Over the weekend he had therefore dug out the TV guide for the previous week and had scrutinised each and every channel every day all week—but nowhere had he been able to find anything that was even reminiscent of what he had overheard during the eager conversations in people’s coffee breaks at work.

But then the chance had presented itself. Probably because for once he hadn’t been standing to one side with his back turned, but was standing with them during their conversation and looked engaged. The engagement had been genuine, but the reason why was different than the one they might have expected—at least he had hoped so.

“You’re following it, aren’t you, Jan?” one of the girls had said, a craving for sensation shining in her eyes.

Jan had shaken his head a little hesitantly and looked quizzical.

“It’s set here, among us,” she had explained. “It’s really fascinating, because it leads to so much speculation and so many questions.”

“Here?” Jan had said. “On Gotland?”

She had confirmed that, which didn’t feel one hundred percent okay, but he had maintained his mask.

“I guess this must be some TV series that you’re all discussing so much?” he had said.

“No, it’s a book,” several people had said.

A book? Then surely it must have an ending? Or were they members of the same book club—maybe they were only allowed to read one chapter at a time or something?

“You follow a book?” he had said in confusion.

“We’re talking about the summer serial, Jan.”

He had remembered something from the summers of his childhood.

“On the radio, you mean?”

“No, in Gotlands Allehanda.”

“Aha,” he had said, stirring his coffee cup to ensure the feeling of discomfort gnawing at him wasn’t visible. “Should I be reading it then?”

Everyone in the kitchenette had agreed that he should.

As soon as dinner was over, Jan locked himself in the study and found the first part of the serial online. The author was called Sting, who to Jan’s knowledge was a British pop star. When he did a search on it, he didn’t find any authors with that name, so he concluded it must be a pseudonym. Not exactly something that set his mind at ease.

Jan didn’t normally read works of fiction, so it took him a while to get going. But once he got started, he was pretty quickly wrapped up in a description of a car accident that felt very familiar. It was depicted from several people’s perspectives. One of which seemed reminiscent of his own.