The Blood Spilt

AUTHOR’S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Rebecka Martinsson will get back on her feet, I believe in that little girl in her red Wellington boots. And remember: in my story I’m God. The characters might make a fuss about their free will from time to time, but I invented them. The places in the book are also mostly invented. There is a village called Poikkijärvi by the river Torne, but that’s where any resemblance ends, there’s no gravel track, no bar, no priest’s house.

Many people have helped me and I would like to thank some of them here: jur. kand. Karina Lundström, who sniffs out interesting characters within the police authorities. Senior doctor Jan Lindberg who helped me with my dead bodies. PhD candidate Catharina Durling and deputy judge Viktoria Edelman, who always checks the statute book for me when I don’t understand something or I’ve run out of energy. Dog handler Peter Holmström, who told me about Clinton the superdog.

Any errors in the book are mine. I forget to ask, misunderstand, or make things up against my better judgment.

Thanks also to: publisher Gunnar Nirstedt for his opinions. Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin and John Eyre for the cover. Lisa Berg and Hans-Olov Öberg who read and had opinions. My mother and Eva Jensen, who always manage to press the repeat button and say wonderful! Really! My father, who sorts out maps and can answer just about any question and who saw a wolf when he was seventeen and laying nets beneath the ice.

And finally: Per, for absolutely everything.