Research Trip!

I managed to catch a window between countries opening up and the arrival of Delta to make it to Europe. I did two stops: Denmark and Sweden. With a pen and paper in hand (yeah, I'm old school like that), I was busy taking notes.

The spot where everything happens: the infamous NK in Stockholm, aka Swedish Division headquarters.

Could this be another secret exit from the Division? :)

Engelen is the inspiration for Kerub in the book. If you go inside, you'll see a fair amount of overlap between the two places.

Kaknas Tower is a real place...and really blocked off from visitors due to fears of espionage! Many years ago I was able to go inside. And that's all I'm at liberty to say.

The death of Anna Lindh was the inspiration for Secrets, Lies, and Sneaky Spies. In Malmo, I visited Anna Lindh's Plats.

Gothenburg University has a publication called Spionen (the Spy). Not sure why!

Now that people can travel via looking at online maps and images, some would say that you don't have to go to a country in order to write about it. To some degree, that's true, but I think that to capture the authenticity of a place (sights, smells, foods, well, culture, really), it helps to actually travel there.