Hjorth & Rosenfeldt Books In Order

Publication Order of Sebastian Bergman Books

Hans Rosenfeldt was born in Boras, Sweden in the year 1964, and has hosted television and radio shows. He is also Sweden’s leading screenwriter and creator of The Bridge, which is broadcast in more than 170 countries.

Hans has worked as a driver, a sea lion keeper, an actor, and a teacher up until he started writing for television, writing scripts for about twenty drama series. He loves to play video games, write, and spend time with his three kids and his wife.

Michael Hjorth is one of the best known television and film producers in Sweden, and is a renowned screenwriter whose work includes many screenplays of Henning Mankell’s Wallander. He was born in the year 1963 in Visby, Sweden.

Together they write the “Sebastian Bergman” series, which is from the mystery genre. The first of this series, titled “Dark Secrets” (also released as “Sebastian Bergman”) was released in English in the year 2012. The books are published by Little, Brown’s imprint called Trapdoor, and it is through this imprint that the books are translated into English. The books have sold more than four million copies in more than thirty languages.

The series was adapted into a television series that starred Rolf Lassgard as Sebastian Bergman, which premiered in 2010. It aired first in Sweden before it aired later on BBC4 with subtitles.

“Dark Secrets” is the first novel in the “Sebastian Bergman” series and was released in the year 2012. It all starts with a phone call to the police. A sixteen year old boy, named Roger Eriksson, has vanished in Västerås. The local police have written this off as teenage antics and do not do too much about it. A search is quickly organized and a group of young scouts makes one horrible discovery in a marsh: Roger has died. His pale corpse is found floating in a shallow pond. His heart is now missing. This makes the experts descend on the crime scene.

At the same time, Sebastian Bergman, who is a criminal profiler, psychologist, and one of the foremost experts on serial killers in Sweden, is in Västerås to settle up his mom’s estate after her death. Sebastian withdrew from the police after his daughter and wife died as a result of the 2004 tsunami. He is no stranger to secrets. Sebastian is desperate to get a hold of the police files, and plays along, until the fragile web of lies and deception grabs a hole of his full attention.

When the Crime Investigation Department asks Sebastian for his aid in Roger’s case, his arrogant manner at first alienates the other members of the team. Pushing forward, however, they start making disturbing discoveries about the private school that Roger attended. They also learn that Roger himself had secrets, some dark ones that rip apart the very fabric under which everybody survives.

“The Man Who Watched Women” is the second novel in the “Sebastian Bergman” series and was released in the year 2015. Stockholm has been engulfed in a blazing heatwave, a series of women are discovered brutally murdered and the Criminal Investigation has been getting nowhere. The killings bear all of the hallmarks of Edward Hinde, the serial killer that was jailed by Sebastian fifteen years prior.

Sebastian is in desperate need of some order in his chaotic life. The revelation that he has a daughter, named Vanja, might provide this longed-for stability. However should he tell her the truth and risk ruining both her career and her life?

Pushing his way into the investigation, he quickly learns that these murders are linked to him and that nobody around is safe. This includes Vanja.

This is a very entertaining read that is dark and suspenseful, and you just cannot help but reading the entire thing quickly. There’s also a slow building tension which sneaks up on the reader.

“The Man Who Wasn’t There” is the third novel in the “Sebastian Bergman” series and was released in the year 2016. On the side of a mountain in Sweden, six bodies have been discovered. Or more specifically, skeletons. These bodies were buried a long time ago.

For Sebastian Bergman this just makes the investigation into who killed them, who they are, and why, that much more complicated. Because Bergman has, obviously, landed himself onto the investigating team. At first this was just an opportunity to escape his ex-girlfriend and spend some quality time with Vanja. A chance for him to try building a real relationship with her before it is too late.

But pretty quick he finds that he is more involved than he would ever actually want to be. And his personal life is disastrously, horribly, tangled up in all of it.

Here is another fantastic installment of this series, with a quite fiendish conclusion. Even though Sebastian is a jerk, you still find yourself rooting for him to get away with the awful schemes that he dreams up.

“The Silent Girl” is the fourth novel in the “Sebastian Bergman” series and was released in the year 2017. An idyllic two-storey, white, beautiful home in Sweden. Inside of it, a family has been brutally killed. A dad, mom, and two young children were all shot in broad daylight. And the murderer escaped.

Sebastian Bergman has been asked to solve this crime, however without any credible suspects, he has hit a dead end. Until he learns of a witness to this crime. One young girl claims she saw all of it happen, and she fled in fear for her life.

Bergman must track this little girl down before it is too late. However the killer is chasing after her too, bound and determined to finish off what he began.

The novel holds you in its grasp from beginning to end, and leaves you wanting more by the end. It gives you a view into Sebastian’s personality unseen before now. The fact that he is quite unlikable makes these books that much more likable. The characters are skillfully built and woven into this strong story with an incredible conclusion.

One Response to “Hjorth & Rosenfeldt”

1. Greg Coggins: 2 years ago

   My wife and I have read all the books. Please tell us that there is a follow-up to The Silent Girl.

   Reply