Post by LadyDuff on Oct 16, 2002 17:58:37 GMT -5
It all started when I was bored at school, started talking to a girl in my class and discovered we had something in common, she really enjpyed books as much as I do! We talked about our favourite books and she offered me to borrow one of her favourite books. The author was Maria Lang, since then I have been so caught by her that I have tried finding more and more! I havent been able to find them all, but I have read as many as I could get my hands on! I dont normally enjoy murder mysteries, it isnt really my cup of tea, but with Maria Lang, I have started to enjoy reading these sort of books. Here is some info on her and also her books:
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). 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 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.
The Inspector Christer Wijk is not the protagonist in Lang's early novels, but the 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. The author Almi Graan, who wears thick eyeglasses, is 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. In FARLIG ATT FÖRTÄRA (1950) Puck meets the police sergeant Åke Nord and the forensic chemist Ahlgren, who became Lang's regular characters. Puck and Wijk exchange a long kiss in ROSOR, KYSSAR OCH DÖDEN (1953), but Lang doesn't develop further their romance.
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.
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!"
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). 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 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.
The Inspector Christer Wijk is not the protagonist in Lang's early novels, but the 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. The author Almi Graan, who wears thick eyeglasses, is 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. In FARLIG ATT FÖRTÄRA (1950) Puck meets the police sergeant Åke Nord and the forensic chemist Ahlgren, who became Lang's regular characters. Puck and Wijk exchange a long kiss in ROSOR, KYSSAR OCH DÖDEN (1953), but Lang doesn't develop further their romance.
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.
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!"