Jensen’s darkest case yet: the inspiration behind Out of the Dark. When I first started writing my Copenhagen-set crime series, a Danish friend put me in touch with his cousin, so I could get my facts right. It turned out that the cousin’s job was to hunt down those who produce, share or view child sexual abuse material, or CSAM. Facilitated by the internet, it’s a booming industry, and what I learned made me angry. I swore that one day I would write about an investigation into this darkest of crimes, as a tribute to the brave men and women who turn up every day to fight it with everything they’ve got. The result is Out of the Dark, my fourth novel featuring crime reporter Jensen, her troubled teenage apprentice Gustav and one-time lover DI Henrik Jungersen.
It’s a wet December just before Christmas when a child goes missing from a crowded playground in the middle of Copenhagen. Then links begin to emerge to a cold case, that of another missing child. In the encroaching darkness, Jensen, Gustav and Henrik find they can trust no one. Out of the Dark is a more sinister read than my first three novels, though if you’re familiar with my work you’ll know that I focus more on the pursuers than the perpetrators, and I’ve tried to treat the subject as sensitively as I can.
One thing I love about writing the Jensen series is imagining people with diverse skills coming together to fight a common evil: in this book we meet Bagger, a seasoned cyber-crime investigator, Olsen, a young police constable who uses her initiative to blow the whistle on a colleague, and Fie, an agoraphobic hacker whose exceptional skills impress the police. All of them are driven by a deep-rooted desire to see justice done.
As ever, Copenhagen is another character in the book, hiding sinister secrets behind its pretty facades, but Jensen herself has moved on. In my first book, My Name is Jensen, she had just returned home to Denmark and was finding it hard to settle. By now, she has more friends, albeit people like her who live on the periphery and feel like they don’t belong. She is also about to become a mother, something that makes this latest case particularly harrowing and poignant for her.
Though I was born in Copenhagen, grew up speaking Danish and worked for the Danish press for many years, I write my books in English. After years away, Jensen feels like a stranger in her own city, and writing in a foreign language helps me channel that feeling. I know it well, having lived in the UK for many years now, and only visiting Copenhagen occasionally. But being an outsider also has its advantages: it helps you notice things that locals may overlook, a useful skill when it comes to solving crime.
Though Out of the Dark is the fourth in a series, I’d like to think readers not familiar with Jensen can start here. If you like the characters, and want to hang out with them on the streets of Copenhagen, there are three more books to read, and definitely more on the way.
Out of the Dark is published by Muswell Press
