Roslund and Hellström's Books

Biography

Anders Roslund

Roslund (born in 1961) was a journalist and television presenter. For 15 years, he worked as an editor and producer at SVT (the Swedish equivalent of the BBC). There Roslund directed the popular Kulturnyheterna – a current affairs programme. As a journalist, he won several awards, including the Swedish Trade Unions’ Award for Investigative Journalism.

As well as praise, his probing journalistic style also won him enemies. His investigation into Sweden’s ultra-right-wing resulted in them placing him on their “death list”. For a time, he had a bodyguard and moved from safe house to safe house. He swapped notes with fellow journalist and crime writer Steig Larsson who had also received death threats from the Neo-Nazis.

Roslund’s interest in civic rights extended into the Swedish Criminal Justice System, and for several years he worked within the Swedish Prison and Probation Service. He wrote and produced many hard-hitting news programmes, but even though he was being beamed into the houses of millions of Swedes every evening, he became frustrated.

“Producing TV reports was like writing in the sand. I found my way into the sitting rooms of every home in the country, but somehow the content got lost on the way. This is often the case with news programmes. What do you actually remember later?” ~ Anders Roslund (The Rap Sheet)

Börge Hellström

Hellström (1957-2017) had a different start in life. As a child, he was sexually abused. As a teenager, he turned to violence to take his revenge on society.

“I was 15 years old, cocky and drunk and big and strong – I thought. I got into a fight with four other young people and managed quite well until I was hit with an iron pipe from behind. Unconscious and unable to defend myself, I was beaten so much that I woke up three days later at the University Hospital in Uppsala” ~ Börge Hellström (Cafe)

His experience as a child made him deeply homophobic. He started gay-bashing, stealing cars and taking drugs. Ultimately he was imprisoned.

In his thirties, he tried to take his own life but failed. Whilst in a treatment home, he dared to open up about the abuse he had suffered as a child and became a reformed man. He became one of the founders of Kriminellas Revansch i Samhället (KRIS) (Criminals’ Revenge on Society). An organisation that supports ex-offenders, helping them give up their dependence on crime and drugs.

Roslund and Hellström

When Roslund heard about Hellström’s work at KRIS, he saw a story and produced the documentary Lås in Dom (Lock them Up). During filming, Roslund and Hellström became friends. They agreed to write about their experiences and began a creative partnership that lasted 12 years and seven novels.

Personal Experiences

Roslund and Hellström’s books are gritty and not for the faint-hearted. The first novel, The Beast (also published as Pen 33), introduced their protagonist, Detective Ewert Grens. He investigates the case of a father who had avenged the man who abducted, raped and murdered his daughter. The book called heavily on Hellström’s personal experience.

“It brought terrible memories to me when we wrote it. Memories of sexual abuse from my childhood. These memories were also one of the reasons that we wrote The Beast. For me, it was an opportunity to get even with my history.” ~ Börge Hellström (The Rap Sheet)

The book won the Crime Writers of Scandinavian Award Glass Key Award. It was so credible that Roslund and Hellström were invited to debates with politicians to discuss the Sexual Offences Act.

The Beast played with the concept of good and evil, challenging readers’ ideas of right and wrong.

“Society creates a picture of two types of people, but reality is neither black nor white; there’s an enormous grey zone. One day you are a perpetrator; the next, a victim. For example, Hellström has committed many crimes: assault, theft, fraud, and burglary. But he’s also been the victim of many crimes. As a child, he suffered sexual abuse. He has been assaulted and robbed. He was both the perpetrator and the victim. Was he good or evil?” ~ Anders Roslund (Publisher’s Weekly)

This dilemma is a feature in all their novels. Ewert Grens’ fifth outing, Three Seconds, tells the story of a criminal who becomes a police informer. After infiltrating a drug gang, the legal system abandons him to his fate. The book challenges the reader to define the bad guy. Is it the criminal or the system?

With its realistic description of drug trafficking into prisons, the novel also earned a place on the Texas Prison System’s list of banned books. (It is in good company with novels by Carl Hiaasen, John Grisham and William Shakespeare).

From Fact to Fiction

As Roslund and Hellström’s series progresses, it becomes less autobiographical and more fictional, but the social commentary remains.

“Writing crime fiction, tense thrillers that are primarily intended to entertain, divert, but also help to inform people about a society, a reality that most of us know nothing about – this is a much better way. To entertain using a genre that is so well-loved – and at the same time, educate a little”. ~ Anders Roslund (The Rap Sheet)

Börge Hellström died of cancer in 2017. Roslund has continued to write without his partner. The ninth Grens novel, Knock Knock, was published in 2019. Perhaps not as bold but more polished than the earlier novels, Detective Ewert Grens is still busy challenging us to decide what is right or wrong.

Read more at Anders Roslund’s website.