Photo: NTB / TT (1997)
Sample of authors
Skagen, Fredrik
Fredrik Skagen is one of Norway’s most popular award-winning crime writers. He was born in Trondheim where he lived all his life. As a young man he wanted to be a jazz pianist, but he also enjoyed writing ever since his father gave him a typewriter when he was ten. Skagen trained as a librarian at Statens bibliotekskole in Oslo 1960–61, and in 1961–69 he worked as librarian in Trondheim and at the...
Literary figures
Karen Pirie
Gender: Female
She is an overweight workaholic, but also exceptionally skilful when it comes to investigating old, unsolved cases in police novels by Val McDermid. Karen Pirie is the head of the Historic Cases Unit with its head office in Fife in Scotland. Her private life is minimal – but includes a sweetheart, her colleague Phil Parhatka, and she mourns deeply when he is killed on duty. But she soon throws h...