PROTECTED BY THE SHADOWS is the last of the Inspector Irene Huss stories. Irene Huss, the brainchild of author Helene Tursten, is a detective inspector with Göteborg, Sweden’s police department. The series has collectively struck a balance between Irene’s personal life as a wife and mother and her professional life, and to great effect. Originally published in Sweden in 2012, this final installment is just now seeing its American publication thanks to Marlaine Delargy’s translation. It is a hallmark of sorts in the series, given that it features a tale in which Irene’s two worlds collide dangerously and violently.

The book begins rather memorably with a vignette in which a pizza delivery driver witnesses a horrific occurrence: the deliberate flambé of a member of a notorious motorcycle gang. The resulting investigation brings Irene’s Violent Crimes Unit into collaboration with Göteborg’s Organized Crimes Unit, and for good reason. It appears that Göteborg’s motorcycle gangs are on a collision course, and the fiery murder seems to be the first volley in what will be a protracted war for territory and influence.

"PROTECTED BY THE SHADOWS would mark a wonderful and upbeat end to the proceedings, should Tursten decide to have Irene gently fade away."

Irene is not prepared for what happens next, though. Her husband, Krister, is a successful restaurateur. His newest project is the opening of an establishment that he purchased from a friend and is running with the assistance of their daughter, Jenny, who has just become a chef in her own right. But what should be a career milestone turns into a nightmare when a bomb explodes underneath Krister’s car. It develops that the former owner of the restaurant was deep in debt with one of the gangs, and they consider the restaurant to be collateral for the loan. Krister must pay off his friend’s loan --- with money he does not have --- or take on the gang as new partners in his enterprise. As the deadline approaches, Irene has no choice but to send her family away and go into hiding herself, even as she continues to investigate the very gang that threatens her.

Meanwhile, a bold assassination of another gang member takes place, and the streets come ever closer to exploding with gang warfare. What is making matters worse is that there is almost certainly a leak to the gangs in the police department, as they seem to know what the police are going to do almost as soon as the police do. The traitor in their ranks holds a particular danger for Irene, since she is being hunted. She and her unit have triple duties: stop a gang war before it starts, curtail the influx of drugs the gangs are bringing into the city, and prevent harm from coming to her and her family. Accomplishing all three will be a very tall order indeed.

While Tursten has been somewhat absent lately from the Swedish literary scene, this concluding volume does not indicate that further installments would be impossible. It also appears that there is at least one Irene Huss book that has not been published in the US yet. Either way, there is the possibility that fans of the series will have more to anticipate. Certainly, though, PROTECTED BY THE SHADOWS would mark a wonderful and upbeat end to the proceedings, should Tursten decide to have Irene gently fade away.