May Sjöwall turned 84. Together with Per Wahlöö, with whom she lived, she wrote ten novels about Commissioner Martin Beck. Per Wahlöö passed away in 1975. The books have been translated into 40 languages.

- I have known her for over 40 years and that is of course a great sadness. It is a great loss for all of us, ”says Ann-Marie Skarp, publishing manager of the Pirate Publishing House for TT.

Created the modern Swedish deck

The couple Sjöwall / Wahlöö's first book about Beck is Roseanna from 1965. Their work is considered to form the basis of the modern Swedish cover genre. Several of the books have been filmed, including the venerable man from Säffle who, under the direction of Bo Widerberg, became the Man on the Roof - the first Beck film.

Bosse Lundin was one of the founders of the Swedish Deck Academy. He says that Maj Sjöwall was involved in putting Sweden on the literary crime map.

- We founded the academy in 1971 and at the first meeting May was included, he says:

- The novels about Martin Beck developed and politicized the police novel. Internationally, they put Sweden on the deck map.

During that time, Gösta Ekman, Martin Beck often played May Sjöwall in small roles. In the Stockholm Marathon (1994) she is seen as the start of the race.

However, the films that started filming in 1997 with Peter Haber in the lead role are not based on Sjöwall / Wahlöö's books.

Success in 50 years time

"When Per Wahlöö and I merged our wise heads and created our romance series, we hardly expected it to last for 50 years," Maj Sjöwall said of the book series Pirate Publishers.

Sjöwall has also written the novel Kvinnan, which was similar to Greta Garbo (1990) with the author Tomas Ross.

In 2016, May Sjöwall spoke in Summer in P1 and the program became the most listened program of the year. In the program, she talked about her growing up in central Stockholm, where her father was the manager of a hotel in Klarakvartern. She also talks about when she and Per Wahlöö decided in 1962 to write together.

"We had discovered that we were thinking along the same lines when it came to criminal literature," she said.

The family announces that she did not die in the suites of covid-19, writes TT.