The Coldest Book Tour: Visiting a Danish Prison for The Marriage Pact

In March, I visited Denmark to promote the the Danish edition of The Marriage Pact, Til Doden Os Skiller. Upon my arrival at the airport, Camilla, my wonderful editor from Klim, checked me into my hotel (a perfect little boutique hotel in the heart of Copenhagen, aptly named Ibsens) and whisked me off to a lovely bookstore for an interview and party, complete with champagne and traditional Danish wedding cake.

I spent the next day exploring Copenhagen in the driving wind along with my new friend Helle, who admitted that the weather was particularly brutal, even for the hearty Danish. Then we headed to Horsens for the Danish Crime Book Festival at Faengslet, a prison that closed in 2006 and has been re-opened as an arts venue. Yes, a real prison! A quick overview of my prison interlude:

Ate lunch in a converted prison cell
Had a tour of the prison, which has an amazing interactive exhibit about the prison’s most famous escape
Met some of my Scandinavian crime writing heroes
Talked with a lot of terrific journalists
Received the Palle Rosenkrantz Prize for the Best Foreign Crime Novel published in Denmark. This was absolutely a highlight of my writing career. I LOVE Scandinavian crime, and it was such an honor to be among some of my crime-writing heroes.
Fell head over heels for an old anarchist who started the publisher company, Klim, back in the sixties to publish Marxist pamphlets
Listened to a Danish actress read from the book
Got accidentally locked in the prison yard with Camilla for a short spell after hours, which made the whole thing feel very authentic!

Walking the echoing halls of the prison felt so apropos for the book, and I couldn’t help but think of Jake and Alice in those prison cells. Huge thanks to Camilla, Helle, Casper, Christina, and the whole team at Klim for making this an amazing trip, as well as to the Danish Crime Academy.