Private Detective Julia Stark has been hired by famous actress Bianca Salo, who is convinced that her dead fiancé is stalking her. Just the night before, she’d awoken to find him standing over her bed, and previous to that, he’d broken into her dressing room at the theater and set fire to a dress.

It’s been three years since Bianca received the news of her fiancés sudden passing in a hotel room in Helsinki. She was in Stockholm at the time, playing the female lead in Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth. She collapsed on stage and the whole play was cancelled just a week after the premiere. Now, the ensemble and director have gotten a second chance to perform the ill-fated tragedy. Julia accompanies Bianca to the rehearsals, to watch over her but also to survey the people around her as the stalker seems to move about freely inside the theater. Almost none of the actors have alibi for the incidents and a great tension can be sensed boiling just below the surface.

Julia asks her ex-husband Sid to investigate the peculiarities surrounding Bianca’s fiancé’s death. They must rush to find the key as everything indicates that the stalker has entered the final, active phase of his pursuit, which often ends in violence and death. To solve the mysterious case, Julia Stark must employ all her psychological acumen, power of observation, and logical thinking.

I Close My Eyes and Pray is the second installment in Alex Ahndoril’s The Key series.

Netflix announced six new Nordic feature film productions at its Next on Netflix showcase in Stockholm today, including the adaptation of Alex Ahndoril’s bestselling The Key Series, the crime whodunnit novels featuring Private detective Julia Stark.
Working titled The Key Series, the debut feature-length instalment will see Julia Stark hired by a wealthy family to solve a murder been committed at their estate in the northwest of Sweden. Banijay company Filmlance is lead producing. Casting and the delivery date has yet to be confirmed.

Netflix also announced Little Siberia, based on Antti Tuomainen’s celebrated novel with the same name, from Finnish director Dome Karukoski, whose feature credits include Tom Of Finland. The drama revolves around a remote village which is changed forever when a meteorite falls through the roof of a car one night. Karukoski takes co-writing credits with Minna Panjanen on the film.
Ina Sohlberg is producing with Mark Lwoff, Misha Jaari at Bufo. Cast members are Eero Ritala, Malla Malmivaara, Tommi Korpela, Martti Suosalo. Delivery is for 2025.

Alex Ahndoril’s I Will Find the Key, the first installment in the Key series, shoots to No. 1 on the hardcover list this week. Meanwhile, Jens Lapidus’ Dead Man Walking stays put at No. 2. On the children’s fiction list, Martin Widmark’s The Masquerade Mystery claims the No. 1 spot.

Alex Ahndoril’s recently published I Will Find the Key, the first installment in the Key series, shoots to No. 2 on the official Swedish bestseller list for hardcover this week.

Jens Lapidus’ Dead Man Walking sails to No. 2 on the official bestseller list for hardcover this week, while Alex Ahndoril’s recently published I Will Find the Key makes its debut at No. 4.

Private detective Julia Stark receives an unannounced visit at the office. The man at the door is one of the owners of a successful family business. The day before, he was present at a board meeting and dinner at his estate in the northwestern part of Sweden. The following morning, he finds a photograph in his phone of a bloody man, tied up with a bag over his head.

Due to alcohol-related amnesia, the man has no idea where the picture comes from and wants to hire Stark Detective Agency to clear his name before the police get involved. Julia asks her ex-husband Sidney Mendelson to take time off from the City Police and assist her in the investigation. There is still a glimmer of hope left in Julia that this might be her chance to win him back.

Welcomed as guests at the opulent estate, Julia and Sidney begin to search for the truth while dining and socializing with each of the family members that could theoretically be involved in the murder.

I Will Find the Key is the first installment in the whodunnit suite “The Key Series,” – a modern take on the classic whodunnit mystery, contained and rich with colorful characters, and with one of the most compelling and fascinating female characters in modern Scandinavian crime fiction at the center of it all: Private Detective Julia Stark.

The pseudonym Alex Ahndoril is a new collaboration between Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril and Alexander Ahndoril, the authors behind Lars Kepler.