Hanover, 1923. Boys are vanishing, one after another, without a trace. At first police suspect political motivations—perhaps the missing boys are communists, defecting to the newly formed USSR, or victims of the rising Nazi Party.

Soon, however, Inspector Robert Lahnstein begins to believe even more sinister forces are at play: is a killer at work? Can Lahnstein track down the murderer before he takes another victim?

Based on the true crimes of Fritz Haarmann, the fabled Butcher of Hanover, this gripping new novel by Dirk Kurbjuweit explores the depths of human depravity and offers a dark portrait of justice during the Weimar Republic.

Dirk Kurbjuweit is a journalist at Der Spiegel and lives in Berlin. He has received numerous awards for his writing, including the Egon Erwin Kisch Prize for journalism, and is the author of nine critically acclaimed novels, many of which have been adapted for film, television, theatre and radio.