Detective Harry Hole is on the trail of a diabolical serial killer
terrorizing Oslo in another electrifying thriller in the Harry Hole
series from the author of The Snowman.
"It's fascinating to watch this Norwegian author adapt our homegrown
monster [the serial killer] to a foreign culture.... When things go
wrong, Harry goes on a bender, but when he's on his game, no one is
better than this obsessive detective. He systematically works his way
through the intricacies of a plot that speeds along like a bullet
train."--New York Times Book Review
In the heat of a sweltering Oslo summer, a young woman is found murdered
in her flat--with one of her fingers cut off and a tiny red star-shaped
diamond placed under her eyelid. An off-the-rails alcoholic barely
holding on to his job, Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case with
Tom Waaler, a hated colleague whom Harry believes is responsible for the
murder of his partner. When another woman is reported missing five days
later, and her severed finger turns up adorned with a red star-shaped
diamond ring, Harry fears a serial killer is at work.
But Hole's determination to capture a fiend and to expose Waaler's
crimes is leading him into shadowy places where both investigations
merge in unexpected ways, forcing him to make difficult decisions about
a future he may not live to see.
