Swedish taxes are high, and we don't get as much as we used to for them. And our schools aren't so good.

The pace of Swedish crime fiction is slower - Stieg Larsson's the exception. And I think we use the environment more.

People in Sweden talk a lot about the weather - how much we hate it. But Finns get more depressed.

Scandinavian crime fiction has become a great success all across the world and rightfully so. Sjowall and Wahloo ushered in a whole generation of Swedish crime writers, many of whom are now available in English.

One of the things I'm really good at is procrastinating.

Crime stories are our version of sitting round a camp fire and telling tales. We enjoy being scared under safe circumstances. That's why there's no tradition of crime writing in countries that have wars.