To the question as to whether Dagmar Lahlum’s life and fate has inspired this criminal novel, the answer is a definitive yes. In Norway, as in many other countries, the pictures painted of people’s fate in the Second World War have often been black and white. This has without a doubt been the right thing to do in relation to some war heroes and war criminals. But there are also many, many stories from the war’s ‘grey zone’ that are both moving and thought-provoking. It remains to be seen whether any new historical research in the future will be able to discover Dagmar Lahlum’s true position in the war’s grey zone. However, what is important in this context is that her experiences from the latter years of the war dogged her days for the remaining fifty-four years of her life. From the time of her release in the summer of 1945 until her death during Christmas 1999, my aunt Dagmar Lahlum was a living example of the fate that Patricia Louise I. E. Borchmann describes as ‘a human fly’ in this novel – which could also describe Patricia herself and several other of the main characters in the book. Thus, I was never in any doubt as to what my first novel should be called, or to whom I would dedicate it.
Gjøvik, 20 September 2013
Hans Olav Lahlum
P.S. About sources and further reading: Dagmar’s relationship with Eddie Chapman was first made public in the two Chapman biographies from 2007, Nicholas Booth’s Zigzag. The Incredible Wartime Exploits of Double Agent Eddie Chapman and Ben Macintyre’s Agent Zizag. A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love and Betrayal. Both brought to light interesting material about the case from British archives and other British sources. Four years later, their war story was covered on screen in the documentary Double Agent: The Eddie Chapman Story, produced by Walker George Films for BBC2.
Dagmar’s part of the story was further investigated in Norway in two lengthy newspaper articles written by the journalist and political scientist Hilde Harbo and published in the newspaper Aftenposten (14 Jan. 2007 and 22 Jan. 2008). The first historian to write about Dagmar was Professor Tore Pryser, who included a short portrait in his 2007 book Kvinner i hemmelige tjenester. Etterretning i Norden under den annen verdenskrig (‘Women in Secret Services. Intelligence Work in the Nordic Countries during World War II’). The highly talented young Norwegian historian Kristin Hatledal then studied the case in depth first in her Masters thesis, ‘Krigsheltinne eller tyskarjente? Historia om Dagmar Lahlum – i lys av andre etterretnings-kvinner’ (‘War heroine or German mistress? The story of Dagmar Lahlum – in the light of other female Resistance fighters’) in 2009 and then in her book Kvinnekamp. Historia om norske motstandskvinner (‘Women fighting. The history of Norwegian female Resistance fighters’), published in 2011.
I have discussed the case with Booth, Harbo, Pryser and Hatledal, and provided them with information needed from the Lahlum family, as well as from the file on Dagmar Lahlum’s court case in the national Norwegian archives. I owe many thanks to Dagmar’s niece Bibbi for sharing with me both the facts and her feelings about Dagmar’s life.
HANS OLAV LAHLUM
HANS OLAV LAHLUM is a Norwegian crime author, historian, chess player and politician. The books that make up his crime series featuring Criminal Investigator Kolbjørn Kristiansen (known as K2) and his precocious young assistant Patricia are bestsellers in Norway. The Human Flies was the first, and was followed by Satellite People and The Catalyst Killing. Chameleon People is the fourth book in the series.
