Karl Lundström

Karl Lundström is a central suspect in the abuse cases investigated by Jeanette Kihlberg, but his significance extends beyond the crimes attributed to him: his family history and religious community place him within a network where allegations had surfaced long before the present investigation. By the time the police focus on him, he is in a coma, leaving the pursuit of justice entangled with the limits of prosecution and the possibility of evidence against other perpetrators.

Identity and Background

Karl is Annette Lundström’s cousin and husband, and the father of Linnea Lundström. The family connection reaches back to Polcirkeln in Lapland, where Annette grew up and where she and Karl belonged to a breakaway Laestadian sect known as the Psalms of the Lamb. The sect’s history matters to the investigation: police had received an anonymous report alleging sexual abuse of children and naming Karl, Annette, and their parents, but investigators could not prove the allegations and dropped the case. Its failure left earlier concerns unresolved rather than establishing guilt.

Viggo Dürer, Karl’s lawyer, had also lived near Polcirkeln for a time. That geographic and professional connection becomes part of the broader pattern Jeanette examines, as she traces relationships among men suspected of abusing children and the people who helped manage their affairs. Annette later describes Karl, Viggo, and Per-Ola Silfverberg as involved together, with Viggo and Per-Ola handling practical arrangements and ensuring that children had what they wanted. Her account places Karl within a group rather than presenting him as an isolated suspect.

The evidence concerning Karl’s family gives that history a personal dimension. He is suspected of abusing Linnea, and a letter he wrote to her combines encouragement about her prospects with a bleak account of his own sense that life has passed him by. He describes seeking a home in shadows. The letter also points toward Viggo and events in Kristianstad, suggesting that Karl’s private writing preserves connections not yet fully understood by the investigators. For Jeanette, the family record, the old report, and the newer allegations form a trail of related but distinct evidence—one that had previously failed to produce an effective police response.

Investigation and the Legal Impasse

Jeanette Kihlberg’s case against Karl gathers force through several strands of evidence, and she summarizes its strength to a girl who seems relieved that a conviction may be possible. Yet the investigation’s central suspect cannot answer the allegations: Karl is lying in a bed at Karolinska Hospital, still in a coma. His doctors report extensive brain damage and consider it unlikely that he could be prosecuted even if he regained consciousness. His condition turns the ordinary question of guilt into a practical crisis for the case: a likely suspect may never face trial.

Jeanette resists allowing that legal obstacle to close the wider inquiry. She points out that Karl could not plausibly have killed Samuel Bai, and questions what becomes of that crime if investigators treat Karl as the answer to everything. Her concern is not simply whether charges against him can proceed, but whether his incapacity will obscure the responsibility of others. After meeting two young women whose lives have been damaged by the same man, she resolves to seek justice for Karl’s victims even if he is dead or beyond prosecution.

The evidence also draws attention to possible interference and concealed connections. Jeanette knows that half a million kronor has been deposited into Annette Lundström’s bank account; she suspects it may be a bribe, though investigators have not traced its source. Sofia Zetterlund has told her that Ulrika Wendin had access to substantial cash and suggested that Viggo Dürer might be behind it. Karl’s letter to Linnea Lundström also names the lawyer as a possible child abuser, a suspicion echoed by pictures Linnea drew as a child. Taken together, these are leads rather than proof, but they widen the inquiry beyond Karl and make his coma no resolution at all.

The Wider Network and the Unfinished Evidence

Jeanette’s inquiry increasingly places Karl alongside other men and families rather than treating his case as a self-contained investigation. She connects the suspicions surrounding Karl and Linnea with those surrounding Per-Ola Silfverberg and his daughter Madeleine, while noting that Per-Ola’s wife, Charlotte Silfverberg, and the murdered Fredrika Grünewald had attended school together in Sigtuna. These links do not make every association proof of a crime; they show how the investigation follows overlapping family, school, and professional ties to understand how allegations and access to children could extend across a wider circle.

The investigation also returns to the assault on Ulrika Wendin. Karl is suspected of raping her, and Jeanette later identifies him, Bengt Bergman, and Viggo Dürer as the men present at the hotel. A film recording could provide evidence against perpetrators beyond Karl: Jeanette realizes that if Ulrika’s account is accurate, the recording may be in Karl’s collection. His death would not, she reasons, remove the possibility of charging others. That distinction sharpens the case’s central legal problem: Karl’s incapacity and eventual death may prevent his own prosecution, but need not settle the responsibility of the men connected to the assault.

A place-name discrepancy becomes another practical obstacle in tracing that evidence. Karl had said that one film was recorded in a cottage belonging to Anders Wikström in Ånge near Sundsvall, where Wikström lived. Later, Jens Hurtig explains that there is another Ånge in Lapland. The two locations make the earlier reference ambiguous, and the correction shows why an apparently specific detail in Karl’s account could send investigators toward the wrong place unless they checked which Ånge he meant.

The case’s aftermath does not offer a simple resolution. Jeanette says that Hannah Östlund and Jessica Friberg killed Karl and Per-Ola, and that the two women also killed a homeless woman in a cavern before taking their own lives. With Karl already beyond the reach of ordinary prosecution, these deaths further complicate the pursuit of justice; they do not erase the need to establish what happened to Ulrika or whether surviving evidence can identify other responsible men. Karl’s role therefore remains both central and incomplete: the accusations against him anchor the investigation, while the record around him points beyond him.

The Letter and the Contested Record

Karl’s letter to Linnea Lundström is more than a private message of encouragement: alongside telling her that patience and fear of defeat can prepare her for success, it presents its author as someone whose life is already past and who seeks refuge in shadow. He casts himself as a criminal accused of corrupting youth, invokes Socrates, and challenges the distinction between approved religious belief and alleged demon worship. The letter’s self-justifying argument does not establish the truth of its claims, but it reveals how Karl frames accusation—as a conflict between himself and the authority judging him—and makes his writing part of the evidence Jeanette must read critically.

The letter also points outward. Karl directs Linnea toward a book in which, he says, everything can be found, and invokes events in Kristianstad involving Viggo Dürer and Henrietta Dürer. That reference gives investigators a possible path from Karl’s account to a wider history, while leaving the book’s claims to be tested against other evidence. The gap between a document’s assertion and what can be proved echoes the older anonymous complaint about the Psalms of the Lamb: both preserve allegations and names, yet neither by itself resolves what happened.

The novel further makes the reliability of official accounts part of Karl’s legacy. During Jeanette’s discussion with Kenneth von Kwist about the follow-up interview with Per-Ola Silfverberg, she notices that he recites details without checking them and suspects he has learned the account by heart. The scene does not prove that the interview was false, but it makes the handling of the record an investigative question in its own right. With Karl unable to answer questions, his letter, the interview history, and the unresolved leads acquire greater weight—and require scrutiny rather than unquestioning acceptance.