Description de l’éditeur
A speeding BMW leaves a dead pedestrian in its wake and leads police to the corpse of a young girl in a cellar. Detective Inspector Irene Huss's ensuing investigation draws her into the chilling world of sex trafficking.
Göteborg, Sweden: The high-speed chase of a stolen BMW takes a chilling turn when the two police officers involved witness a gruesome hit-and-run. When they finally recover the abandoned vehicle, search dogs are unable to trace the thieves, but they do uncover an entirely different horror: the half-naked corpse of a young girl in a nearby root cellar.
As Detective Inspector Irene Huss and her colleagues struggle to put the pieces together, they discover the man whose car was stolen—a retired police officer—is none other than the victim in the hit-and-run. Could it be a strange coincidence? Or is something larger at play? Meanwhile, the hunt for the girl’s killer leads Irene into the dark world of sex trafficking. An international criminal has arrived in Göteborg, and he’ll stop at nothing to expand his sinister operation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Two cases that arise on the same wintry night in G teborg, Sweden, propel Tursten's excellent seventh mystery featuring Det. Insp. Irene Huss (after 2014's The Fire Dance). Discovering the culprits behind the hit-and-run that killed Torleif Sandberg, a retired police officer, is straightforward, but the strangulation murder of an abused 12-year-old girl found in an abandoned root cellar requires Huss and her fellow officers to investigate a much larger issue: human trafficking and sex crimes. After questioning pimps in Sweden, Huss and company travel to the island of Tenerife, where Det. Insp. Juan Rej n wants their help with some local murders. In a bizarre meeting with one of the traffickers, Huss witnesses a shockingly violent encounter between rival gangs, but most of the action involves diligently looking for clues in the usual procedural fashion. Cleverly, Tursten doesn't reveal the significance of the beige man of the title until the last page.
