The fourth in the Black Forest Investigations - by the four-time winner of the German Crime Fiction Award

Over the course of several days one hot summer, a female student from Freiburg disappears, a father is murdered in a brutal attack, a teenage boy drowns in the Rhine in suspicious circumstances. It soon becomes evident to Chief Inspector Louise Boni and her colleagues at Freiburg's criminal police that the three cases are connected - and that others are now in terrible danger. Including Boni herself.

In the fourth of the Black Forest Investigations, Louise Boni is confronted with the grim secrets of outwardly respectable citizens. Sometimes it takes very little to unleash the monster in man.

Oliver Bottini takes his readers to moments of heightened tension before allowing them to peer into the abysses of human evil. He is an exceptional storyteller.

Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch