Discover the asocial world of Shark
Aliisa Tuulikki Ykspetäjä. It’s a mouthful to non-Finns, so it’s helpful everybody knows her as Shark. Thirty-two, single, one-handed, emotionally deplete with a social circle of one. But don’t let that put you off. As a Detective Chief Inspector at Greater Bradford CID, she gets through her cases, her expertise in missing children and murder is second to none. Some would say she’s murder to work with, and that’s being kind.
“Beefy plants his size twelves on his extensive ebony black desk.
‘Why anyone would choose to live out in the sticks, I’ll never know.’
I cough.
‘Yes, Shark, but living out on the bare moors probably reminds you of the empty wastelands of Finland, and you’re certifiably antisocial anyway.’
We asocials get this all the time. He means asocial. We don’t bite, bark at full moons, attack people or eat them. Not often anyway.”
The series is set in and around West Yorkshire, England, and Finland.
Shark - the detective series
Sabine
Sabine, the only daughter of celebrated local architects Maximilian and Stephanie Moller, has gone missing. It might be another routine teenage runaway. It might not. Shark is assigned to look into her disappearance with the demand from on high of “a swift resolve”. In the meantime, Detective Sergeant Emily Husher is keen to show her mettle by solving a cold case deemed too difficult to solve.
As heavy snow falls over West Yorkshire, and the populace of Bradford look forward to another joyous Christmas, the city is tormented by a rather disturbing killing.
Silent John
Can Shark prise open the driver’s mouth while coping with an inexperienced partner she doesn’t want, a new boss, a merger with another police authority, an uncooperative neighbouring jurisdiction, and all while keeping a lid on a secret from her past, one that has the potential to destroy her?
Meanwhile, Greater Bradford CID could have a series of deranged killings on its hands.
The Horse that Couldn't Swim
Midnight is approaching as Finnair flight AY1338 kisses the apron at Vantaa, leaving GB&CPA a senior detective down. She floats in an alcoholic daze towards the taxi rank, ruminating on her past, already dreading what she’ll uncover about her estranged family.
She’s looking forward to a comfortable night at Hotelli Anna.
Then a call. A meeting. Is she up to taking on the biggest case of her life, especially while suspicions of what happened to Sadman grow, and eyes are on her.
The House on the Hill
It seems so simple. A woman found dead on the moors. Is it an innocent accident, or something more murderous? Nothing is ever simple in Shark’s world.
The house is creepy, the people not what they seem, and she’s investigating in what would have been out of her jurisdiction, but she’s free of boundaries and free for work.
But files from an old acquaintance outlining a distinctly familiar and ugly series of murders is luring Shark back to her homeland.
Salo
Salo is where the Samaritans go to commit suicide. Shark should know, it’s where she’s from.
She’s returned because a series of gruesome, Nail-in-the-Neck style copycat killings are beginning to appear across southern Finland.
Shark is invited to make up an unlikely alliance to investigate and stop the murders.
Unfortunately, her re-appearance in Salo opens the eyes of a certain superintendent who believes she’s behind a suspicious death during her previous visit to the city.
All Good Things
There’s no such thing as the perfect murder. That’s what they say.
The search intensifies for the missing detective, the net closing in on the killer, no resources being spared – including Shark’s. But she’s damned if she takes on the case, damned if she doesn’t. Her record is impeccable and she doesn’t want to spoil it.
And while one detective is determined her suspicions will be proved correct, the other is determined to keep out of her clutches.
It’s the end for one of them.