The Helicopter Heist: A Novel Based on True Events

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I’d like to say a huge thanks to Niclas Salomonsson. It’s as simple as this: without Niclas, there wouldn’t be a book. I’d also like to thank everyone else who has worked on this project at Salomonsson Agency; no one named, no one forgotten. Then there are you few who have read the various versions of the manuscript and, through your ideas and opinions, made the novel better. For that, aside from Niclas, I’d especially like to thank Helena, Ulrika and Daniel. A special thanks to Love and Ina too. Just to be on the safe side.

Alongside court transcripts and interviews, a number of authors and journalists have made this plunge into 2009 and the events leading up to the helicopter heist, culminating on that dramatic night in September, much easier. The huge amount of journalism connected to both the robbery and the trial provided me with a real sense of the time line, the gossip and the facts. In particular, I’d like to mention Sveriges Radio and P3 Dokumentär, where Anton Berg did such fantastic work and enabled both the staff at G4S and task force leader Hans Knutsen-Öy of the National Criminal Police to have their say. Håkan Lahger’s careful, well-written book Helikopterpiloten also made my job much easier.

But above all, of course, I’d like to thank Goran Bojovic, Charbel Charro, Safa Kadhum and Mikael Södergran for having endured hours and days with me, my notepad and my thousands of questions.