September 1995. Veum is in his office when a telephone conversation takes him back 25 years, to a case he was involved in while working as a child protection officer, in the summer of 1970. A small boy was seperated from his mother under tragic circumstances. But that was not the end of it. In 1974 the same boy surfaced in connection with a sudden death in his new home. And again ten years later, in connection with a dramatic double-murder in Sunnfjord. The boy is now an adult, on the run in Oslo, determined to take revenge on those responsible for destroying his life, among them the former child protection officer, now detective Veum.

'Every inch the equal of his Nordic confreres Henning Mankell and Jo Nesbo' Barry Forshaw, Crime Time

'Staalesen is another fine representative of Scandinavian crime fiction' Independent

'Popular Norwegian series featuring private eye Varg Veum, an upmarket Scandinavian Philip Marlowe' Maxim Jakubowski, The Bookseller