Katarina Wennstam is one of Sweden's most widely read authors with a background as a crime journalist for SVT, (the Swedish public service television company). As a front figure in the Swedish debate on women's rights, Wennstam has been instrumental in several important legislative changes.

Her books have been loved by readers and literary critics, and her first book, Flickan och skulden, is now considered a cult book. It was nominated for the August Prize for best non-fiction book and awarded the Vilhelm Moberg Scholarship, as well as the Swedish Bar Association's Grand Journalist Prize.

Her new series Sekelskiftesmorden (The Stockholm Murders), marks a turning point in Wennstam's writing, without shifting the focus from women's issues. The first book, Dead Women Don't Forgive, was released in the fall of 2023 and the sequel, Dead Man's Woman, was released in the fall of 2024. The third book, Lucia is dead, will be published in the fall of 2025.

Agent Moa Alfvén

TO BE PUBLISHED BOOKMARK 2025
GENRE HISTOricAL SUSPENSE

RIGHTS SOLD
Danish: Cicero, Gyldendal denmark
FINNISH: GUMMERUS
German: Penguin Verlag
NORWEGIAN: CAPPELEN DAMM
FILM AND TV: SF STUDIOS

The third installment in the Stockholm Murders-series.

Four women forever bound together by a dark secret in turn-of-the-century Stockholm.

In a snow-covered Stockholm in December 1897, Fredrika is rushing to her newly opened detective agency in Södermalm. Edit has had a tough year and is starting over as a retoucher in a photo studio. The whole city is getting ready for Christmas.

But Lucia night is cold and harsh despite all the lights. When a young woman from Dalarna, who has come to the capital to work, disappears without a trace, it becomes a race against time to find her. Fredrika and the other women on Krukmakargatan suspect that there is more to the disappearance than the police believe. The search for the missing woman leads them to dark secrets, broken promises, and violent death.

Lucia is Dead is an eye-opening portrayal of life in Stockholm at the dawn of the new century, where modern winds collide with old legends and rural superstitions. At a time when women are seeking freedom in a still conservative and restrictive world, Katarina Wennstam brilliantly depicts the emerging friendship between four women from different social classes and their desire for a brighter future.

PUBLISHED BOOKMARK 2024
GENRE HISTORICAL SUSPENSE
PAGES 428

RIGHTS SOLD
Danish: Cicero, Gyldendal denmark
FINNISH: GUMMERUS
German: Penguin Verlag
ICELANDIC: MTH PUBLISHING
NORWEGIAN: CAPPELEN DAMM
FILM AND TV: SF STUDIOS

The second part of The Stockholm Murders-series.
Four women forever bound together by a dark secret.

In the early summer of 1897, companion Fredrika Nilsdotter realizes her dream and opens her own detective agency under a male alias. When the infamous theater director Georg Valentin suddenly plunges to his death from the Katarina elevator, Fredrika realizes that the high-profile murder may be the opportunity she has been waiting for to prove herself. To do this, she needs the help of her confidants in the odd quartet: the widow Olga, the seamstress Hildur and the maid Edit. Soon they find themselves entangled in a dangerous game of chance as they search for answers in a murder story whose plot goes back many years. 

Dead Man's Woman is an eye-opening depiction of life in Stockholm on the threshold of the new century where modern winds blow in from the continent. In a time when women are underage and in the hands of husbands, doctors and male relatives, Katarina Wennstam depicts an emerging friendship between four women from different social classes and their desire for a brighter future.

DEAD WOMEN DON’T FORGIVE