Detective Harry Hole embarrassed the force, and for his sins he's been reassigned to mundane surveillance tasks. Butwhile monitoring neo-Nazi activities in Oslo, Hole is inadvertently drawn into a mystery with deep roots in Norway'sdark past, when members of the government willinglycollaborated with Nazi Germany. More than sixty years later, this black mark won't wash away--and disgraced oldsoldiers who once survived a brutal Russian winter arebeing murdered, one by one. Now, with only a stained and guilty conscience to guide him, an angry, alcoholic, error-prone policeman must make his way safely past the trapsand mirrors of a twisted criminal mind. For a conspiracy is taking rapid and hideous shape around Hole . . . and Norway's darkest hour may be still to come.
