Hélène Gullberg has worked as a specialist in works of art at the auction company Bukowski’s, as well as Stockholm Auction House. For many years she has also worked as a superintendent at The Royal Palace in Stockholm. She made her literary debut in 2020, with the novel The Preserved Widow, a historical novel about love, furniture, art, and women in the Gustavian era.

She has previously contributed to TV shows like The History Eaters (SVT) and The Queens (TV4) and is a co-writer of the book Royal Parks – People and Stories. She is also a popular lecturer who loves to tell stories about history, people, and objects in an engaging way.

In 2023, her crime debut novel The Protégée was nominated for Best Swedish Debut by The Swedish Academy of Crime Fiction. It is the first part of her series about antiques expert Majja Skog, of which the fourth part The Master was published this autumn.

Agent: Erik Larsson

Published Bazar, September 2026
Genre Crime
Pages 380

Rights sold
Swedish: Bazar

A young, promising artist is found shot dead in his studio in Drottningholm. In his hands he is clutching a golden skull. But was his death a murder, or was it a work of art, a final bizarre performance?

The eccentric antiques expert Majja Skog is soon drawn into the investigation led by Detective Inspector Karin Klinga. A hidden world filled with exclusive circles, power games and secret auctions unfolds, taking them to places such as Milan, the Royal Stables and an art school on Djurgården.

With a keen eye for hierarchies and our forgotten history, art historian Hélène Gullberg weaves together the pace of a thriller with insights into the worlds of art and antiques. The Master is the fourth standalone instalment in her acclaimed series about Majja Skog, which began with The Protégée and has been sold to several countries.

Published Bazar, October 2024
Genre Crime
Pages 346

Rights sold
Finnish: Minerva (WSOY) 1–3

All objects have secrets.

It's just a matter of revealing them.

Inside the Musköberg military base, Sweden's most secret location, Commander Gustaf Broman is found dead, trapped in an antique diving suit at the bottom of the dry dock. At the same time, protests are raging as parts of the Muskö base are being converted into a naval history museum. Could the murder be related to the debate? Cooperation between culture and defence is strained as the project is completed. They are assisted by the highly talented antique expert Majja Skog. But in the mountain, she immerses herself not only in nautical art objects but also in love. For the first time in her adult life, she studies a flesh-and-blood human being. A man.

When Detective Inspector Karin Klinga investigates the murder, her path once again crosses that of the strange and fascinating Majja. Together, they close in on the clues, the answers and a nightmarish resolution.

The Specialist is the third part of the series about Majja Skog

Published Bazar, September 2024
Genre Crime
Pages 316

Rights sold
Norwegian: Gyldendal 1–2
German: DTV 1–2
Finnish: Minerva (WSOY) 1–3

Part 2 of Hélène Gullberg’s suspense series about Majja Skog.

All objects have secrets. It’s just a matter of uncovering them.

Majja Skog, a gifted and peculiar antiques expert, is obsessed with ancient objects and what they can tell us. She prefers to study them in peace, but her knowledge is in demand by the police. When a priest is found murdered in Storkyrkan in Gamla Stan, she is once again contacted by Detective Inspector Karin Klinga. A diamond-studded Chinese dragon brooch is found in the priest’s torn chest. Who could have placed it there with such brutality? And why?

The place is more than familiar to Majja. She was once allowed to live under the church in a crypt full of ancient artifacts. The priest and his wife introduced her to the art, history and rituals of the church. Do the fascinating treasures of the Great Church have something to do with the murder? Can Majja’s insights lead Karin and her colleagues in the hunt for the killer?

The Novice is the second instalment in Hélène Gullberg’s acclaimed Majja Skog-series about a world full of art, antiquities and dangerous secrets.

Published Bazar, May 2023
Genre Crime
Pages 359

Rights sold
Norwegian: Gyldendal 1–2
German: DTV 1–2
Finnish: Minerva (WSOY) 1–3
Spanish: Seix Barral (Planeta)
Italian: Neri Pozza
UK (World English): Pushkin Press

Nominated for Best Crime Debut of the Year 2023 by the Swedish Academy of Crime Fiction

There is nothing that Sten Hammar loves more than art and antiquities. Even though his estate Hammarnäs is already filled to the brim with precious items, his appetite for beautiful objects seems insatiable. When Hammar is found murdered on his own property, it is first thought to be the result of a robbery, but the evidence soon points to foul play.

Highly esteemed auction house Wallius sends Majja Skog – their overly gifted expert of antiquities – to the estate to value Sten’s collection.

As an eight-year-old, Majja became Sten Hammar's protégée. He brought her into the world of art and antiquities, turning her into a force of dual nature – a person with a wounded interior and a hard exterior, obsessed with the power that objects hold over us.

Detective Karin Klinga is fascinated by the enigmatic Majja, and considers her personality something of a strange mixture of champagne and home-distilled hard liquor. What kind of darkness and memories does she carry with her? And is it possible that she knows more about the murder than she lets on?

The Protégée is the first book in Hélène Gullberg’s new series about Majja Skog.