Seriesly Berlin Bar Talk with Jens Lapidus: From Courtroom to Screen: The Real-World Edge

Most crime writers research the criminal world from the outside. Jens Lapidus spent 15 years inside the Swedish justice system, working as a criminal defence lawyer while becoming one of the country’s most successful crime authors. His novels, including EASY MONEY and TOP DOG, would later make the leap from page to screen. But what happens when the reality you know becomes material for fiction? Lapidus draws on years spent in courtrooms and close to people involved in serious crime – experience that shapes everything from dialogue and character to power, loyalty and the mechanics of the justice system. It also comes with boundaries: what can you use, what should remain off limits, and how do you depict violence and criminal environments without turning them into spectacle? From courtroom experience to novels and serialized drama, Lapidus talks about transforming lived knowledge into fiction, what changes when a story moves from book to screen, and why sometimes knowing what really happens makes writing crime more complicated, not less.