The first in a gripping new crime series set in Germany - the Black Forest Investigations - shortlisted for the CWA International Dagger 2018

Louise Boni, chief inspector with the Black Forest crime squad, is struggling with her demons. Divorced at forty-two, she is haunted by the shadows of the past. Dreading yet another a dreary winter weekend alone, she receives a call from the departmental chief which signals the strangest assignment of her career - to trail a Japanese monk wandering through the snowy wasteland to the east of Freiburg, dressed only in sandals and a cowl. She sets of reluctantly, and by the time she catches up with him, she discovers that he is injured, and fearfully fleeing some unknown evil. Her investigations uncover a hideous ring of child traffickers, and the repercussions of their crimes will change the course of her own life.

Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch

With its cinematic writing style, its brilliant sense of location and its strong visual depiction of an inhospitable landscape, Zen provides an intelligent and engrossing crossover novel between a police procedural and the study of an individual's personal collapse