A cool-headed profiler and a glamorous writer joined by a shared obsession with serial killers

Block 46
Block 46


Johana GUSTAWSSON

Summary


Falkenberg, Sweden. Police superintendent Bergström finds the frozen naked body of a woman at Olofsbo beach.

London. A renowned profiler, the taciturn Emily Roy investigates a series of murders of children whose savagely mutilated bodies present the same wounds as the Swedish victim: the throat torn out, the eyes removed, and a mysterious Y carved on one arm.

A strange thing for a serial killer, to change both the type of prey and the hunting grounds... or is it in fact a pair of psychopaths at work?

The numerous questions raised by the two cases send Emily Roy to Sweden, where she meets an old acquaintance, the tenacious Alexis Castells, a French writer who specialises in serial killers.

These two women with opposite personalities will have to chase killers as elusive as they are perverse. A pursuit that will lead them to the atrocities that took place in Buchenwald in 1944.

 

'Emily Roy and Alexis Castells make a terrific, original duo. They have a future.' THE TIMES

'A bold and intelligent read.' THE GUARDIAN

‘A powerful movie-like thriller with amazing characters. You won’t be able to put it down.' TELE POCHE

AWARDS:

NOUVELLE PLUME D'ARGENT 2016

PRIX DU BALAI DE LA DECOUVERTE 2016

PRIX MARSEILLAIS DU POLAR 2017

MOVIE RIGHTS SOLD

Key points


  • The first novel in a series of well-researched investigations set in England and Sweden to be adapted in a major TV show
  • A duo of female investigators consumed, through writing and psychological study, by their fascination for serial killers
  • A plunge into the history of the Second World War and the barbarity of the Nazi camps
  • A page-turner evoking the best Scandinavian crime novels
80 000 words

Full manuscript available in English

Rights Sold (7 countries)


  • BRAZIL
  • CZECH REPUBLIC
  • ITALY
  • ROMANIA
  • SPAIN
  • TAIWAN (CHINESE COMPLEX CHARACTERS)
  • UNITED KINGDOM