Carl Hamilton novelsThe Carl Hamilton novels is a book series by Swedish author and journalist Jan Guillou centered on the fictional Swedish spy Carl Hamilton. The main character is an elite military officer working for the Swedish Security agency and Intelligence agency during the end of the Cold War, residing in Stockholm but active internationally.

Carl Hamilton has been called "Sweden's James Bond", but the plot of Guillou's novels also has a heavy focus on politics and journalism. One commentator said the books "... place besides John le Carré and Len Deighton" (famous British spy novelists). The first novel was published in 1986 and the series is a best-seller in Sweden, with more than 10 million sold copies. The character of Carl Hamilton has also appeared in a number of film and television adaptations.

Plot
Coq Rouge (1986)

Original Swedish title: Coq Rouge: berättelsen om en svensk spion (literal: Coq Rouge – the Story of a Swedish Spy)

In the mid 1980s, a high-ranking officer in the Swedish security service, SÄPO, is found murdered in Stockholm. Together with the policemen of the security service, the young Carl Hamilton is tasked with investigating the murder and soon makes use of his secret military training. The conservative Swedish police put their main focus on Palestinians and left wing radicals, but when the investigation takes Hamilton to Beirut and Israel he finds a different truth.

Den demokratiske terroristen (1987)

The Democratic Terrorist

The West German security service has need of a Swedish colleague to help them infiltrate a remaining group of the Red Army Faction (RAF) that is supposedly planning a terrorist operation in Sweden. Carl Hamilton is the perfect choice with his military training and radical background in the leftist movement.

I nationens intresse (1988)
In the Interest of the Nation

Hamilton has been transferred to the military intelligence he was intended for. His first mission is to escort a defecting Soviet Admiral from Cairo to Sweden, and soon learns that the Soviet Armed Forces has installed secret underwater bases in the Stockholm archipelago. In the shadow of this great threat to the nation, Hamilton is tormented by guilt from a brutal event that his intense military training has caused in his private life.

Enemy's Enemy (1989)
Original Swedish title: Fiendens fiende. English translation by Thomas Keeland in 1992.

A Soviet defector in London feeds the Swedish security service information that Hamilton is a double agent working for Russia. Much of this information seems to come from another Swedish double agent, who has recently escaped Swedish prison and is now guarded by the Russians in Moscow. This leads to the disturbing question if the Swedish military intelligence can conduct a secret murder on one of their own citizens.

Den hedervärde mördaren (1990)
The Honourable Murderer

Retired high-ranking Swedish officers are being brutally murdered, and the murderers are leaving traces to a supposed Nazi past. While Sweden is in turmoil from racist movements, Hamilton and his colleagues in the military intelligence are tasked to conduct their own investigation of the murders, searching the military archives and learning the dark past of their predecessors.

Vendetta (1991)
Vendetta

When members of the Swedish arms industry are kidnapped by the Italian mafia in Sicily, Hamilton is tasked to handle the negotiations. He brings one of his closest friends and military colleagues for the mission, and after a deadly first encounter with the mafia, he is thrown into a vicious vendetta where all of his military training is put to use.

Ingen mans land (1992)
No Man's Land

Hamilton and the Swedish military intelligence are tasked with preventing stolen nuclear warheads from being smuggled out of Russia, resulting in a secret military operation across the Russian border with a very dark and very disturbing mission.

Den enda segern (1993)
The Only Victory

As a sequel to the previous novel, a second nuclear warhead has been smuggled out through Sweden, revealing that the first deadly attempt was meant only as a sinister distraction. Hamilton, who is tormented by his deeds during that mission, must now work with former enemies in the Russian military intelligence to track the second warhead and the people who stole it, and to prevent a war he must also try to bring the new conservative government in Sweden and the US military into a collaboration with his old friends in the PLO.

I hennes majestäts tjänst (1994)
On Her Majesty's Service

The British MI5 and MI6 need the assistance of Hamilton and his unit within the Swedish military intelligence to investigate a growing number of mysterious deaths in the British defence industry. Meanwhile, hateful enemies from Hamilton's own past are planning a sinister revenge.

En medborgare höjd över varje misstanke (1995)
A Citizen Raised Above Every Suspicion

With his private life in ashes, Hamilton is appointed head of the Swedish security service and begins an effort to reshape the organization. While he is doing a lecture tour of Sweden's universities, several immigrant agents of the security service are being murdered with military skill.

Hamlon (novella) (1995)
After escaping from Sweden, convicted of murder, Hamilton is now living a secret life as a retired rich man in La Jolla, California, with the name Charles Hamlon under the protection of the FBI. When a local murder investigation makes the FBI search for a suspect with elite military skills, Hamlon is taken into consideration.

This novella is written as a draft for an eleventh novel, but the plot was never intended to be solved and it ends with an afterword where Jan Guillou accounts for why the series would not continue. Guillou states that En medborgare höjd över varje misstanke was the last book and the conclusion of the series, and in order to make sure that Hamilton would never return he was now "banished" from Sweden through a life sentence and eternal exile in California. Since Guillou only intended to write with clear political themes, based around Sweden, no further books would be possible.

Madame Terror (2006)
Carl Hamilton has spent ten years in secret exile as Charles Hamlon in California, where he is keeping his body in shape and getting psychological help. One day an old friend from the Palestinian intelligence service, Mouna al-Husseini who the world presumed dead, comes to recruit him for a mission. With the help of the Russians, who want revenge on the Americans for sinking the Kursk submarine, the Palestinians have developed a high-tech alfa class attack submarine. The crew is mixed Russian and Palestinian, but they have trouble collaborating. They need a strong leader that is neither Russian nor Palestinian, but who can speak Russian, supports the Palestinian cause, has Russian and Palestinian medals, has naval background, understands the strategies of war and is a high-ranking officer. Only one living man fits this description: Carl Hamilton. Their mission is to destroy the entire Israeli fleet.

Men inte om det gäller din dotter (2008)
But Not If it Concerns Your Daughter

After leading the Palestinians to a short-lived victory against Israel, Hamilton is exiled to Russia since the Americans under the George W. Bush regime has declared him an enemy and a terrorist. When he can no longer stay in Russian, after having refused a demand from president Vladimir Putin to become a commander of brutal Russian military operations, he returns to Stockholm in order to have his old murder conviction reconsidered in court. Acquitted, he begins a new retired life in the company of new and old friends, but when a small child is kidnapped by Saudi Arabian terrorists he must once again take up arms and lead another military operation.

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