20 May 2025

15th Anniversary Spotlight: Sofie Sarenbrant

This spring marks a significant milestone for renowned author Sofie Sarenbrant, who celebrates the 15th anniversary of her authorship career. Sarenbrant, one of Sweden’s bestselling authors and a master of the suspense genre, is well known for her captivating and contemporary series following the headstrong police detective Emma Sköld and her team, which has captivated readers for well over a decade with a dozen titles, including several bestsellers.

Fifteen years of suspense, relatable characters and plot twists

Sofie Sarenbrant has shaped the Swedish suspense scene for the past fifteen years. Since her debut in 2010, Sofie Sarenbrant has written 22 books, collaborated with author colleague Carina Bergfeldt on their page-turner suspense series and also written the horse series for middle-grade readers, a topic close to her heart. Sarenbrant has a strong fan base in Sweden, and her Emma Sköld series books remain among Sweden’s best sellers. The captivating and contemporary series about the headstrong police detective Emma Sköld has topped the sales charts and showered Sarenbrant with awards over the years. Sarenrant is a three-time winner of the prestigious Swedish Crime Writer of the Year (2019, 2020 and 2022) and the Nextory E-book Award. In 2023, Sarenbrant won the Swedish Crime Novel of the Year for the 11th Emma Sköld series, The Parasite (Parasiten, Bookmark).

Sofie Sarenbrant’s books have been translated into 17 languages to date and have sold over 6,5 million copies worldwide. Emma Sköld fans have listened to the audiobooks for 23 million hours. Sarenbrant continues to grow readership outside Sweden with Emma Sköld books translated into Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Norwegian and Korean, just to name a few. In Denmark alone, the Emma Sköld books have sold 600,000 copies, hence, Sarenbrant is a familiar guest star at Krimimessen, Northern Europe’s biggest festival for crime fiction held annually at Horsens, Denmark. In 2024, the book Shame (Skammarkrókurinn) topped the charts in Iceland as No. 1 on Storytel Iceland. All five Emma Sköld books published in Icelandic so far have been on the top 10 list in the Crime category. Earlier this year, Norway’s largest publisher, Cappelen Damm, published the Norwegian edition of the eighth Emma Sköld book, The Liar (Mytomanen) and Sarenbrant attended Krimfestivalen, the largest crime literature festival in Norway.

Here are some of the covers of the translated editions of the Emma Sköld books published over the years.

Emma Sköld series highlights:

The third book, Killer Deal (Visning pågår) was a turning point for Sarenbrant, being the best-selling crime fiction paperback in Sweden in 2015.
Upon the release of the fifth book, The Beggar (Tiggaren) in 2016, Sofie Sarenbrant was established as Sweden’s fastest-growing author.
In 2017, Killer Deal (Visning pågår) was published in German and Sofie Sarenbrant is featured on the front cover of Germany’s largest book magazine, Buchjournal.
In 2018, the sixth book, The Scapegoat (Syndabocken), was the most listened-to audiobook of the year on Storytel.
The seventh book, Shame (Skamvrån), was the #1 best-selling crime pocket book in 2020 and has over 100,000 listens.
Upon the release of the eighth book, The Liar (Mytomanen), Sofie Sarenbrant celebrated her 10th anniversary as an author.
The Liar (Mytomanen was the most listened to book of the year on Storytel in 2020, andThe Guardian Angel (Skyddsängeln) in 2021.
In 2021, Sofie Sarenbrant was the most listened to author of the year on Bookbeat.
In 2022, The Soulmate (Själsfränden) was the fourth best-selling book in Sweden.
Four of Sarenbrant’s titles top the charts on Norwegian Storytel in 2023.
In 2023, the eleventh book, The Parasite (Parasiten), became the most listened to book of the year on both Storytel and Nextory and snatched the Swedish Crime Novel of the Year award.
In 2023, Sarenbrant received the Honorary Award of the Year after being nominated for at least one book every year since the Adlibris Prize Sweden was established in 2019, followed by a nomination for the Adlibris Prize in Finland the same year.
Fun fact: Sofie Sarenbrant’s writing studio is in the smallest house in Stockholm at Södelmalm. Since 2018, the author has created her stories in the small red 20 square meter cottage with a beautiful waterfront view.

This spring, suspense master Sofie Sarenbrant returns with The Follower (Följeslagaren, Bookmark 2025), the twelfth standalone book in the acclaimed and best-selling series. This time, an eerie and gripping story that portrays current social themes and sensitive topics awaits readers as it takes them on a nerve-wracking journey with Emma Sköld, where the line between safety and danger blurs. The released first press review by BTJ praises the novel with a 4 out of 5 rating and states that the book’s “strength is characterisation, which feels credible and multifaceted.”

From fulfilling childhood dreams to embarking on new writing venture

Sarenbrant’s passion for horses is reflected in her middle-grade series Mira and the Moon, a heartfelt series inspired by classic horse books and set apart by its pacy storytelling and contemporary topics of mental issues, social awkwardness and loneliness. Currently, she’s writing the fourth book in the series, set to be published this autumn. Translation rights to the series have been sold in Danish, Finnish, Hungarian and Norwegian. The stables are an important place to Sofie Sarenbrant, and she fulfilled a childhood dream when competing at the Sweden International Horse Show twice – in 2016 and 2019. Sarenbrant has recently decided to jump back in the saddle and will start racing again.

In 2022, Sarenbrant embarked on a new writing journey with friend Carina Bergfeldt, an award-winning author, journalist, and one of the most popular TV hosts in Sweden. The two spent some time in Greece, where they wrote the first instalment of their new suspense series together. Their first book, The Birthday (Födelsedagen), released in 2023 to rave reviews, topped the sales charts and sold 100,000 copies in two months. The book was also among the 2023 Adlibris Prize nominees. The standalone sequel Good Friday (Långfredagen) followed in May 2024, selling 50,000 copies within just over two weeks after its release and reaching the #1 spot on the Swedish bestseller list. Both titles have been among the top 10 most listened-to audiobooks in Sweden. So far, translation rights to the series have been sold in Danish (People’s Press), Estonian (Kirjastus Pegasus), Finnish (WSOY) and Norwegian (Cappelen Damm).

Sofie Sarenbrant’s upcoming venture offers her a chance to fulfil her dream of writing about a journalist. Her new series of at least three books centres on a young investigative journalist and is filled with suspense and strong characters. The first book is set to be published in the autumn of 2026 by Bokförlaget Forum.

A dozen reasons to celebrate

To mark this special milestone, Sofie Sarenbrant gathered together with friends and family to celebrate her literary journey as well as the release of the newest, twelfth Emma Sköld book. Here are some snapshots from the festivities.