Uncovering class divisions, racial conflicts, and tangled emotions, this gritty, shocking

novel of suspense heralds the arrival of a major new talent.

Henning Juul is a veteran investigative crime reporter in Oslo, Norway. A horrific fire killed his six-year-old son, cut scars across his face, and ended his marriage, and on his first day back at the job after the terrible tragedy a body is discovered in one of the city's public parks. A beautiful female college student has been stoned to death and buried up to her neck, her body left bloody and exposed. The brutality of the crime shakes the whole country, but despite his own recent trauma - and the fact that his ex-wife's new boyfriend is also on the case - Henning is given the assignment. When the victim's boyfriend, a Pakistani native, is arrested, Henning feels certain the man is innocent. This was not simply a Middle Eastern-style honor killing in the face of adultery - it was a far more complicated gesture, and one that will drag Henning into a darkness he's never dreamed of.