Camilla Sten Books in Order

Where to Start with Camilla Sten

For most readers, the absolute best place to start is with her breakout standalone psychological thriller, The Lost Village (originally published in Swedish as Staden). This book showcases her trademark style: dual timelines, high-tension isolation, and an eerie, claustrophobic setting. It provides the perfect introduction to her dark Scandinavian noir style before you explore her other standalone novels or dive into her young adult series.

Standalone Psychological Thrillers

Camilla Sten is most famous globally for her gripping, slow-burn standalone thrillers. These books do not share a continuity and can be read in any order, though reading them in publication order lets you see her evolution as a master of suspense.

• The Lost Village (Swedish: 2019 / English: 2021) – A documentary filmmaker investigates a remote mining town where an entire population vanished without a trace in 1959.
• The Resting Place (Swedish: 2020 / English: 2022) – A young woman suffering from prosopagnosia (face blindness) inherits a grand, remote estate from her grandmother, only to realize the killer might still be lurking on the grounds.
• The Bachelorette Party (English: 2025) – A disgraced podcaster attends a yoga retreat on a secluded Swedish island where four friends disappeared a decade earlier.
• The Break-Up Retreat (English: 2026) – An undercover journalist infiltrates a high-end woodland clinic promising to cure women of heartbreak, only to find a sinister pattern of missing patients.
• En annan gryning (Swedish: 2016) – Camilla's debut political thriller, which remains untranslated into English.

The Järvhöga Academy Trilogy

For readers who enjoy YA suspense with heavy elements of atmospheric horror, the Järvhöga Academy Trilogy is a must-read. Set at an isolated boarding school in the Swedish wilderness of Jämtland, this series must be read in chronological order due to its ongoing character arcs and central mystery.

1. The Missing (Swedish: Bergtagen, 2020)
2. The Haunted (Swedish: Midnattsblot, 2021)
3. The Forsaken (Swedish: Eldvakt, 2022)

The Rebecca Lekman Series (Swedish Suspense)

For readers who read Swedish, this psychological suspense series follows criminal psychologist Rebecca Lekman as she returns to her wealthy hometown of Djursholm and finds herself investigating local secrets. These books should be read in order:

1. En farlig talang (2022 – known in international rights markets as The One That Got Away)
2. En giftig sanning (2024)
3. En liten lögn (2025/2026)

The Whispering Sea Mysteries (Havsfolket Trilogy)

Co-authored with her mother, the famous Swedish crime novelist Viveca Sten, this middle-grade/YA fantasy trilogy is heavily inspired by Nordic folklore, sailors' superstitions, and environmental issues. It follows a young girl named Tuva in the Stockholm archipelago. This trilogy must be read in order:

1. Child of the Skerries (Swedish: Djupgraven, 2016)
2. Child of the Mists / Beneath the Mist (Swedish: Sjörök, 2017)
3. Child of the Arctic Fires (Swedish: Mareld, 2018)

What to Know Before You Start

Sten’s writing heavily integrates the natural landscapes of Sweden—from the foggy Stockholm archipelago to the deep woods of Jämtland—making the setting a character in its own right. If you are reading her co-authored works with Viveca Sten, expect a slightly lighter, folklore-inspired tone. In contrast, her solo adult thrillers are deeply psychological, often exploring trauma, isolation, and sensory vulnerabilities, such as the protagonist's face blindness in The Resting Place.