Finally a novel I couldn't put down for an entire weekend' - Petra Hammesfahr, German bestselling author

'Anna Jansson is the new literary voice from the Nordic countries' - Berliner Morgenpost

One forgotten grave. Two identical crimes. A killer who was supposed to be dead.

Detective Constable Maria Wern is no stranger to the darkness of the Swedish landscape, but nothing could prepare her for the ritualistic horror found in the local woods. A man hangs from a noose, his body marked by a brutality so precise it feels like a message.

For the police, it's a nightmare. For Maria, it's a ghost.

The scene is a perfect mirror of a cold case that haunted Uppsala nine years ago - a case that was supposed to be closed when the prime suspect perished in a fiery wreck. But as Maria digs into the charred remains of the past, she realizes the fire didn't end the cycle; it only gave the killer a new set of rules.

As the body count rises, Maria's dogged tenacity draws her away from the safety of her precinct and into the path of a mastermind who has been betrayed and degraded to the breaking point. This is no longer just a procedural investigation - it is a descent into a world of insanity where the killer is always one step ahead.

To catch a man who officially doesn't exist, Maria must risk her career and her sanity to understand a motive that is as ancient as it is deadly.

In the tradition of Jo Nesbø's Harry Hole, Anna Jansson's debut introduces Maria Wern - a detective who discovers that the only thing more dangerous than a killer you can see is the one who has already died.