home LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram search

Henrik Brun (born 1968) is a Danish writer. He is the author behind the series about the journalist Ketil Brandt. So far the series counts the books “Decoy. Danish”, “The Norwegian Lackey”, “The Swedish Liar”, “The Finnish Patriot” and “The Polish Fortune Hunter”. The books can be read independently.

Henrik Brun. Photo: Jeroen Smit

Brun is originally educated as a journalist from the Danish School of Journalism in 1993, and he also has taken a Masters in European Journalism through a study in the Netherlands, Denmark and the United Kingdom.

From 1995 to 2004 he was a travelling foreign news reporter for the Danish daily Information, and from 2005 until 2014 he was Foreign News Editor at the newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad. In 2002 he received the European Commission’s Lorenzo Natali Prize for his reporting on human rights, democracy and development and in 2001 he was nominated for the Danish Cavling-prize on investigative journalism.

When finding the right scenes for his books – not to mention creating the plots – Henrik Brun makes use of his knowledge about international relations and his experiences from many European countries.

Thus the first novel, ”Decoy.Danish” takes place in his favourite town – Lubjljana, the capital of Slovenia. This city is still a little secret in Europe, and the writer found it natural to make it an unusual scene for his main character Ketil Brandt’s first thrilling adventures.

”The Norwegian Lackey” takes the reader to the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Norway. Especially the cities of the Hague and Oslo are being used as locations for the drama, and of course the Danish cities of Copenhagen (where Brun lives) and Silkeborg (where he was born and raised).

Sweden and Cyprus are two other places that Brun knows very well through his journalistic experiences, and so this has helped him to find the right scenes for the third book, “The Swedish Liar” – a book that takes place in Malmoe and Stockholm with the Cyprus-problem as the political thrill behind the crimes committed.

Henrik Brun has shown skills in being ahead of time when he creates his plots, and the fourth book – “The Finnish Patriot” – is really an evidence of that. The drama that takes place in Finland and the Baltic states has become more realistic and actual than he could imagine due to the events in Ukraine and the new tense relations between Russia and the EU/NATO.

Also the fifth book, The Polish Fortune Hunter, is an highly actual drama that takes place in a Europe in an existential crisis. The reader is taken to Denmark, Sweden and – not the least – Poland, which is a country that Henrik Brun knows very well.