Writer and journalist Maj Sj�wall was born in Sweden in 1935. She was a reporter and art director at several newspapers and magazines. From 1959 to 1961, she was an editor with the publishing house Wahlstr�m and Widstrad. She met Per Wahl�� in 1961 and they married the following year. Together they wrote all ten novels in the Martin Beck Police Mystery series from 1965 to 1975. In 1971, The Laughing Policeman (a translation of Den Skrattande Polisen) won an Edgar Award for Best Novel.
Per Wahl�� was born in G�teborg. After graduating from the University of Lund in 1946, he worked as a journalist, covering criminal and social issues for a number of newspapers and magazines. In the 1950s Wahl�� was engaged in radical political causes, activities that resulted in his deportation from Franco's Spain in 1957. After returning to Sweden, he wrote a number of television and radio plays, and was managing editor of several magazines, before becoming a full-time writer.