Detective Agency No. 2
Detective Agency No. 2 is the bestselling Norwegian children’s book series of all time – a colourful, suspenseful and highly accessible crime universe for young readers, created by author Jørn Lier Horst and illustrator Hans Jørgen Sandnes. The series now includes more than 50 books and stories, with total sales in Norway exceeding four million copies.
The books follow Tiril, Oliver and their scent-tracking dog Ocho, who run their own detective agency in the small coastal town of Riverton. At first glance, Riverton is a peaceful and idyllic place, but behind garden gates, inside old houses, in museums, on beaches and along dark forest paths, new mysteries are always waiting to be uncovered. Tiril and Oliver follow clues, reveal secrets, crack codes and find solutions where adults often come up short.
The series is written for children aged 5–12 and combines classic storytelling with riddles, observations and tasks that invite the reader into the story. In the Operation books, children encounter exciting, easy-to-read mysteries with realistic plots and surprising solutions. In the Search for books, the reader becomes even more active: on every page, a small crime puzzle must be solved before the story can continue. This makes the series more than ordinary reading – it becomes a game, a mission and an experience of mastery.
The success of the series lies not only in its suspense, but also in its clear child-centred perspective. The books take children’s way of seeing the world seriously. They are about curiosity, cooperation, courage, logic and the ability to notice what others overlook. The language is easy to read without being simplistic, and the illustrations are full of details, clues and visual hints. As a result, the books work equally well for emerging readers, confident bookworms and shared read-aloud moments where children and adults can solve the mystery together.
For several years, Detective Agency No. 2 has been among the most borrowed children’s books in Norwegian libraries and is widely used in schools and literary mediation. The series is regarded as one of the key drivers of reading pleasure among children in Norway. In 2022, Tiril, Oliver and Ocho were voted the best Norwegian children’s book characters of all time by readers of the industry website Bok365. The following year, Horst and Sandnes received the Mrs. Pepperpot Award for their contribution to reading pleasure and joy among Norwegian children.
The universe has also proven its strength beyond the book format. Several of the books have been adapted for film. Stage productions based on the series have also been created, touring and playing for large family audiences. New film adaptations and TV productions based on the universe are currently in planning and development.
The mysteries are rooted in a small coastal town, but the themes are instantly recognisable: children taking matters into their own hands, secrets hidden beneath the surface of everyday life, and a dog with a nose for clues. The series combines humour, suspense and the joy of reading with stories that make the reader active from the very first page.
With its combination of classic mystery storytelling, humour, warmth and interactive reading, Detective Agency No. 2 is children’s crime fiction that turns the reader into a detective – and makes children want to read just one more page.
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Foto: Bonnier
Jørn Lier Horst
Jørn Lier Horst is one of Norway’s most widely read authors, known both for his award-winning crime novels for adults and for some of the country’s most popular book series for children and young readers. Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked for many years as a senior investigating officer in the police. That experience has given him a rare ability to build mysteries that feel authentic, logical and suspenseful – even when written for the youngest readers.
For Horst, writing children’s books has never simply meant writing crime fiction in a smaller format. The aim has been to create a love of reading. As a child, he read suspense books that gave him the urge to keep turning the pages, and this is the experience he has wanted to pass on to new generations: the feeling that the answer may be waiting on the next page, and that reading is therefore driven forward by curiosity.
He writes from what he calls a child-centred perspective: with respect for the child’s gaze, language and experience. This does not mean simplifying, but adapting. The books should be easy to enter, while still giving the reader something to think about. In the mysteries, children encounter questions of right and wrong, courage and responsibility, justice and injustice – not as moral lessons, but as a natural part of the story.
With the CLUE series for older children and Detective Agency No. 2 for younger readers, Horst has helped give the crime story a strong place in Norwegian children’s literature. He has shown that suspense can be a way into literature for children who do not always find reading easy. Once a mystery begins, it creates its own momentum: the reader follows the clues, interprets the evidence, suspects, guesses and reads on to discover the solution.
Horst’s work as a children’s author has received wide recognition. Together with illustrator Hans Jørgen Sandnes, he received the Mrs Pepperpot Award for the Detective Agency No. 2 books, with a citation highlighting the series’ invaluable contribution to reading pleasure and joy among Norwegian children. In 2023, he was also named Author of the Year by the readers of Aftenposten Junior.
Today, Jørn Lier Horst stands out as an author who has made suspense a gateway to reading. His books give children a sense of mastery, participation and forward movement. They invite the reader into the story – not merely as a spectator, but as a fellow detective.
Foto: Eigil Rasmussen-Korsager
Hans Jørgen Sandnes
Hans Jørgen Sandnes is an illustrator, animator, comics creator and visual storyteller. Together with Jørn Lier Horst, he has created the visual universe of Detective Agency No. 2, where Tiril, Oliver and Ocho come to life through expressive characters, colourful settings and images filled with details, humour and hidden clues.
Sandnes’ illustrations are not decoration around the text. They are an active part of the storytelling. In the Detective Agency No. 2 books, solutions, hints and small mysteries may be hidden in the pictures. The reader has to look closely, turn back the pages, compare details and discover what was initially invisible. In this way, the illustrations turn children into active readers. They read not only the words, but also the pictures.
This interplay between text and illustration is one of the series’ defining qualities. Sandnes’ images provide reading support, create humour, build pace and invite the reader into a playful detective role. The pictures make the universe accessible to children who are not yet confident readers, while also giving more experienced readers something new to discover.
Sandnes has a background that makes him a particularly strong visual storyteller. He has made animated films and comics, and has illustrated several of Norway’s great children’s classics, including works by Alf Prøysen and Anne-Cath. Vestly. Together with Karen Margrete Kilane, he created the award-winning series Familien von Humbug. He has also created his own comics series Crypto, which has received wide attention and was awarded the Norwegian Ministry of Culture’s Comic Book Prize.
For Sandnes, the joy of drawing is essential. He is interested in books that can be studied again and again, where small details, hidden figures and visual secrets reward the curious reader. Detective Agency No. 2 came into being because he and Horst wanted to create something they themselves would have wished for as children: books that bubble with energy, hide clues and make the reader want to keep turning the pages.
Through Sandnes’ line, Riverton becomes more than a place where mysteries happen. It becomes a universe children can enter. Facial expressions, body language, maps, props, supporting characters and small visual jokes create a world that feels alive. This is one of the reasons why Detective Agency No. 2 works as a reading book, a visual story, a read-aloud experience and a detective game.
Foto: Bonnier
Jørn Lier Horst and Hans Jørgen Sandnes
The collaboration between Jørn Lier Horst and Hans Jørgen Sandnes is at the heart of the success of Detective Agency No. 2. Horst builds the mysteries, the clues and the narrative momentum. Sandnes expands the stories visually, adding hints, humour and details that make the reader an active participant. Together, they have created a book universe in which text and image work toward the same goal: making children experience reading as play, suspense and mastery.
The books have become a meeting point between classic detective storytelling and modern, fully illustrated children’s literature. They give children the feeling that they can solve the case themselves – and show how a love of reading can arise when a story takes children’s curiosity seriously.