The Case Cornelia Karlsson is a trilogy of Horror / Urban Fantasy novels by Anders Fager. The novels follows the disturbed young woman Cornelia Karlsson who from an early age has and hears the voice of the sinister He Who Whispers in the Wind (aka Nyarlathotep).
The three books as
- I Saw Her Today at the Reception (2012)
- A Man of Wealth and Taste (2014)
- War! Children! (2019)
There was between A Man of Wealth and Taste and War! Children! of 5 years as well as a Channel Hop (which could explain the gap).
The Case Cornelia Karlsson contains examples of the following tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Cornelia's father.
- A Child Shall Lead Them: Magic Alice who becomes Cornelia's spokesperson of sorts.
- Ambiguously Human: It's never explained what Ville really was except that he is the "spawn" of He Who Whispers in the Wind.
- The Wallin twins.
- And I Must Scream: Fredman who is immortal after being thrown into the stream under Centralbron.
- The fate of Tess.
- Arc Words: Ride the snake.
- Aura Vision: Cornelia can see people's auras which indicated their personality and if they have magical abilities. Ville has none, because he is not human.
- Back Fromthe Dead: Somehow, Ville returns in the third book despite being killed by Cornelia in the first chapter of the first book. Or was he?
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: August Strindberg was a wizard. And Queen Christina was a witch.
- Big Bad: Nyarlathotep, the Whispering Man.
- The Cavalry: For better or worse, Fredman's disappearance trigger the arrival of his chaotic allies; the Furies of Borås.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: The Whispering Man. Yes, you read that right. He tells Cornelia he does not want anyone other than him and Ville (because he is his child) to have sex with her. Many of the people Cornelia has sex with die under horrible circumstances.
- Creepy Twins: Teresa & Beatrice Wallin who says that they share a soul.
- Ghostapo: Holger Bertholtz who has dealing with Göring about ancient artifacts.
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Lawful Neutral: Fredman's primary concern is to maintain the status quo, by any means necessary. - Magical Negro: The Haitian Miriam, who is the first person Cornelia encounters that has actual knowledge of the Elder Gods.
- Nice Guy: Save for his alcoholism, Fredrik Hedlund is the most empathic and good natured character in the series and the de-facto hero. Given the other characters, that is saying a lot.
- Really 700 Years Old: Ingemar Fredman who worked for queen Christina as librarian.
- Royal Favorite: Ingemar was this to queen Christina. He seems to be very affectionate to her as well and mourns that she did not stay in Sweden to fulfill her plan to make Stockholm a new Athens.
- Protagonist Journey to Villain: Cornelia starts out as the flawed hero, but by the second novel she has become an antagonist.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Fredrik Hedlund was traumatized by his experience as a UN-solider.
- Waif Prophet: Cornelia, who is anorexic and has hair that has mysteriously turned white.
