. Komisař Van Veeteren tak musí bojovat s mlčením i vlastním vyčerpáním. Nezbývá mu než spolehnout se na intuici a provést rafinovaný první tah...

Hakan Nesser

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