Sun Storm aka The Savage Altar

AUTHOR’S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Rebecka Martinsson will be back, she’s not that easy to get rid of. Just give her a little time.

Remember that this story is made up, and so are the characters. Some places in the book are also invented: for example, the Crystal Church and the stairwell in the Söderberg family house.

There are many people to thank, and I would like to mention some of them here. Jur. Kand. Karina Lundström, who in her former life was a police investigator and used to be known as Kritan. I asked her about guns and police databases, for example. Deputy Magistrate Viktoria Lindgren and Councillor Maria Widebäck. Senior doctor Jan Lindberg and autopsy technician Kjell Edh, who contributed to the description of the dead man and the autopsy room. Birgitta Holmgren, for information about psychiatric care in Kiruna. Shiitake grower Sven-Ivan Mella, for all the stuff about mushrooms and the mine and the man who disappeared.

Any errors in the book are mine. There are certain things I didn’t ask the people named above, certain things I’ve misunderstood, and sometimes I just decided to go my own way. For me the most important thing has been to make my lies credible, and when there was a conflict between the story and reality, the story won-every time.

Thanks also to: the literary surgical team-Hans-Olov Öberg, Marcus Tull and Sören Bondeson (who have sighed, groaned, shaken their heads and on the odd occasion grunted approvingly). Publisher Gunnar Nirstedt, for his opinions. Thanks to Elisabeth Ohlson-Wallin and John Eyre. My mother and Eva Jensen, who kept shouting, “Write faster,” and thought EVERYTHING was BRILLIANT. Lena Andersson and Thomas Karlsen Andersson, for friendship and hospitality whenever I’ve been in Kiruna.

And finally: Per. Lead the tiger away…