by Thomas Enger
He hadn’t.
The photograph was almost identical, just a bit closer. The same was true of the next one, and it was frozen just as she opened her mouth to shout. She looked angry, or anxious – he didn’t know how to interpret what he was seeing.
It was too hard.
Too painful.
Henning sat back on the sofa, staring at the image. He felt a burning wind rage up through his body. Up through his legs and arms, to his cheeks and head. He blinked, several times, but the picture did not change.
She was still there.
Trine was still there.
‘That’s my sister,’ he said, and looked up at Veronica. ‘That’s my fucking sister.’
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
God, where should I begin?
To avoid any unwanted knives in the back during the night, I should probably start with Benedicte, my brilliant wife, whose mind scares me half to death sometimes, but also saves my butt when I have dug myself into a corner (which seems to happen quite frequently). Thanks for the support and for being both the best and the worst critic. Yes, you can be quite cruel sometimes … said the deeply sleep-deprived, anxiety-ridden author.
Thanks, Jørn Lier Horst, for answering all my questions about how to be a cop. As you used to be one, all the mistakes I’ve put into this novel are on you.
To my super-duper brother-in-law, Tor-Magnus Økstad: thanks for driving me all around Vestfold – not to be confused with the landscape so gloriously described by my BFF, J. R. R. Tolkien in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but the highly scenic county in Norway in which you live. Thanks, also, for telling me what the hell a flying bridge is. Now I know. I think.
I want to thank my sister, Hege, for answering all kinds of questions I have about medical issues. Same goes to you, Kristin Birgithe Jensen, whenever my sister wasn’t quick enough to respond. Feel free to take the blame for the medical mistakes I’ve made in these pages.
To my wonderful editors in Norway, Trude Rønnestad and Kari Marstein: thanks for believing in me, for pushing me (sometimes over the edge; but, hey, it worked) and for lending me your ears whenever I had ideas I wanted to discuss (which seemed to happen quite frequently, too).
I also want to thank Kari Dickson for an excellent translation. Didn’t know I could write this good. Which I didn’t. You did.
Last, but not least, I would like to express an enormous amount of gratitude to my wonderful, energetic and highly passionate publisher at Orenda Books, Karen Sullivan. I am so thankful to be on your evergrowing team of wonderful and highly talented authors. It truly is a privilege and an honour, and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for us.
Thanks also, West Camel, for doing a marvellous job editing my book. West is the best (I’m sure you’ve never heard that one before). We’ll definitely have a lot of fun in the years to come.
And finally, thanks Henny and Theodor, aged eleven and sixteen, for giving my life purpose when I’m not trying to figure out how to kill people.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Thomas Enger (b. 1973) is a former journalist. He made his debut with the crime novel Burned (Skinndød) in 2009, which became an international sensation before publication. Burned is the first in a series of five books about the journalist Henning Juul, which delves into the depths of Oslo’s underbelly, skewering the corridors of dirty politics and nailing the fast-moving world of 24-hour news. Rights to the series have been sold to 26 countries to date. In 2013 Enger published his first book for young adults, a dark fantasy thriller called The Evil Legacy, for which he won the U-prize (best book Young Adults). Enger also composes music, and he lives in Oslo.
Follow him on Twitter @EngerThomas, or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/thomas.enger.77 or visit: thomasenger.net.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Kari Dickson grew up more or less bilingually and went on to read Scandinavian Studies at UCL. She then worked in theatre for a few years, and was asked to do literal translations of two Ibsen plays, which led to an MA in Translation Studies. Initially, she worked as a commercial translator, but now concentrates solely on literature. Her translation of Roslund & Hellström’s Three Seconds won the CWA International Dagger in 2011. She also teaches occasionally at the University of Edinburgh.
COPYRIGHT
Orenda Books
16 Carson Road
West Dulwich
London SE21 8HU
www.orendabooks.co.uk
First published in Norwegian as Våpenskjold, 2014
This ebook edition published by Orenda Books in 2017
Copyright © Thomas Enger, 2014
English language translation copyright © Kari Dickson, 2017
Thomas Enger has asserted his moral right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publishers.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978–1–910633–65–6
Typeset in Garamond by MacGuru Ltd
This book has been translated with financial support from NORLA.