As usual there are many people to thank. But as always, my foremost thanks go to my husband Micke and my children Wille and Meja.
Other people who were helpful during the work on The Gallows Bird are Jonas Lindgren at Forensic Medicine in Göteborg; the officers at the Tanumshede police station, with particular thanks to Folke Åsberg and Petra Widén; as well as Martin Melin of the Stockholm police.
Zoltan Szabo-Läckberg and Anders Torevi read the manuscript and made comments, as did Karl-Axel Wikström, who is in charge of cultural affairs for Tanum municipality. A big thanks to them for taking the time to check the details.
Karin Lande Nordh at Forum Publishers also wielded her talented red pen to elevate and improve the content and plotting of the book. Thanks also to everyone else at Forum; it’s always fun to work with you!
Equally indispensable were those who volunteered as babysitters time and again: Grandma Gunnel Läckberg, Grandma and Grandpa Mona and Hasse Eriksson, as well as Gabriella and Jörgen Gullbrandson, and Charlotte Eliasson. Without you we never could fit together all the puzzle pieces of daily life.
I’d like to send a special thanks to Bengt Nordin and Maria Enberg at the Nordin Agency. With your help I’m able to reach readers both in Sweden and in the rest of the world.
‘The girls’ – you know who you are… Thanks for all your support, encouragement, and entertaining conversations, to say the least. What would I do without you?
A highly unexpected, but positive contribution this year was made by all my excellent blog-readers, with encouragement the order of the day. The same is true of all of you who have e-mailed me during the year. I am especially grateful for help with suggested names and other details that I’ve received via the blog! But what seemed most important during the past blog year were all the texts about my friend Ulle that Finn generously shared with me. We miss her.
Last but not least, I’d like to thank all my friends, who patiently waited me out when I ‘retreated into my cave’ to write.
Any errors are solely the fault of the author. The characters in the book are entirely the product of my imagination – except for ‘Leif the Rubbish Man’, who was a bit nervous when I said I was going to put a corpse in his rubbish truck. Naturally that was an opportunity too good to resist…
Camilla Lackberg-Eriksson
Enskede, 27 February 2006
www.CamillaLackberg.com