Photo: Aftonbladet (publ. 1954) / TT
Sample of authors
Lang, Maria
Maria Lang is the pen name of the teacher and head mistress Dagmar (Maria) Lange, one of Sweden’s most popular, but also most criticised, crime novelists. Lange and Stieg Trenter dominated the Swedish crime fiction scene in the 1950s and ‘60s. In the media they were referred to as King Stieg and Queen Maria. Dagmar Lange was born in Västerås. The family moved to Lindesberg in 1915 where her fathe...
Literary figures
Arkadij Renko
Gender: Male
Police officer in the Soviet Union and Russia, at first a detective chief inspector, but later demoted after he tried to expose the shady dealings of communist bigwigs. His father was a notorious general. Arkady Renko is middle-aged, thin with a pale face and greying dark hair. His first wife, Zaya, was unfaithful and left him, Martin Cruz Smith tells us. His second wife, Irina, dies after...