Maria Lang Biography and List of Works

Prolific Swedish mystery writer. Lang's best known characters are Puck Ekstedt och Christer Wijk, who are considered classical figures in Swedish mystery novels. Her own alter ego is the author Almi Graan, who started to appear in her stories from the 1960s. Lang wrote some 40 mystery books. She also published children's books and short stories.

" -Det är märkvärdigt, mumlade Einar till sist, hur många hemligheter och hur mucket smutsiga skvaller, som rörs upp när en sån här historia inträffar. Allt möjligt, som egentligen inte har någpt att göra med själva brottet, me son i alla fall bringas i dagen och måste undersökas..."
(from Inte flera mord!, 1951)

Maria Lang was born in Västerås. She studied in Västerås, and received her Ph.D. from the University of Stockholm, where she wrote her thesis on the philosopher and writer Pontus Wikner (1837-1888). She worked as a teacher and headmaster at a girl's school (Nya elementärskolan later Ahlströmska skolan) from 1948 to 1974. Her first novel, MÖRDAREN LJUGER INTE, appeared in 1949. She wrote steadily one novel a year since then.

Lang's works are rooted more or less in Agatha Christie's tradition of puzzle-mystery, although she took her subjects from hidden family secrets and conflicts, incest and other sexual traumas. In INTRIGERNAS HUS (1955) Lang's scene was the Royal Opera and to Stockholm's most famous restaurant Operakällaren, where somebody tries to poison Love Bauman, an ambitious singer and director candidate for the opera. Lang adds to the plot interesting background information, historical details and real persons, such as the singer-actor Sven-Bertil Taube, lending authenticity to the story. Extra help in solving the mystery of who killed the maître d'hotel, lieutenant Christer Wijk gets from his wife Camilla, who works at the opera.

SE, DÖDEN PÅ DIG VÄNTAR (1969) also focused on the world of divas. Tora Monrad, a 40-year-old singer and star of Drottningholm theatre, is murdered. When the events in Intrigernas hus were accompanied with Wagner's 'Siegfried', now the ensemble is playing Mozart's 'Cosi fan tutte'. Christer Wijk appears late in the story - the protagonist is Puck Ekstedt. EN SKUGGA BLOTT (1952), in which Puck has just married Einar Bure, starts exeptionally straight: Puck comes home from Egypt and finds a young dead woman in her bathtub. Usually Lang takes her time to describe the milieu and central characers before the bringing on stage the obligatory corpse. In INTE FLERA MORD (1951) Puck and Einar Bure decide to spend with Einar's father, the professor Johannes Ekstedt, an idyllic vacation in Skoga. But on the first day there's a body under the professor's window, which makes Puck exclaim: "No more murders!"

Inspector Christer Wijk: born in 1918, married to 12 years younger world famous Wagner singer Camilla Martin. Author Almi Graan was born in 1913 - all the character's get old during the years. Usually the stories are set in the small town of Skoga or Bergslagen, also later in Stockholm. - For further information about the birthdates: Ruumiin kulttuuri 2/1996, Eila Palmgren's well documented article 'Sankarit eivät kuole eivät edes vanhene'.