The Hanging Girl

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to my wife and soul mate, Hanne, for endless encouragement during the long process of writing the Department Q project. Thanks to Henning Kure for pre-editing, research into sun cults, and bright ideas. Thanks to Elisabeth Ahlefeldt-Laurvig for research and resourcefulness. Also thanks to Eddie Kiran, Hanne Petersen, Micha Shmalstieg, and Karlo Andersen for alert and competent reading, and in particular to my editor Anne C. Andersen for our amazing partnership.

Thanks to Lene Juul and Charlotte Weiss at Politikens Forlag for great patience. Thanks to Helle Skov Wacher for informing readers with ongoing information. Thanks for lodging during the writing process to Gitte and Peter Q. Rannes, and to the Danish Centre for Writers and Translators at Hald. Thanks to Søren Pilmark for a great stay on Bornholm. Thanks to Elisabeth Ahlefeldt-Laurvig for my own and Henning Kure’s think tank stay at Tempelkrogen.

Thanks to Police Superintendent Leif Christensen for police-related corrections. Thanks to Carl Mørck’s colleagues at the police station in Rønne for a wonderful welcome and briefing on the police work on Bornholm: Police Commissioner Peter Møller Nielsen, District Attorney Martin Gravesen, Detective Jan Kragbæk, and Police Chief Inspector Morten Brandborg, as well as the competent people on duty.

Thanks to Svend Aage Knudsen in Østerlars Round Church. Thanks to the people at Bornholm Folk High School for the warm welcome, tour, and excellent meatballs: Accountant Marianne Koefoed, Groundskeeper Jørgen Kofoed, Kitchen Manager Karen Prætorius, and the former rector couple, Bente and Karsten Thorborg, for a pleasant and productive afternoon.

Thanks to Karen Nørregaard and Anette Elleby from Listedhuset for the inspiring talk and tour. Thanks to Poul Jörgensen, Kastlösa Glashytta in Mörbylånga, for heavy rock guitar playing and initiating me in the mysteries of Öland and Alvaret.

Thanks to Johan Daniel “Dan” Schmidt for producing perfect clones of my old PC and making my IT life sweeter. Thanks to Nene Larsen for lightning-quick courier service to Barcelona. Thanks to my PR lady in Germany, Beatrice Habersaat, for letting me use her surname. Thanks to Peter Michael Poulsen, skipper on the guide ship Sam for “swapping names.” Thanks to Kes Adler Olsen for the introduction to the Zeitgeist video. Thanks to Benny Thøgersen and Lina Pillora for making my writing environment in Sweden even more fantastic. Thanks to Arne and Annette Merrild and Olaf Slott-Pedersen for encouragement in Barcelona. Also thanks to Olaf Slott-Pedersen for sharing his experience with hypnosis.

Thanks to Cathrine Boysen for sharing her indomitable spirit with me. We can all learn a lot from her.