The badger, p.33
The Badger, page 33
She didn’t turn the lights on. She wasn’t there to look.
She placed her hand against the wall, feeling the cold stone against her palm. It felt rough against her skin. Trembling with anticipation, she placed her cheek against the wall as she might against the chest of a lover. Her fingers arched like claws and she slowly scraped her nails along the whitewashed concrete. She shuddered with delight as the faint scraping sound carried along in the darkness.
Something in the ground outside responded with a prolonged rasping, like the sound of claws against the stone on the other side of the wall.
Annika’s lips parted in a broad smile.
YOU WILL ALSO ENJOY:
The Doll by Jocelyn Dexter
Barney Snapp looks ordinary. But behind his smile lies something broken.
The Doll is a dark and twisted tale of obsession, trauma and control.
BUY NOW
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I have more people to thank for their help and support with The Badger than I can even attempt to include here. All of you who have contributed in one way or another deserve a special place in my heart, including those of you who don’t appear in this section of the book. None of you have been forgotten.
First of all, thank you to my parents. You have always loved and supported me through thick and thin, and for that I am eternally grateful. Without you, none of my writing would have happened. I love you both.
A huge thank you to Louise, Maria and Camilla at LB Förlag for everything! You couldn’t ask for a better team! And thank you to my editor, Ann Pålsson, who helped me to go over my work with a fine-tooth comb. For the English translation many thanks go to Andy Turner, for capturing the essence of my writing and the spirit of the story.
Thank you to the best literary agents in the world, Edith Enberg Salibi, Maria Enberg and their feline fluffballs at Enberg Agency. Without you The Badger would probably have been gathering dust in a drawer somewhere.
Thank you to Elin Holmerin at Undrentide Förlag who once published my short story, Scraping Sounds. That lead me on to create the monsters living in the ground around Apelgren’s basement. Never would I have thought that the same monsters would continue scraping on the walls in this book, but they did.
Thank you to all of my beta readers for your valued input! A special thanks goes to Markus Sköld for advice and encouragement along the way, which I extend to Marcus Olausson.
A special thank you to all the whole gang at Fantastisk Podd, for all of the great conversations and podcasts over the years. You can’t get that kind of energy any other way.
Thank you, Miranda, for nine years of happiness.
The first seed of The Badger was sown when we were relaying the drains at the house I’ve since moved out of. My memories of those works as a background for what happens in this book are the only parts taken directly from real events. Everything else is fiction, make believe and my own imagination given free rein. Nevertheless, I have talked to people better acquainted with such things than I am to ensure that I haven’t veered too far off course. A big thank you to everyone who answered my questions and read earlier versions to see that all the essentials add up, especially to Jan Löverdal for making sure my police characters held reasonably true. Having said that, all errors and inaccuracies in the book are of my own making, knowingly or unknowingly.
And last but not least, a thank you to every reader. This is for you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Fredrik P. Winter is a Swedish writer and lawyer. He was born in Trollhättan and currently lives in Gothenburg on the Swedish west coast. In addition to writing, he is also an avid glider pilot. The Badger is his eagerly awaited first thriller and has already been sold to several countries.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Andy Turner is a writer, reviewer, translator, and former school teacher and examiner. He works with both Swedish and German and is a member of SELTA and the Translators Association of the Society of Authors.
He graduated with an MA in Literary Translation from the University of East Anglia in 2017. He was Swedish mentee in the 2018-19 National Centre for Writing's Emerging Literary Translator Mentorship, working alongside Sarah Death. He lives in Edinburgh.
A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
Thank you for reading this book. If you enjoyed it please do consider leaving a review on Amazon to help others find it too.
We hate typos. All of our books have been rigorously edited and proofread, but sometimes mistakes do slip through. If you have spotted a typo, please do let us know and we can get it amended within hours.
info@bloodhoundbooks.com
Fredrik P. Winter, The Badger
