Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Watch Her Die | 2018 | Deborah Lucy | N/A |
| 2 | Hunting Game / Hunting Ground | 2019 | Deborah Lucy | Buy |
| 3 | Dead of Night | 2019 | Deborah Lucy | N/A |
| 4 | Winter Grave | 2019 | Deborah Lucy | Buy |
| 5 | Snowdrift | 2020 | Deborah Lucy | Buy |
Detective Inspector Embla Nystrom investigates crimes against a backdrop of dense Swedish forest, frozen lakes, and the close-knit tensions of rural communities where everyone has known everyone else for generations. Deborah Lucy uses the Scandinavian landscape not just as scenery but as a presence in the stories, shaping what is possible and what remains hidden in each investigation.
The series opens with Watch Her Die in 2018 and builds steadily through Hunting Game / Hunting Ground, Dead of Night, and Winter Grave, all published in 2019, before concluding with Snowdrift in 2020. Three books in a single year suggests a productive period of writing, and the books maintain a consistent tone across the run: methodical, atmospheric, and focused on Nystrom as a detective who earns answers through persistence rather than inspiration.
Readers who come to the series through the broader Nordic Noir tradition will recognize the cold-case structure and the emphasis on landscape, but Lucy’s Nystrom is her own character, and the series rewards reading in sequence from the first book.