Katarzyna Bonda

(b. 1977) – writer, documentalist and journalist of Belarusian origin.

Studied journalism at the University of Warsaw and screenwriting at the Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School in Łódź. She worked as a journalist for many newspapers, including “Newsweek”, “Wprost”, “Super Express”, “Naj”, “Express Wieczorny” and “Kurier Podlaski”. With time, she gave that up and began to write books professionally. She also taught writing at various institutions, including her own school.

Her main genre is crime prose. She debuted in 2007 with the crime novel “Sprawa Niny Frank” (The Case of Nina Frank, nominated for the High Calibre Award for best crime novel of the year, reissued in 2011 under the title “Dziewiąta runa” – The Ninth Rune). It started the series about Silesian police psychologist Hubert Meyer, which now includes titles such as “Tylko martwi nie kłamią” (Only the Dead Don’t Lie, 2010) or “Florystka” (The Florist, 2012) and encompasses over a dozen books. In 2014 she published the bestselling novel “Pochłaniacz” (published in English as Girl at Midnight), the first part of the crime tetralogy about profiler Sasza Załuska. Bonda was the first to introduce the character of a profiler in Polish crime fiction, a result of her collaboration with the highly-regarded profiler Bogdan Lach, with whom she wrote the non-fiction book “Zbrodnia niedoskonała” (The Imperfect Crime, 2009), demonstrating the methodology and practice of offender profiling on real criminal cases.

Bonda’s prose successfully combines formulas known from Scandi noir with the police procedural, based on detailed documentation of police work methods. The author sets the subsequent books in various urban spaces, for example in Katowice (Only the Dead Don’t Lie) or in Trójmiasto (Girl at Midnight). Bonda’s protagonists, profilers Meyer and Załuska – interestingly portrayed, with psychological depth – are not the only ones playing important parts in her books; background characters are also depicted with much attention to detail. This is, to a large extent, a result of these novels’ complicated, multi-strand plots, where the author does not focus only on the crime story at the centre of the book. Like in the Scandinavian model of crime novel – currently the most popular one – Bonda interweaves crime-related events with social themes depicting problems present in Polish society. For example, The Florist discusses issues of ethnic minorities and the trauma of losing a child, and Girl at Midnight – alcoholism in women.

Bonda is also the author of documentaries, including the book of reportage “Polskie morderczynie” (Female Polish Murderers, 2008 – the text had film and theatre adaptations), in which she introduces women with long-term prison sentences for the gravest offences, drawing on court records and interviews with the titular murderers. The writer shows that every person has reserves of aggression which can push them towards crime.

Her books sell in huge numbers and many become bestsellers. She has also received awards and distinctions for her work. Apart from the High Calibre Award, her debut The Case of Nina Frank was awarded the Debut of the Year prize from the publishing house Media Express. “Okularnik” (published in English as Conspiracy of Blood) received, among others, the title of 2015 Empik Bestseller in the Polish literature category, and a nomination for the Best Polish Urban Crime Novel award. Girl at Midnight brought Bonda the audience award at the International Crime Festival and a nomination for the Angelus Central European Literature Award. The novels “O włos” (By a Hair’s Breadth) and “Czerwony pająk” (The Red Spider) also received nominations for the Empik Bestsellers; the latter also won an award in the Best Polish Crime Novel and the audience award at the Warsaw Crime Festival. At that same festival, Bonda also received the Best Polish Crime Series award for the Sasza Załuska tetralogy. The novel “Miłość czyni dobrym” (Love Makes One Good) received the Golden Skeleton award in the Polish Hit of the Year category. Bonda also received a few honours as personality of the year or successful woman.