I wrote the YA novel first. Had a lot of fun with it, too. But for some reason, I just couldn’t find the perfect way to do the adult one. I got pretty close, but my Norwegian publisher thought I should move on and write something else. Which I did. You listen to your publisher, right? I had spent two years on the project, the dots and commas and endless rewrites making my hair evermore grey. In the meantime, the YA book, in Norwegian called Killer Instinct, had already been published.

Almost a year and a half later, my brilliant English publisher, Karen Sullivan, read Kari Dickson’s translation of Killer Instinct and said, ‘There is some untapped potential here. This story could really work as an adult/YA crossover. Would you mind adding some elements to this story, Thomas?’

My initial thought was: God, no. No way. I can’t do that. Really, I can’t. I was finished with that story. I had moved on. But Karen, being Karen, managed to persuade me. Whoever said that ‘writing is rewriting’ was one hundred percent right. So, I rolled up my sleeves and got cracking at it once again. A lot of the work had already been done, so it was just a matter of constructing the story slightly differently and basically rewriting the whole bloody thing. And because we were up against it timewise, I had to do it all in English as well. But hey, you listen to your publisher, right?

I guess sometimes things just happen for a reason. In this case, I think the story just wasn’t supposed to be told to a wider audience until Karen got her hands on it. So thank you, Karen, for being so wonderfully brilliant in so many ways. You truly are an amazing woman, editor, publisher and friend.

A huge thank-you also to West Camel, who gave me invaluable advice and the thumbs-ups as I went ahead with the rewrite. You also took a great deal of care over the edited version and made my English sound a lot better than it normally does. I could not have done this without you.

And of course, the Team. With a capital T. Team Orenda. You know who you are. I love all of you. Even you, Antti.

The biggest thank-you, as always, goes to my wonderful family, who continue to support and to baffle me in all kinds of ways. To my wife: Thank you for the lightning strikes. (You listen to your wife, right?) You’re brilliant.

—Thomas Enger, Oslo, 8th January 2019

ABOUT THE AUTHOR