Camila Lackberg. “Writing a thriller allows you to release your aggressive impulses without going to jail.”

Back worship (1), the queen of crime fiction from the North, Camila Lackberg, and the mentalist Henrik Fexeus, an expert in non-verbal communication, sign the second volume of the trilogy, which features a duo of exceptional investigators in every sense of the term; , the cleanliness-obsessed detective, and Vincent, the mentalist who, despite his gifts, struggles to navigate the troubled waters of human relationships. They had met The magic box, published in June 2022, a work highlighted by magic trick-inspired corpse performances (a body pierced by swords, another cut, etc.). They liked each other without daring to admit it. In worship Two years have passed, and our heroes continue to think about each other, keeping their distance. Until the discovery of the body of a five-year-old child decides otherwise… Interview:

In the video, “On the Page” with Laine Papin

Organic exchange

Madame Figaro: How did you come to work together?
Henrik Fexeus: Fifteen years ago we met at a literary event, both published by the same group, and became instant friends. We went our separate ways but kept in touch. my kids and camila’s kids are friends too. In 2019, I had an idea for a thriller, when I usually write non-fiction. I tried to relax in the Mediterranean Sea, without success. stood facing the sea and told myself that I just felt a strange state of mind, strange and out of bounds. This is how the character of Vincent was born, supposedly a realistic version of a mentalist. I spoke to Camilla about it, who immediately turned him into a detective mystery character with murders galore…
Camila Lackberg. I’ve always liked killing people. Writing thrillers allows you to release all your aggressive impulses without being imprisoned.
HF: And yet, God knows how many bodies have fallen behind you… However, as we talked, we developed a story that we realized would never fit into a book and would require a trilogy. We both liked the outcome of our exchange, but wondered who would write this story? It wasn’t mine anymore, it wasn’t Camila either, it had become ours. So we decided to work together.

A lot of people think that Camila writes the verses dedicated to Mina and I write to Vincent, but that’s wrong. We write to each other in turn.

Henrik Fexeus

How are you doing?
CL:.-We write in chronological order, with a general idea of ​​the book, beginning and end, but we don’t know exactly which way we will go. We start with the discovery of the corpse and discuss the rest from there, we discover a dozen scenes, which we divide, write separately, send to each other, and everyone is free to change what they want in the scene. written by another. Then we start the process again, which is very organic.
HF:.-A lot of people think that Camila writes the verses dedicated to Mina and I write to Vincent, but that’s wrong. We write to each other in turn.
CL:.-The idea was to have one voice where no one could tell what belonged to Henrik and what belonged to me. We have forgotten it ourselves. It’s amazing that we never argued, even though we had different approaches in the beginning. I am an instinctive and sometimes chaotic author, whereas Henrik arrived at the beginning with index cards on which he wrote all the things to do…

the dark side

Why did you choose the difficult topic of child murders?
CL.-It is related to the vulnerability of children, which refers to the vulnerability of people involved in cults. Then we both have children, I have four, Henrik three, and this is probably the worst fear a parent can face. that by the time they get to kindergarten, my son or daughter is gone.
HF:.-In this regard, reactions to the opening scene Worship They are interesting. to some readers it is less attractive, less shocking than that The magic box. But they were always readers who had no children…

How did you come up with the duo that Mina and Vincent formed?
CL:.-The detective duo is a great classic of thrillers. Since we already had Vincent, we needed someone from the police; It’s hard to imagine an investigation where none of the characters are connected to it in any way. We wanted two people with very different personalities, but who could have a very strong relationship.
HF:.-The first volume rather opened Vincent’s story, while worship is more related to Mina. But we see in both cases that these are people in tune with the world around them. They are outsiders, like the policemen of the brigade, who are also ill-suited to society, but less fit than Mina and Vincent.

Do you already know what the third volume will be about?
CL:.-Yes, and to be honest, we just finished it. It was sent to the printer two weeks ago. He will be called Mirageand deals with illusions, the fact that things are never what you think they are.
HF:.-The deceptive appearance is the red thread of the three novels. In The magic box, of course, we are talking about magic tricks, therefore, an illusion. In worshipwe have sects that act as groups dedicated to the well-being and development of identity where one feeds one’s soul and spirit…
CL:.-And from the beginning, we had the idea that by reading the third volume, the elements of the first and second would take on a different meaning, and we would reread them in a new light. You could say that the entire trilogy was built like a Kinder surprise.

(1) worship, Camilla Lackberg and Henrik Fexeus, translated from the Swedish by Susan Jules and Andreas Saint-Bonnet, eds. Actes Sud, 720 p., €24.90.