When the badly battered corpse of what is presumed to be police officer Simon Bergeland is discovered buried in the sand dunes of Stavanger’s local beach, Thorkild Aske finds himself returning to the city haunting his dreams in search of answers. Stavanger is where it all went to hell; where he lost Frei and his job at the Special Unit. Simon Bergeland, Frei’s lover, was to blame – but has remained missing ever since that fateful day. Soon, it emerges that the events of the past were nothing like Thorkild thought, and when the threats towards him amass it stands clear that his return to Stavanger isn’t simply unwanted – it could also cost him his life.

St. Avenger is the thrilling fourth installment in Heine Bakkeid’s lauded series about the tormented and sardonic former interrogator Thorkild Aske.

Tiril, Oliver and Ocho are all geared up for Riverton Theatre’s grand Halloween party. In front of the theatre, a large witches’ cauldron has been put out to be used as part of a fundraiser. Normally, it’s locked shut with a solid padlock. Now however, someone has broken the lock yet left the cauldron brimming with money. So why the effort to crack the lid open? Tiril and Oliver set off to search among scare crows, bats, skeletons, vampires, ghosts, witches, mummies and monsters in order to solve the mystery.   

Operation Witches’ Cauldron is the twentieth installment in the Detective Agency No. 2 series.

A car abandoned by the roadside, slowly disappearing from view as a heavy snow continues to fall. Inside the vehicle waits the answer to a complex murder mystery still waiting to be solved.

William Wisting is contacted by the leader of an online group dedicated to solving a murder case together: the death of the Australian backpacker Ruby Thompson. One of the more active members of the group, Astria, claims to hail from Norway. But just as Astria announced to the others that she’s getting close to solving the mystery, she went offline, and no one in the group has heard from her since.

Wisting is reluctantly fascinated by the unorthodox investigation. Soon he finds himself knee-deep in a case where the connections and leads are many, but their natures uncertain.

A Will to Serve is the fifteenth installment in Jørn Lier Horst’s series about William Wisting.

Director Gustav Möller and screenwriter Oskar Söderlund have paired up to craft a psychological thriller, The Dark Heart, for FLX/Discovery+. The Dark Heart will be Möller’s first long-form scripted content following his acclaimed debut feature The Guilty, whose US remake starring Jake Gyllenhaal is currently under the spotlight in Toronto. Söderlund (Snabba Cash, Rebecka Martinsson, Greyzone) is the head writer of the five-episode series.

The Dark Heart is an intense psychological thriller about an old family feud and forbidden love that leads to a tragedy. The series is based on the bestselling non-fiction title The Dark Heart – A true Story of Greed, Murder, and an Unlikely Investigation by Swedish crime reporter Joakim Palmkvist, which delves into a real-world murder case that left a small rural community of Småland in shock in 2012. The twist in the story is that the investigation was led by a Missing People volunteer who started to research the case and eventually solved the high-profile murder of local farmer Göran Lundblad.

The Dark Heart will premiere on Discovery+ in 2022.

Gustav Möller’s The Guilty has been remade into an American Netflix production starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Like in the Danish original, The Guilty plays out over the course of a single morning in a 911 dispatch call center. Call operator Joe Bayler (Gyllenhaal) tries to save a caller, a kidnap victim, in grave danger — but soon discovers that nothing is as it seems, and facing the truth is the only way out.

The Guilty will premiere on Netflix on October 1.

Liza Marklund and Jo Nesbø divide the weekly lists’ No. 1 placements between them, with Marklund’s The Polar Circle coming in at No. 1 in audio and e-book and No. 2 in hardcover. Nesbø’s The Kingdom is No. 1 spot on the paperback list.

New on the lists are Jonas Gardell and Arne  Dahl, whose latest titles both debut in the hardcover category this week. Gardell’s A Happier Year does so at No. 4, and Dahl’s Meltdown at No. 5.

Sara Heldt (b. 1960) and Helena Nordborg Koch (b. 1975) are screenwriters and good friends. Sara, born and raised in Stockholm, is one of Scandinavia’s most highly sought-after screenwriters with a long list of award-winning titles to her name. Helena is a globetrotting art lover and creator who’s worked as an illustrator, designer, and screenwriter both in Sweden and abroad.

Rita’s Tail is their joint debut, featuring their co-written story and Helena’s warm and intricately detailed trademark illustrations.

Imagination and such drivel is just the worst – at least according to Loui and Rio. They’re best friends who have founded a science club to make the world a little better, a little more sensible. But how are they supposed to fight imagination when it suddenly makes an appearance in reality?

One night during a club meeting, a peculiar little creature turns up, one that Loui and Rio can’t find a scientific explanation for. And the next day all the adults are suddenly looking strangely sad. The newspaper claims that a real, living dragon has appeared in town. What’s going on? Has the melting permafrost set the dragons free? Is it their poison that’s making everyone so sad?

Slowly it dawns on Loui and Rio that it’s not just dragons that have crossed the boundary of imagination into reality. A horde of other make-believe and silly monsters have come, too. Will Loui and Rio be able to stop the tide before the earth is completely overrun by nonsense?

Loui & Rio: The Fight Against Nonsense is the first book in Sofia Lundberg’s debut children’s series about Loui & Rio. A wild adventure jam-packed with craziness, it’s a loving ode to the power of imagination – and science.