Vale, Per

Per Valo was born in the parish of near Gothenburg ( Sweden ). His father was a journalist and writer (1889-1982).

Since 1946, he worked in various Swedish newspapers and magazines as a sports and criminal journalist.

In the 1950s, he participated in many social movements, mainly of the left-wing type, including abroad - in particular, in Spain , which ended with his expulsion from this country in 1957 as a non grata person .

After returning to Sweden, Valo worked as a screenwriter on radio and television; He was also the editor of several magazines.

As a writer, he made his debut in 1959 with the novel “The Goat of God” ( Himmelsgeten ). After her marriage to the writer, Mai Schövall co-authored with her. Already in the late 60s, their joint work became widely known both in Sweden and abroad.

He died in 1975 in Malmö , at the age of incomplete 49 years from pancreatitis (according to other sources, from pancreatic cancer).

Per Vale is considered the founder of the sociological detective genre (the so-called "sociological detective"). In the 1959 debut novel “The Goat of God” ( Himmelsgeten ), as in all his subsequent works - “Wind and Rain” ( Vinden och regnet ), “Truck” ( Lastbilen ), “Mission” ( Uppdraget ), “Roses Do Not Grow on the Odenplan ”( Det växer inga rosor på Odenplan ),“ Generals ”( Generalerna ) - criticized the abuse of power and the dark side of the life of bourgeois society in Sweden and in other countries (including fictitious). Of these works, the Russian reader knows only two frankly gloomy anti-utopias with Inspector Jensen in the title role: “Murder on the 31st floor” ( Mord på 31: a våningen ; in the Russian translation - “Death of the 31st Division”) and “Steel Leap ”( Stälspranget ), repeatedly published in collections of detective stories and science fiction.

Together with his wife, May Schövall, Per Valö wrote in 1965-1975 a series of ten novels about the Stockholm police (the focus is on the work of the homicide investigation department under the leadership of Martin Beck).

Among other works for Valya there are several translations into Swedish of several novels, in particular, detectives Evan Hunter (Ed McBain), and political thrillers , as well as sociological studies devoted to a comparative study of the police working methods in Sweden , the USA , England and the USSR .

• Svenska dagbladet newspaper literary prize for the novel Generals (1965)
• Edgar Allan Poe Award for the novel “Laughing Policeman” from the Martin Beck series (1971, in collaboration with May Schöwall )

• The Goat of God ( Himmelsgeten ) 1959;
• “Wind and rain” ( Vinden och regnet ), 1961;
• The Truck ( Lastbilen ), 1962
• "Mission" ( Uppdraget ), 1963;
• “Roses do not grow on the Odenplan” ( Det växer inga rosor på Odenplan ), 1964
• “Murder on the 31st floor” / “Death of the 31st department” ( Mord på 31: a våningen ), 1964;
• "Roseanna" ( Roseanna ), 1965 (in conjunction with May Shevall)
• The Generals ( Generalerna ), 1965
• “The Man Who Vaporized” ( Mannen som gick upp i rök ), 1966 (with May Schöwall)
• “The Man on the Balcony” ( Mannen på balkongen ), 1967 (with May Schöwall)
• “Laughing Policeman” - variants of the title in translations “Flight to the scaffold” and “At a standstill” ( Den skrattande polisen ) 1968 (with May Schövall)
• The Steel Jump ( Stålsprånget ), 1968;
• The Missing Fire Truck ( Brandbilen som försvann ), 1969 (with May Schöwall)
• “Police, police, mashed potatoes!” ( Polis, polis, potatismos! ), 1970 (with May Schöwall)
• “The Scoundrel from Sefle” ( Den vedervärdige mannen från Säffle ), 1971 (with May Schöwalle)
• The Locked Room ( Det slutna rummet ), 1972 (with May Schöwall)
• The Killer of the Police ( Polismördaren ), 1974 (with May Schöwall)
• “Terrorists” ( Terroristerna ), 1975 (with May Schöwall)
• “The Last Trip and Other Stories” ( Sista resan och andra berättelser ), 2007 (with May Schövall).

• “The plane went missing” ( Flygplan saknas , 1965, directed by Per Gunwall)
• The Moors ( Morianerna , 1965)
• The Nightmare ( Nattmara , 1965)
• “The killer is a very ordinary person” ( Mördaren - en helt vanlig person , 1967)
• The Man in the Shadow ( Mannen i skuggan , 1978)

• "Rosanna" (in the role of Beck - Keve Helm, Sweden, 1967)
• “31st Division” (television play, LenTV, in the role of Jensen - Efim Kopelyan , USSR, 1972)
• “Laughing Policeman” (USA, adapted as Sergeant Jake Martin - Walter Mattau , USA, 1973)
• “The Man on the Roof” (based on the novel “The Scoundrel from Sefle”, Sweden, 1976)
• “Mission” (Sweden, 1977)
• "Mannen i skuggan" (based on the novel "Truck", Sweden-Yugoslavia, 1978)
• “Unfinished dinner” (television movie based on the novel “Police, police, mashed potatoes!”, Riga Film Studio , 1979)
• “The death of Division 31 (film)” (a television movie based on the novel “Murder on the 31st Floor”, in the role of Jensen - Lembit Ulfsak , Tallinfilm , 1980)
• “The Swede, Missing” (based on the novel “The Man Who Vaporized”, Germany, 1980)
• “Gyilkosság a 31. emeleten” (TV movie based on the novel “Murder on the 31st Floor”, in the role of Jensen - Laszlo Markush, Hungary, 1981)
• “Kamikaze 1989” (Kamikaze 1989) (TV movie based on the novel “Murder on the 31st Floor”, in the role of Jensen - Rainer Fasbinder , Germany, 1982)
• “Skály mé vyprahlé zeme” (television series, Czechoslovakia, 1982)
• "Hövdingen" (mini-television series based on the novel "God's Goat", Sweden, 1986)
• “Záhada zamceného pokoje” (TV movie based on the novel “Locked Room”, Czechoslovakia, 1986)
• "Rosanna" (in the role of Beck - Joest Ekman , Sweden, 1993)
• “The Missing Fire Truck” (Sweden, 1993)
• “Police, police, mashed potatoes!” (Also “Murder in Savoy,” Sweden, 1993)
• “A man on the balcony” (Sweden, 1993)
• “Beck - a closed room” (Netherlands, 1993)
• “The Killer of Police Officers” (Sweden, 1994)
• "Stockholm Marathon" (based on the novel "Terrorists", Sweden, 1994)
• "Commissioner Martin Beck" (television series, 7 seasons from 38 episodes, in the role of Beck - Peter Aber , Sweden, 1997-2018)

• Schövall and Vale
• Per Vale on Books and Writers
• Per Vale on SFB website
• Per Vale (English) on the Internet Movie Database
• “Aircraft Missing” on the Internet Movie Database