January. Fjällbacka is frozen. A half-naked girl runs through the snowy forest and throws herself in the middle of the road. The passing driver doesn't have time to react, he doesn't even have time to turn the steering wheel.

When Inspector Patrik and his team receive a signal about the accident, the girl's identity has already been confirmed. She had disappeared four months ago on her way home from the local riding school and no one had seen her since. Her body bears signs of unbelievable violence and there is a possibility that she is not the last or only victim.
At the same time, Erica investigates an old family tragedy that led to the death of a man. She visits his wife countless times, who was convicted of his murder, but she cannot verify what really happened. What is she hiding? Erica suspects that something is not right. It seems that the past casts a heavy shadow on the present.

I struggled to finish The Beast Tamer, but it is the book I feel truly proud of. It took me two years to write it during a period of my life when many things were happening simultaneously. It is darker and harsher than my previous books. In recent years, cases of women being held captive and abused have been repeatedly reported in the press. The main themes in this book are missing girls, serial killers, and past family tragedies. The idea for the book came from the following image: a young girl chained to a wall in a filthy basement. This sparked my imagination and the journey of my ninth novel with protagonists Patrik and Erica began.

Camilla Lackberg