The CIA grooms her.
The Mossad persecutes her.
KSI, the most secret branch of MUST, the Swedish Military Intelligence, recruits her.
Klara Andersson, discreet, anonymous - and lethal.
THE ASSET is the first of three books with Klara Andersson as protagonist. It is also the first book of the three translated into English.
Who is Klara Andersson?
Read the Swedish trilogy
Den vidundeliga utsikten (An Amazing View), M. Gustafsson’s first novel, was published in 2003. Huset på Carrera 9 (The House at Carrera 9) came the following year, then Absintängeln (The Absinthe Angel). All three with Klara Andersson as the protagonist.
The Asset, M. Gustafsson’s first novel in English is loosely based on her first Swedish novel.
Klara Andersson bok 1 (Swedish version)
Den vidunderliga utsikten
(An Amazing View)
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Klara Andersson bok 2 (Swedish version)
Huset pa Carrera 9
(The House at Carrera 9)
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Klara Andersson bok 3 (Swedish version)
Absintängeln
(The Absinthe Angel)
I am M. Gustafsson.
I was born in a little town in the north of Sweden, Boden—about two hours’ drive from the Arctic Circle. It was called “The Northern Lock” or “Fortress Boden”. At the time, it had 13 000 inhabitants and
8 000 young men doing their military service. Boden was the Swedish stronghold toward the East, meaning the Soviet Union. There were five enormous fortresses cut deep into the mountains surrounding the town, built to hold a great number of soldiers that could remain in there for months, and equipped with state-of-the-art communications and weaponry.
Big signs told foreigners they were not allowed anywhere near the town, and all roads could be blocked in a moment, to make it impossible for unwanted vehicles to approach.
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Sometime, along the 60’s and 70’s a Swedish Intelligence Officer, Stig Bergling, turned Russian spy and sold them all intel about my town. After that the defence installations became useless and were dismantled. The fifth and last fortress ceased to be part of our defense system in 1997. Today one of them is a tourist attraction and the others are officially filled with sand.
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I grew up there, never meeting anyone from another country until I, as a teenager, left the city.
Of course my hometown and what happened there influenced me. Add my conspiratorial mind, and my choice of genre was unavoidable.
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“This is intelligent entertainment, thrilling and fact-based.”
Dagens Nyether
Reviews
"Klara Andersson gets pulled into political intrigues early on in her professional life. Even a simple nose-job to help her career as a model has an ulterior motive she's unaware of until many years later. M. Gustafsson paints a kaleidoscopic, yet coherent thread of events that will keep you on your toes. The Asset is a must!"
Amazon
“There is no lack of action, and it is obvious that the author is setting her characters against locations she knows well.”
Swedish book review