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Maria Lang (1914-1991) - pseudonym for Dagmar Maria Lange | |
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Prolific Swedish mystery writer. Maria Lang's best known characters, Puck Ekstedt and Christer Wijk, 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 novels. 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 Dagmar Maria Lange 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). From 1948 to 1974 Lang worked as a teacher and headmaster at a girl's school (Nya elementärskolan later Ahlströmska skolan). Her first novel, MÖRDAREN LJUGER INTE ENSAM (1949) introduced Puck Ekstedt. She wrote since then steadily one novel in a year. In the first two novels the murderer is a lesbian woman. 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 the hard-boiled fiction sex had became an essential part of stories, but it was not common in cosy mysteries, and Lang's books were considered daring. However, the murders are bloodless. The Inspector Christer Wijk is not the protagonist in Lang's early novels, but the small, dark, and blue eyed Puck Ekstedt. She is the daughter of a professor from Uppsala. Puck is born in 1925 and Wijk in 1918 or 1919; he is married to 12 years younger world famous Wagner singer Camilla Martin. Almi Graan, who wears thick eyeglasses, is born in 1913 – all the characters get old during the years. Usually Lang sets her stories in the small town of Skoga or Bergslagen, some times also in Stockholm. In FARLIG ATT FÖRTÄRA (1950) Puck meets the police sergeant Åke Nord and the forensic chemist Ahlgren,; later they became Lang's regular characters. Puck and Wijk exchange a long kiss in ROSOR, KYSSAR OCH DÖDEN (1953), but their romance is not developed further. 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 infesting background informations, historical details, and real persons, as the singer-actor Sven-Bertil Taube, giving authenticity for the story. Extra help in solving the mystery, who killed the maître d'hotel, lieutenant Christer Wijk gets from his wife Camilla, who works at the opera. Camilla is the first to find the body in ATT VARA KVINNA (1962). 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 from her bathtub. Usually Lang takes her time to describe the milieu and central characters before the bringing on the stage the obligatory corpse. In INTE FLERA MORD (1951) Puck and Einar Bure decide to spent 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!" For further reading: Maria Lang -bibliografia 1951-1998 by Simo Sjöblom (1999); Spårhundar, spioner och spännande personer by Bo Lundin (1993); Århudradets svenska deckare by Bo Lundin (1993); "Vem är du? Dagmar Lange eller Maria Lang by Maria Lang (1985); Spårhundarna by Bo Lundin (1973); 'Maria Lang och mordets känslofunktion' by Göran Bengtson, in Sydsvenska Dagbladet ( May 13, 1958) - See also: Välkommen till Maria Langs Skoga! - Further information about the birthdates of Lang's characters: Ruumiin kulttuuri 2/1996, Eila Palmgren's well documented article 'Sankarit eivät kuole eivät edes vanhene'. - Other mystery writers from Sweden: Per Wahlöö, Maj Sjöwall, Nils Hövenmark,, Jan Guillou, Stieg Trenter and Finland:- Mauri Sariola, Marton Taiga, Outsider, Tauno Yliruusi Selected works:
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