Roar Ræstad is a crime writer, historian and associate professor at Strinda upper secondary school.
He has written several crime novels from the years of occupation in Trondheim. In addition to being exciting police novels, the books take the reader to a time that was extremely difficult for both investigators and ordinary people. The main character in the books is police investigator Gabriel Navarseth, who balances between the occupying forces and ordinary people. Ræstad is particularly concerned with how the war affected individuals in a local community. The last book in the series about Gabriel Navarseth came in 2021 and is entitled Slagmark.
All the books are characterized by thorough research and not least local knowledge, which has required the author to have read a lot of secondary literature and primary sources. Roar Ræstad works as an associate professor at Strinda upper secondary school and teaches history, among other things. This should mean that Ræstad has the best conditions for passing the story on to new generations, both in the teaching profession and in the church books.