Staalesen is a major figure in Nordic noirMore than 20 Varg Veum titles have been written, and are being translated into EnglishVarg Veum is a social worker turned detectiveSeries was inspired by the idea of transplanting classic Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe detective archetype to Norway, plus adding the social realism of the Martin Beck book seriesTwelve films based on the Veum series were made between 2007 and 2012From an author interview: What defines Norwegian crime fiction?I