With Le Culte (1), the queen of crime fiction from the North, Camilla Läckberg, and the mentalist Henrik Fexeus, an expert in non-verbal communication, sign the second volume of a trilogy featuring a duo of extraordinary investigators in every sense of the word: Mina, detective suffering from OCD due to his obsession with cleanliness and Vincent, mentalist who, despite his gifts, navigates with difficulty in the troubled waters of human relations. They had met in La Boîte à magic, published in June 2022, a book punctuated by staging corpses inspired by magic tricks (a body pierced with swords, another cut out...). They had enjoyed each other, without daring to admit anything. In The Cult, two years have passed, and our heroes continue to think about each other while keeping their distance. Until the discovery of the body of a five-year-old child decided otherwise... Maintenance.
In video, "A la page" with Line Papin
Organic exchange
Madame Figaro.- How did you come to work together?
Henrik Fexeus.- We met at a literary event fifteen years ago – we were both published by the same group – and we immediately became friends. We followed different paths but continued to keep in touch – my children and Camilla's children are also friends. In 2019, I had an idea for a suspense novel while I usually write non-fiction. I had tried to take a holiday on the shores of the Mediterranean, without succeeding: I stood in front of the sea telling myself that I just felt in a strange state of mind, strange and beside the point. Thus was born the character of Vincent, supposed to be a realistic version of a mentalist. I talked to Camilla who immediately turned him into a character of police enigma, with murders galore...
Camilla Läckberg. I've always loved killing people. Writing crime novels allows you to free yourself from all your aggressive impulses, and without having to be incarcerated!
H. F. And yet God knows the number of bodies sown in your wake... Still, in discussion, we developed a story that we realized would never fit into a book and would require a trilogy. We both loved the outcome of our exchange but asked ourselves a question: who was going to write this story? It was no longer mine, nor was it Camilla's, it had become ours. So we decided to work together.
Many people think that Camilla writes the passages dedicated to Mina and I write the passages dedicated to Vincent, but this is false. We write in turn.
Henrik Fexeus
How do you do it?
C. L. .- We write chronologically, with a general idea of the book, a beginning and an end, but we do not know what exact path we will take. We start from the discovery of the body and from there, we discuss the sequel, we identify a dozen scenes that we divide, we write them separately, we send them to each other and each is free to change what he wants in the scene written by the other. Then we start the process again, which is very organic.
H. F. .- Many people think that Camilla writes the passages dedicated to Mina and I write the passages dedicated to Vincent, but this is false. We write in turn.
C. L. .- The idea was to have one voice, where no one could identify what belonged to Henrik and what belonged to me. We ourselves have forgotten that. Surprisingly, we never argued, although we initially had different approaches – I am an instinctive and sometimes chaotic writer, whereas Henrik had first arrived with cards on which he had written all the scenes to be done...
Dark Sides
Why did you choose the harrowing subject of child murder?
C. L. . -It has to do with the vulnerability of children, which refers to the vulnerability of people regimented into sects. Then we both have children – I have four and Henrik three – and this is probably the worst fear a parent can face: that when I arrive at the nursery, my son or daughter has disappeared.
H. F. .- In this respect, the reactions to the opening scene of the Cult are interesting: some readers found it less engaging, less shocking, than that of The Magic Box. But they were still readers who didn't have children...
" READ ALSO Erri De Luca : "The spirit of contradiction gave me at 18 the strength to leave everything, without knowing where I would go"
How did you build the duo formed by Mina and Vincent?
C. L. .- The duo of investigators is a great classic of thrillers. As we already had Vincent, we needed someone from the police; It's hard to imagine an investigation where none of the heroes are affiliated with it in some way. We wanted two people with a very different character, but who could establish a very strong relationship.
H. F. .- The first volume unfolded rather the story of Vincent, while The Cult is more attached to Mina. But we see in both cases that they are people out of step with the world around them. They are outsiders, just like the police officers of the brigade, who are also unsuited to life in society – but less unsuitable than Mina and Vincent!
Do you already know what the third volume will be about?
C. L. .- Yes, and truth be told, we just finished it! It was sent to the printer two weeks ago. It will be called Mirage, and it deals with illusions, with the fact that things are never what we think they are.
H. F. .- Deceptive appearances are the common thread running through all three novels. In The Magic Box, it is of course about magic tricks, so illusion. In The Cult, we have the sects, which masquerade as groups dedicated to well-being and self-development, where we nourish our spirit and soul...
C. L. .- And from the outset, we had the idea that by reading the third volume, elements of the first and second volumes would take on another meaning, and that they would be connected to a new light. You could say that the whole trilogy was built like a surprise Kinder!
Le Culte, by Camilla Läckberg and Henrik Fexeus. Editions Actes Sud. Press
(1) Le Culte, Camilla Läckberg and Henrik Fexeus, translated from Swedish by Susanne Juul and Andreas Saint-Bonnet, ed. Actes Sud, 720 p., €24.90.