Inspector Huss Books in Order
Part ofHelene Tursten Books in OrderThis page collects the Inspector Huss books by Helene Tursten in order, with brief summaries, series background, and advice on the best place to start reading.
Last updated: December 23, 2025
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Publication Order
10 books
Protected by the Shadows
by Helene Tursten
2017
Rival gangs are pushing Gothenburg toward open war when a biker is burned alive and a bomb is planted under Irene Huss’s husband’s car. Working with organized-crime detectives, she hunts for both the killers and the police mole feeding them information before her family pays the price.
Who Watcheth
by Helene Tursten
2016
A woman is found strangled in a cemetery, wrapped in plastic, days after receiving a flower, a strange note, and a photo of herself. As similar deaths follow, Irene Huss realizes a moralistic stalker is judging women by his own twisted rules, and she may be next.
The Treacherous Net
by Helene Tursten
2015
In early spring, the naked, scarred body of a teenage girl is discovered in the woods outside Gothenburg, and another goes missing soon after. Irene Huss and her overworked team track a predator who lures vulnerable girls through anonymous online chats and social media.
The Beige Man
by Helene Tursten
2015
A stolen BMW mows down a pedestrian outside the police station, then turns up abandoned near the corpse of a teenage girl hidden in a root cellar. Irene Huss follows the trail into a ruthless sex-trafficking ring where young women are treated as disposable cargo.
The Fire Dance
by Helene Tursten
2014
When the charred body of a young dancer turns up in an abandoned warehouse, Irene Huss is forced to revisit one of her earliest cases. The victim is Sophie Malmborg, a ballerina who, as a child, survived a deadly fire that has never stopped haunting Irene.
The Golden Calf
by Helene Tursten
2013
Three men are gunned down in one of Gothenburg’s wealthiest neighborhoods, all linked to glamorous internet entrepreneur Sanna Kaegler-Ceder. Irene Huss’s hunt for the shooter leads through start-up fortunes, toxic partnerships, and the personal cost of chasing success at any price.
Night Rounds
by Helene Tursten
2012
During a stormy night at a small private hospital, the power fails, a patient on a respirator dies, and a nurse is found strangled while another disappears. As staff whisper about a ghostly figure, Irene Huss uncovers long-buried affairs, grudges, and cover-ups.
The Glass Devil
by Helene Tursten
2007
A popular teacher is found shot in his remote cottage, and his parents are soon discovered murdered in their bed, each crime marked by satanic symbols. Irene Huss follows a trail from a troubled parish in rural Sweden to the victim’s fragile sister in London.
The Torso
by Helene Tursten
2006
A mutilated torso washes up on a Swedish beach, its identity and gender erased. Irene Huss joins forces with Danish detectives, tracing the victim’s connections through artists, ex-lovers, and a parallel case in Copenhagen as the investigation creeps dangerously close to her own circle.
Detective Inspector Huss
by Helene Tursten
2003
Tycoon Richard von Knecht falls from his Gothenburg balcony in what looks like suicide, but Detective Inspector Irene Huss quickly sees signs of murder. Following money trails, biker gangs, and bombings, she must untangle the secrets of Sweden’s elite before the killer strikes again.
Series background & context
Irene Huss is at the center of Helene Tursten’s long-running Inspector Huss series, a set of police procedurals rooted in the Violent Crimes Unit in Gothenburg, Sweden. A detective inspector with years on the job, Irene is methodical, observant, and good at seeing the small human details that crack a case open.
She is also a former jujitsu champion, the mother of twin teenage daughters, and the wife of Krister, a chef who runs his own restaurant. The books follow her as she balances night shifts, crime scenes, and interdepartmental politics with school problems, aging parents, and the ordinary frictions of family life.
Each novel centers on a major investigation that pulls Irene and her colleagues deep into Sweden’s social and criminal underworlds. In Detective Inspector Huss, the apparent suicide of tycoon Richard von Knecht reveals links between the city’s business elite, biker gangs, and drug dealers. Night Rounds strands Irene in a private hospital where a blackout, a dead nurse, and the legend of a ghostly matron hide a very human motive for murder.
Later books widen the lens. The Torso sends her to Denmark after a mutilated body washes up on a beach. The Glass Devil tangles a rural Swedish parish with satanic symbols and a grieving daughter in London. In The Golden Calf, The Beige Man, and The Treacherous Net, Irene confronts financial fraud, sex trafficking, and online predators, often at the point where comfortable middle-class life meets something much darker.
Gothenburg itself is a constant presence. Storms roll in from the North Sea, apartment blocks feel cramped in winter darkness, and Irene’s team darts between modern offices, aging suburbs, and the industrial harbor. The series pays as much attention to the routines of Swedish policing as it does to car chases or shootouts, so readers see interviews, paperwork, team briefings, and long, frustrating stretches where nothing seems to move.
Over time, Tursten lets the characters’ lives shift in realistic ways. Colleagues retire, get promoted, or burn out. Irene’s daughters grow up and move out. The final volumes, Who Watcheth and Protected by the Shadows, push her into more personal danger, with a religiously obsessed stalker and a violent gang war that reaches right into her own family.
The Inspector Huss books are best read in order if you enjoy watching a team and a family change over the years, but each case stands on its own. Together they offer a grounded, character-driven take on Nordic noir, where the biggest shocks often come from how ordinary people justify terrible choices.
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