Loss and the infinite ways we attempt to come to terms with it permeate this absorbing psychological mystery set in the Finnish town of Turku. A week after his wife dies, Det. Kimmo Joentaa feels compelled to return to work to investigate the murder of a young woman smothered in her own bed while her husband was away. Only a valueless painting appears to have been stolen. A second murder, just as puzzling, occurs in a youth hostel where a young man is killed while others slept all around him.
Finnish detective Kimmo Joentaa is called to the local hospital in which his young wife died several years before. An unidentified woman in a coma has been murdered by someone who wept over the body, their tears staining the sheets around her. The death marks the start of a series of killings, with the unknown patient at their centre. As autumn turns to winter, and Christmas fast approaches, Kimmo’s attempts to unravel the case and identify the first victim are complicated by the disappearance of his sometime girlfriend, who has vanished after a party thrown by the head of the police force, and by a colleague’s spiral into the depths of a gambling addiction.
A young prostitute turns up on Detective Kimmo Joentaa's doorstep at Christmas. Not long afterwards one of Kimmo's colleagues, a forensic pathologist, is found murdered and Finland's most famous talk-show host is brutally attacked.
Loss and the infinite ways we attempt to come to terms with it permeate this absorbing psychological mystery set in the Finnish town of Turku. A week after his wife dies, Det. Kimmo Joentaa feels compelled to return to work to investigate the murder of a young woman smothered in her own bed while her husband was away. Only a valueless painting appears to have been stolen. A second murder, just as puzzling, occurs in a youth hostel where a young man is killed while others slept all around him.
Finnish detective Kimmo Joentaa is called to the local hospital in which his young wife died several years before. An unidentified woman in a coma has been murdered by someone who wept over the body, their tears staining the sheets around her. The death marks the start of a series of killings, with the unknown patient at their centre. As autumn turns to winter, and Christmas fast approaches, Kimmo’s attempts to unravel the case and identify the first victim are complicated by the disappearance of his sometime girlfriend, who has vanished after a party thrown by the head of the police force, and by a colleague’s spiral into the depths of a gambling addiction.
To create an investigator who is both admirable and troubled and yet individual and sympathetic is a gift, and Wagner has it." —Times Literary Supplement One ordinary summer’s day, a young girl disappears while cycling to volleyball practice. Her abandoned bike is found in exactly the same place that another girl was assaulted and murdered thirty-three years previously. The perpetrator was never brought to justice, so the authorities suspect the same killer has struck again. The eeriness of the crime unsettles not only the police and public, but also someone who has been carrying a burden of guilt for many years. . . . Detective Kimmo Joentaa calls upon the help of his older colleague Ketola, who worked on the original murder, in the hope that they can solve both cases. While they are following up leads, the ripples from the impact of the new disappearance spread and Kimmo discovers that the truth is not always what you expect.
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