The Roslagen, Archipelago, Uppland and Sörmland trails. 02 Norrtälje
A whole lot of NN writers.
Eriksson, Piel, Östnäs, Grandin and Levin-Blekastad
Johan E.Sköld
Kant/Gustavsson
John Ajvide Lindqvist
I used to work at the Norrtäljeanstalten. A class 1 prison (at the time the heaviest class).
I was teaching art to the prisoners. In Sweden some still believe that people can change.
I’m not sure all can change. But what could you lose trying? Their life stories are a bit more complicated than a few months of doing art. Even if some told me that if they have had art earlier in their life some bad things would never have happened. I don’t know what to do with that information. If it was just another of their con stunts or an honest confession, I can’t tell.
A rowdy bunch of murderers, drug runners and gangsters.
It was a very learning experience and nothing like how it is shown on TV.
Still living in Stockholm I commuted to the town and didn’t pay too much attention to the town other than necessary.
So this trip was different, I brought another pair of eyes this time. And plenty of time.
The most striking to me was the amount of Crime Writers there was, that I never heard of before. Which was the fun bonus. Both the Tourist Information and the local library were helpful about that.
The writers did however put most of their plots outside the town. So the big amount of town locations were quite few. But a few I picked.
The town has changed a bit lately. The old silos in the harbor have been replaced by high rise apartment buildings.
And that change is a part of the plot in the crime novel written as a relay story by 5 writers. Eriksson, Piel, Östnäs, Grandin and Levin-Blekstad, Dödlig insats. The first murder is committed at one of the silos, placed where the high rise condoes now stands. Yes they tore down the high rise old grain silos in the harbor. And just finished the high rise condos at the same spot.
It was an odd feeling watching the result of the transformation of the old harbor area. That the relay story is built around. I got the end result of the cause of the problem in the book.
Like many of the Roslagen crime stories there are subplots of local political foul play. Norrtälje seems like one of those places. The Vaxholm stories are pretty much that way.
Many of the books describe some characters walking through town. So I post pictures on the streets they might be walking.
So this trail will be more of a look and feel than a walk from spot to spot.
Kant/Gustavsson is more into describing the Roslagen people, Rospiggarna and spend time in the story in and close to Grisslehamn. A small fishing village now turned into a tourist town in summer. I should have gone to Grisslehamn in this trailing session, I know, but it is a bit tricky to get there by bus.
Let the right in Author John Ajvide Lindqvist have his new book taking place in Norrtälje. Which the local library points out, not without a certain pride. If you download an App you could be walking in the trails of it with a guide in your phone. But I never got it working.
It was a nice revisit for me. I was most satisfied with all the new writers I didn’t know existed.
But this was still the mainland. Next trail was set to the outskirts of the Archipelago where the Baltics turn into open sea, to Viveca Stens Sandhamn.
NN crime writers associated with Norrtälje (Even if they might live in smaller places outside the town)
Anders Gustavsson, Johan Kant
Erik Eriksson, Sofi Piel, Magnus Östnäs, Roger Grandin och Margaretha Levin-Blekastad
Johan F. Sköld
A on the map, busstation and the library
1 on the map, Stortorget where Detective Germund Askerfeldt
2 on the map, The high rise on the spot where the silos was. First murder in Dödlig insats.
