HÉLÈNE GULLBERG
HÉLÈNE GULLBERG has worked as a specialist in works of art at the auction company Bukowski’s, as well as Stockholm Auction House, and is now a superintendent at The Royal Palace in Stockholm. She made her literary debut fall 2020, with the novel “The Preserved Widow” (Historiska Media), 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” (InPress Art 2019). 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 third part THE SPECIALIST was published this fall.
Photo Credit: Thron Ullberg
Agent: Erik Larsson
WORKS
THE SPECIALIST
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.
THE NOVICE
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.
THE PROTÉGÉE
