about-ann-tornkvist

About Ann Törnkvist

Reporter and bestselling true-crime author Ann Törnkvist has more than a decade's experience in print, photo and radio. She speaks fluent Swedish, English and French.

Background

Stockholm-based reporter and true-crime author. 2006 alumna of Columbia Journalism School. Clients include the BBC and Al Jazeera and Swedish media.

True crime

Follow Fucking Orders will be published in the UK next summer (2020). Read an interview with the author here: ‘Their hubris became enormous’: new book details rise and fall of the Södertälje mafia.

 

Type of work

Breaking news, features, phone-ins, op-eds, fixing, documentary photography, radio pieces, lifestyle and trend features. I write in Swedish and English, plus work in French.

foul-play-is-the-true-crime-magazine-made-by-women

‘Foul Play’ Is the True-Crime Magazine Made by Women

Vice reporter Amelia Abraham:  The Ann Tornkvist story, about her experience as a reporter writing a book about the Mafia, is great. How did you hear about her story and get her to write for you?


Foul Play editor Grace Harrison: This was one of my favorite stories from issue one. Ann Törnkvist is a Swedish crime journalist who had just finished writing her debut book about Swedish gang crime, Folj Fucking Order (Follow Fucking Orders) when she started to receive threats from the gangster the book was about. She had to go into hiding, which obviously massively affected her work and life.

vad-kravs-for-att-en-knarkbaron-ska-vanda-kriminaliteten-ryggen

Vad krävs för att en knarkbaron ska byta bana?

Man skönmålar ju på något sätt och tänker att jag säljer ju amfetamin,
det är inte beroendeframkallande. Det är ju inte heroin, det dödar inte.

Sa till mig själv, när frugan blir gravid då lägger jag ned! Jag lade inte ned.
När barnet kommer då lägger jag av! Min dotter kom och jag lade inte av.

Jag visste inte ens att jag var efterlyst.

SvD-prenumeranter kan läsa hela artikeln här.

cold-comfort

The murder of a witness that sparked political debate about witness protection

British true-crime magazine Foul Play (order your copy online here):

Residents of a sleepy Stockholm suburb were shocked and baffled by a triple murder last year. The suspects are young and without priors, yet it’s not so much who they are but what they did that has caught Sweden’s attention - killing a murder witness in broad daylight in front of the police.

"If you hang out with bad people, bad things happen."

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Joan Didion

I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.

 

threetwozerosix-two

Crime reporting for Swedish public service radio

 

Dödsskjutningar i Stockholm närmar sig Malmös nivå

”Det har aldrig funnits så många vapen i Stockholm som nu. Det är bara att fråga efter en femma hasch och ett vapen på torget.”

// Rise in fatal gun violence edges Stockholm closer to Malmö levels //

Tiofaldig illegal import av potentiellt livsfarligt kodein

”Han andades tungt när vi gick, vår bror var död när vi kom tillbaks … Han var en stor, stark kille men de här tabletterna kan döda vem som helst.”

// Tenfold increase in illegal import of life-threatening codeine //

Gängens lättkränkthet ökar risken för fler skjutningar

”När jag var ung gjorde vi upp i skogen, idag skjuter man. De yngre sover dåligt om nätterna, det har svårt att sova på kudden; backar du är du slut som artist. ”

// Today’s gangs are quick to take offence, increasing the risk of further shootings //