Cecilie Olin never returns home after a night out. Two days later, she is found strangled, her body mutilated. The violence was inflicted post mortem and appears deeply personal. Her husband soon appears on the investigators’ radar, but then a second woman is reported missing.

Magnus Torp is dispatched from Kripos to assist the local police. His search for answers leads him over 600 kilometers away and more than twenty years into the past—to an unsolved murder.

At the same time, Torp is struggling to pull his ex-colleague Anton Brekke back from the proverbial ledge. Anton has been let go from the police force and believes he has nothing left to lose. He is wrong.

It takes some time before Anton lets himself be convinced by Torp, but when he finally does join the investigation, his reasons have little to do with catching Cecilie Olin’s killer. Because this time, it is personal.

This is Jan-Erik Fjell’s eighth novel featuring Anton Brekke.