Flora Hansen calls herself a medium and makes a living by pretending to commune with the dead. But after a gruesome murder at a rural home for wayward girls, Hansen begins to suffer visions that are all too real. The only member of the police force who believes her is Detective Inspector Joona Linna. The case seems obvious at first, but as Linna refuses to accept easy answers, his search leads him into darker, more violent territory, and finally to a shocking confrontation with a figure from his past.

On a summer night, police recover the body of a young woman from an abandoned boat. The next day, a man turns up dead, hanging from a lamp hook. Detective Inspector Joona Linna begins to piece the two mysteries together, but the logistics are a mere prelude to a dizzying and dangerous course of events.

In this spellbinding international bestseller, a murder leaves only one route to the killer.