The Killing

Acknowledgements

Trying to turn an epic television crime tragedy into an epic crime book is no easy feat, especially with a story set in a country I’d never visited before, one that is a million miles from the warm, outgoing climate of Italy where most of my work is located. I couldn’t have embarked on this journey without a lot of selfless, dedicated work from people close to this project both in Denmark and the United Kingdom.

Søren Sveistrup, the creator of the original series, very kindly made time from shooting the third Killing series to brief me on his thoughts, and then generously advise me to make up my own mind when it came to moving the story from screen to page. Susanne Bent Andersen of my Danish publisher, Engstrom, helped me enormously with local insight into the city and culture of Copenhagen, as did Søren’s ever-obliging agent Lars Ringhof. I was also assisted by countless individuals, too many to name, inside Copenhagen Police Headquarters, the city Rådhus, and other local institutions.

In the UK, my editor Trisha Jackson and her colleagues at Pan Macmillan — all dedicated Sarah Lund fans to a man and woman — were a constant source of advice, opinion and encouragement, as were many ‘civilian’ Killing fans. Among the latter I’m especially grateful to Keith Blount, not only for his own insights into this story, but also for writing a piece of writing software, Scrivener, that allowed me to capture and control the three threads of the narrative from beginning to end (without which I can’t imagine how this major project could have been undertaken).

That said, this reimagining of the original story — and it is necessarily a different take since books and TV are not the same — is mine and mine alone.

Tak.

David Hewson