Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloe were a well known common-law husband and wife team of detective writers from Sweden. Together they conceived and wrote a series of ten novels (police procedurals) about the exploits of detectives from the special homicide commission of the national police in which the character of Martin Beck was the main protagonist. Both authors also wrote novels separately. For the Martin Beck series, they plotted and researched each book together then wrote alternate chapters. The Beck TV-series, based on some of the characters from the Sjowall/Wahlo books but not on the books themselves, revolves around Martin Beck (Peter Haber), Gunvald Larsson (Mikael Persbrandt) and their colleagues at the police force in Stockholm, Sweden. Beck is a divorced, middle-aged man while Larsson is young, forward and quite violent. Together, they make a perfect team, investigating crimes committed in Stockholm.