Writing crime in the Northland

“I was a big reader as a child. My father is a great book lover and a librarian, but he forbid me to read bad literature. I was not allowed to read Nancy Drew or books like that. I often say to him that me becoming a crime author is both a way of pleasing him and annoying him.” – Asa Larsson

Born on this date in 1966, Larsson grew up in the far north of Sweden, the granddaughter of renowned Olympic skier Erik August Larsson. 

Prior to becoming a full-time writer, she was a tax lawyer, a profession she shares with her heroine Rebecka Martinsson.   Asa’s first Rebecka Martinsson novel, Solstorm (Sun Storm), came out in 2003 and was awarded the Swedish Crime Writers' Association prize for best first novel.  It was re-published in the UK and US in 2007 under the title The Savage Altar. 

Not one to rest on her laurels, Larsson’s subsequent tales about Martinson     have won a basketfull of awards, including the Best Swedish Crime Novel Awards for both Det blod som spillts, (The Blood Spilt) and her most recent thriller Till offer åt Molok (The Second Deadly Sin).

“It is so much hard work writing your first novel, you're not even sure that it is possible to do,” Larsson said, advising new writers to “get help if you can.  I don't think there is anything wrong with learning from people who are better than you.”

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