He tries to get the five-year-old boy to look up at his mother’s face, but doesn’t succeed.
All he sees are the police photographs of her after the murder. Her pale skin. The slash across her neck.
He doesn’t want to think of that now. He wants to think about how soft that knitted sweater felt against his skin. But he feels sweaty and dirty and far too hot. And his mom isn’t smiling when he does finally see her face. She looks angry. She’s shouting at him. He doesn’t understand what he’s done wrong, but she’s furious.
Lashes out.
Burning pain in his cheek. He puts his hand to it. His cheek is hot from the sun.
He leaves the grave and walks into the shade of a large oak. Sits down on the grass. Then lies back.
No one else in sight.
He’s alone.
Or am I?
Something feels wrong, and he sits up.
Is someone watching him?
Not here. Not in this place.
He lies back down again.
Shuts his eyes.
Completely alone in a green sea of the dead.
Then he hears something approaching across the grass. A body, a man, and before he has time to sit up again he feels a sharp pain in his forehead.
He looks up, unsure of what’s happening.
He can see a face getting closer, a large tattoo, a rearing horse with sharp teeth.
Mehmet Drakan.
Another blow. This time to his chest.
Zack rolls away, trying to catch his breath.
Searing pain in his lungs. Several of his ribs must be broken.
He parries Drakan’s next blow, sees the brass knuckles on his fingers, but doesn’t manage to roll out of the way. Drakan is on top of him now. His hands are clutching at Zack’s neck, and he feels his consciousness begin to drift off into blackness. The first blow clearly hit him hard. And Zack kicks, scratches, twists his body, and tries to push upward.
Feels the smell of the grass.
Wishes he had some sort of weapon.
But he hasn’t.
And Drakan pants as he squeezes Zack’s throat tighter.
Blackness. Darkness.
Not now. Not yet. Not here. Not like this.
And Zack summons up all the strength in his body and directs it upward. He feels the weight on top of him ease, the grip around his neck loosen.
He gets up into a crouch.
Mehmet Drakan on the grass beside him. Starting to stand up.
Never.
Zack hurls himself at him. His own hands around a neck now.
He stares into Drakan’s bulging eyes. Changes his grip.
And twists.
Hears the crunch of vertebrae snapping.
Zack rolls off him and lies back, flat out on the grass again.
No smell of blood now. Just grass and death.
He closes his eyes. Pretends it’s night, and that he’s surrounded by dark sky.
He feels his body being pressed down into the ground, as if the Earth were accelerating.
He’s tired, beyond the bounds of tiredness.
He wishes he were a boy again. A boy who still bears the hope that the stars might come and carry him off into space.
Out into the vastness of forgetting.
About the Author
After being awarded one of Sweden’s highest literary prizes for his debut novel, Pesetas, MONS KALLENTOFT chose to give his own unique take on the classic Scandinavian crime novel. His success was immediate. The first book in the series about Superintendent Malin Fors received unanimous praise from the national critics; it also conquered the bestseller charts and has to date sold more than 300,000 copies in Sweden alone. The series has been translated into twenty-six languages and has sold over 1.5 million copies.
MARKUS LUTTEMAN is a famous Swedish journalist known for his many popular authorized biographies. An explosive writer and an excellent researcher, he puts his gritty, fast-paced mark on his series with Mons.
MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT
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authors.simonandschuster.com/Mons-Kallentoft
authors.simonandschuster.com/Markus-Lutteman
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ALSO BY MONS KALLENTOFT
Midwinter Blood
Summer Death
Autumn Killing
Spring Remains
ALSO BY MARKUS LUTTEMAN
El Choco
Exposed
Patrik Sjöberg (coauthor)
Per Holknekt 1960–2014: A Biography (coauthor)
Blood Moon
Don't miss any of internationally bestselling author Mons Kallentoft's gripping thrillers
Meet police superintendent Malin Fors: Talented. Troubled. With a sixth sense for the truth.
Midwinter Blood
* * *
In this atmospheric and unforgettable sequel to Midwinter Blood, the elusive, tough-as-nails Swedish police superintendent Malin Fors returns.
Summer Death
* * *
“A splendid representative of the Swedish crime novel, in all its elegance and eeriness” (Booklist, starred review).
Autumn Killing
* * *
Spring has finally arrived, filling the Swedish countryside with sunshine and flowers after a long, dark winter. The beautiful weather is lost on Detective Investigator Malin Fors, though, who must track down a deadly foe.
Spring Remains
* * *
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 by Mons Kallentoft and Markus Lutteman English language translation © 2017 by Neil Smith Translation Ltd.
Originally published in Swedish in 2014 by Bookmark Förlag.
Published by arrangement with Nordin Agency.
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First Emily Bestler Books/Washington Square Press trade paperback edition January 2018
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Interior design by Kyoko Watanabe
Cover design by Faceout Studio
Cover art © Zoooom/Depositphotos (Stockholm); © Paperstreet/Depositphotos (man); © Octomesecam/Shutterstock (background); © Jim Cumming/Shutterstock (wolf)
Author photograph © Mia Carlsson
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kallentoft, Mons, 1968– author. | Lutteman, Markus, author.
| Smith, Neil, 1964– translator.
Title: Zack : a thriller / by Mons Kallentoft and Markus Lutteman ; translated by Neil Smith. Other titles: Zack. English. Description: First Washington Square Press paperback edition. | New York : Emily Bestler Books / Atria, 2018.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017012581 (print) | LCCN 2017026999 (ebook) | ISBN 9781476788159 (Ebook) | ISBN 9781476788135 (trade pbk. original) Subjects: LCSH: Police—Sweden—Stockholm—Fiction. | Murder—Investigation—Fiction. | GSAFD: Mystery fiction. Classification: LCC PT9877.21.A48 (ebook) | LCC PT9877.21.A48 Z3313 2018 (print) | DDC 839.73/8—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017012581
ISBN 978-1-4767-8813-5
ISBN 978-1-4767-8815-9 (ebook)
Zack Page 37
