Saturday, October 14th. The coronary care unit at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen. A nurse fills a syringe with an overdose of heart medicine and enters the room of an older male patient.

Monday, six days earlier. A deliveryman is doing his rounds in central Copenhagen when he makes a macabre find: the naked body of a dead woman in a fountain on the main pedestrian street. Bizarre, symmetrical cuts cover her skin. The cause of death appears to be exsanguination.

Police Sergeant Jeppe Kørner is assigned to the case, but this time he doesn’t have his partner Anette Werner by his side. Werner is on maternity leave – or should be, rather. The investigation takes Kørner, his new partner, and Werner into the heart of the healthcare system. It’s a world where great empathy and care is shown, but ambitions fester under the surface.

Meanwhile, Esther de Laurenti ought to be writing on her novel but is suffering from a case of writer’s block. And what could be depression, as well. As her friend is suddenly admitted to Rigshospitalet’s coronary care unit, Esther seeks help from a psychiatrist who unbeknownst to her has ties to the ongoing murder case. Esther and her friend are now both at the mercy of a system in decay that’s hiding a killer, and the hours till the next death have started ticking.

The noose tightens, but around whose throat will it close?

Katrine Engberg’s The Butterfly House is the third novel about the Police Sergeants Jeppe Kørner and Anette Werner.

Katrine Engberg and Michael Katz Krefeld have been shortlisted for the Danish Crime Book Festival’s (Krimimessen) People’s Choice Award 2018. To see the full list of nominees, and to cast your vote, click “Read more” below. The last day to vote is March 11th. The winner will be announced at the festival, on March 18th.

Oskar Söderlund’s new thriller drama series Greyzone, which premiered yesterday, February 22, has received outstanding reviews in the Swedish press. The series has among else been praised by the major newspapers and publications Aftonbladet, Expressen, Göteborgs-Posten and TVdags.

“It is a difficult and precarious topic that Oskar Söderlund and Morten Dragsted take on in Greyzone, but I’ll be damned if they haven’t succeeded in creating a drama about terrorism with both nerve and perceptiveness.”
–Aftonbladet

“C More’s new original series Greyzone deserves to become a success.”
–Expressen

“Brilliant acting and high aspirations that challenge our preconceptions. See it!”
–Göteborgs-Posten

Niklas Natt och Dag’s exceptional debut 1793 climbs to No. 2 on the Swedish bestseller list for hardcover fiction this week. This marks the novel’s sixth consecutive week on the list.

Today, the film U – July 22 has its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. It is written by Siv Rajendram Eliassen together with Anna Bache-Wiig and directed by Erik Poppe.

The story takes place on July 22, 2011, when a heavily armed right-wing extremist attacked a youth Labour summer camp on Utøya island outside Oslo. We get to follow 19-year-old Kaja in her desperate search for her sister. Filmed in a single take, the story unfolds as seen through the eyes of the victims.

U – July 22 premieres in Norway on March 9.