by Mari Jungstedt
We are delighted to welcome novelist Mari Jungstedt as our guest.
Mari is the author of the "Andres Knutas" mysteries set on the Swedish island of Gotland. The most recent to be translated into English is Killer's Art (Stockholm Text, February 2013 trade paperback and ebook formats).
Today Mari gives us a background to the series, its characters and setting.
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So — how did I really start?
Since I was used to writing only short television scripts I asked myself — How do I start?
Photo provided courtesy of
Mari Jungstedt
I had never written anything longer before, so I decided to start in a very easy and modest way and with no big ambitions. First of all I wanted to see if I could write only one page. I thought it would be easiest if I tried to describe something concrete from my everyday life.
I wrote about a memory I had of Gotland. One beautiful summer day in July I went to the beach on my own … a fairly wild and deserted beach with no restaurants or cafeterias. When I got there it was sunny and warm and lots of people were laying on the sand, swimming in the sea, and children playing in the water. I laid down on a dune and fell fast asleep in the sand. When I woke up there was a completely different picture surrounding me. All the people were gone. It was empty and quiet and a thick huge mist had come in from the sea. The beach was suddenly abandoned and I could hardly see my hand in front of me because of the mist. It was beautiful, but also scary and completely silent. I started to write about this memory and it was like pushing a button, the words came floating out of me like a never-ending stream. Then the story went on and I wrote whenever I got the chance — on weekends, after work, late at night and early in the morning. And that became my first novel. And the mist is the same mist in the beginning of my first novel, Unseen, when the young woman, Helena Hillerström, is walking on the beach with her dog early one morning and suddenly she is in the middle of the mist that is coming in from the sea and her dog disappears in the mist and then she meets her murderer.
When I had written about half of the manuscript for my first book I contacted the biggest publishing company in Sweden, Bonniers (Albert Bonniers Forlag). I had no contacts in the publishing world and I didn't know any authors. I asked to speak to a publisher. He listened to my story (he also knew who I was from TV so that probably helped a bit). He told me I had to finish my book and then I could send the manuscript directly to him. It took me three months to finish the manuscript and after sending it to him he called me in three days and said — this is a page-turner — we will publish this! It was like a dream. I was at the furniture house, Ikea, with a friend when he called and I screamed for joy and almost fell into a shelf with lamps!
That is now eleven years ago and I have written eleven novels in the series so far. I just finished my eleventh novel and it will be released in Sweden in mid-May … and I still love writing!
Why Gotland?
Gotland inspires me a lot, with the greyness, the fog and the humidity in the winter. I also think the island is perfect for crime stories — the closed room because it is an island with the coast around it and all the people and places are related to each other. The environment with the flat, wild landscape, the lime stone rocks, the long sandy beaches that lay empty most times of the year, the historical town of Visby with the wall around it (6-10 meters) from the 13th century, the medieval houses, the big old church and ruins in the middle of the town, and small cobblestoned streets. So the environment is of great importance in my books.
My main characters
I am really a story-driven writer and the intrigue — the story — is the most important thing for me. You can read each book individually, even though it is a series, but of course you get to know the characters and follow them and their development throughout the books.
I like the idea of having the same main characters so that readers can get to know them and hopefully care about what is going to happen to them. Then I can allow one of them to have a lot of space in one book, and less in another. I think my main characters are quite ordinary people with ordinary problems so that it is easy to identify with them. The love story between Johan and Emma goes up and down in the first few books (which is not so unusual in real life), but they eventually develop a more stable relationship later on. Then other things happen … for instance, Karin Jacobsson, who is quite secretive in the first few books, opens up more and more and takes more place in the future.
I do have two main male characters, the police detective Anders Knutas and the television journalist, Johan Berg. One reason why I wanted to have a journalist as a main character was because I wanted to use my long experience as a news journalist and also I wanted to write about the ethical problems that reporters come across in reporting about crime. Who should I interview and who should I not? How to treat victims of a crime or family/relatives. These questions are always interesting and new cases show up all the time.
The conflict between the police and journalist is also interesting as well as their mutual need for each other. I worked for ten years as a news anchor for the State Television News before becoming an author and I have seen this often in my working life. I think it is a necessary conflict because the police need the journalists at certain times, for instance, spreading a message to the public and getting in touch with witnesses, etc. On the other hand, journalists need the police for information — but at the same time the police don't want to give away too much as it can have a negative impact on the investigation. It is a tricky business!
For me it felt natural to make my detective, Knutas, a man because the first police I was in contact with to discuss my police work in the book was the chief of police in Visby. A very nice man who has become the role model for Knutas. I also made my other main character a man, the journalist Johan Berg, but I think that was because I wanted to create a distance between him and myself. I also have important females in the series, Emma Winarve, who starts a relationship with Johan, even though she is married with two small children. The readers will get to follow their turbulent love story which continues in coming books. Also mysterious, Karin Jacobsson, the police inspector who works very closely to Knutas will develop and become a really important character in future books.
For instance the complicated love story between Johan and Emma, gives the novels an extra dimension and says something about the time and the culture we are currently living in. Also, the aspect of how the press is working with crime victims, etc., and how Johan deals with it in his everyday life as a reporter. That gives quite a good picture of how media has become more ignorant and more detailed in the way of reporting about crime and more and more ruthless when it comes to who should interview and not. These ethical questions are always interesting and when I worked for ten years as a news anchor for Swedish Television, I thought that the treatment of crime victim's families was one of the most difficult things to deal with.
What inspires me?
Of course I get a lot of inspiration from my own background, my life today, and the people that I know. Books I read, films I see, stories I hear — I always keep my eyes open and listen to what is happening around me and in society itself.
Also, Gotland very much inspires me with the landscape, the people, and the fantastic history of the island.
In my novels, relationships between people are central and I use different experiences from my own life as well as from the people that surround me.
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Mari Jungstedt is one of Sweden's most popular crime fiction writers with more than 3 million copies of her books sold worldwide. Jungstedt's stories all take place on the beautiful and dramatic island of Gotland, Sweden, a large island in the Baltic Sea. Her books have been translated into almost twenty languages and the crime series has been adapted for German TV-films with over 5 million viewers per show. Six of her novels have also been the basis for Swedish movies.
Jungstedt has previously worked as a news anchor for Swedish national public radio and television. She also had a brief career as a fashion model in New York City. However, throughout her life, she harbored the secret dream of becoming an author. Once she dedicated the time to this endeavor, Jungstedt says it was as if she opened a box of stories that had to be written. Jungstedt has two children and lives in Stockholm, Sweden. She spends her summers in Gotland.
For more information about the author and her books, visit her website at MariJungstedt.se.
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Killer's Art
Mari Jungstedt
An Anders Knutas Mystery (4th in series)
Original Swedish title: Den döende dandyn (2006)
A cold Sunday morning, a man is found murdered and hanged on the old city wall that surrounds Visby, capital of Gotland. The victim is art gallery owner Egon Wallin. When the famous painting "The Dying Dandy" is stolen in Stockholm, disturbing links to the murder of Egon Wallin slowly start to surface, taking the reader into the exquisite Swedish art world and underworld of prostitution and drugs.
