Researching Anna Jansson

Jansson began writing novels in 1997 after her family bought a computer. At this time she had worked as a nurse for twenty years, and although she still enjoyed her occupation, she felt it was time to try something new. Jansson commented: "In school I hated writing essays, but then we got a computer at home, and suddenly I discovered that I actually felt happy as I was writing." A contributing factor to Jansson's decision to pursue her career as an author was her patients; she often met patients that were about to die and she was told that they regretted the fact that they had not spent much time in life doing what they really wanted.

The inspiration for Jansson's novels, which deal with crimes, came from the patients she met in her job as a nurse. Jansson's first crime novel to be published was Stum sitter guden in 2000. She had written two novels prior to this one, but failed to find a publisher for them. Jansson did not give up on her career as a nurse, and continued to work part-time at the Örebro Hospital while writing in her free time. Since 2000, she has published at least one novel each year. Her latest ones have sold over 100,000 copies each. In addition to this, Jansson has written a number of children's books.

Jansson's crime novels take place in Gotland and the main character in all of them is criminal inspector Maria Wern. Her 2006 novel Främmande fågel was nominated for a Glass Key award in 2007, and was adapted into a television show by TV4 in 2008.

Despite her now successful career as a writer, Jansson still works part-time as a nurse at Örebro Hospital's lung clinic. She has three children and lives in Vintrosa outside of Örebro.