TO Camilla Lackberg, she admits relieved, no magician has ever put her in a wooden box to run through later with swords. This is how she appears, in an amusement park, the first victim of the serial killer of ‘The mentalist’ (Planet / Column), the first installment, of no less than 700 pages, of a new trilogy than the veteran queen of swedish crime fiction publish four hands with his friend Henrik Fexeusfor more signs, mentalist and illusionist very popular in his country, expert in reading body language. “That trick is not part of his repertoire but some of his known colleagues do. And the idea that inspired us was to look for deaths in magic tricks gone wrong. We found many cases, especially from the 19th century”, says the best-selling author after arriving in Madrid with Fexeus, who at the time of the interview in Barcelona is already back in Sweden to participate in a ballroom dance show with Famous.
Läckberg (1974) has sold 30 million copies in 60 countries since 2003, when he made his debut with ‘The Ice Princess’, the first novel in the series set in his native Fjällbacka and starring the writer Erica Falck and the police officer Patrik Hedström (published by Maeva and Amsterdam). in the new trilogy premieres tandem: the police Mina Dabiri and the mentalist Vincent Walder, that they will investigate in Stockholm some crimes linked to the world of illusionism that Fexeus knows so well, who like his character, has occasionally collaborated with the law. “He watches people a lot and reads the signals, such as their pupils or if they tense up when he touches their arm. And he uses techniques to influence your decision-making,” explains the writer, who has often volunteered for him. .
Putin is not crazy but hungry for power and longs to go down in history as the one who restored greatness to Russia
“Two Geeks Like Us”
“Mina and Vincent are a projection of us, they are two geeks like us and much honor – defends Läckberg smiling -. We’ve known each other for 15 years and this book is the combination of our freaks: murders and crime novels, magic, mentalism and mathematical codes and games”. The two characters have difficulty relating, “they are two strange people and we combine their affinities and their skill”. “Henrik [Fexeus] I wanted to break the image of relaxed and cool mentalists that television shows and create an angry and weird one, because he, for example, as a child felt that he did not fit in, “he reveals. And Mina has phobia of bacteria and is obsessed with hygiene. “We created her before the pandemic and we thought we had gone too far with the character, but with the pandemic now it seems very normal.”
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Läckberg always investigates the reasons that lead to killing and the dark side of the human being. And in the wickedness of Putin? “If you look back, we should have expected it. There were signs. Henrik should have read them,” he says ironically, not without bitterness. “In the Swedish press there has been speculation about his madness, but I don’t think he’s crazy, just hungry for power. He has a very complex personality, outlined by the East and by the KGB in which he was and surely dreams of returning to the times of the Russian Empire and that has more to do with his desire to go down in history as the one who brought Russia back to greatness . His worst mistake was misreading the reaction of the West and the strength of Ukraine.”
Double standards with refugees
The Swedes are very affected by the war, he confirms. “And very worried. But I am proud that we have gone beyond the paradigm of neutrality and supported Ukraine. And impressed by the reaction of Europe. That fills me with hope.” Läckberg herself, who also introduces the theme of xenophobia in the novel, is involved in a project to help the 2,000 to 4,000 refugees who arrive there daily and to help them find people to take them in. However, she denounces a double standard. “We have a racist party with 20% popular support that always says that there is no room for refugees. But with the Ukrainians it has had to change the discourse because the Swedes accept these more than the Syrians.”